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I. Talk of urban food systems, and rooftop vegetable and fruit gardens for regular supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is an immediate thought. With growth of gated communities and urban apartment complexes in cities, this can be a viable proposition, where producers themselves are consumers and creating employment for gardeners. There should also be a mechanism of waste recycling by production of vermicompost to enhance soil fertility and even biogas production if feasible. Likewise, common area in urban slums can be managed by self help groups of women to grow and sell vegetables.
II. Reducing food loss and waste should be a major initiative in all urban areas, as part of food systems transformation:
i. City corporations need to have initiatives for collection of waste from wet markets and its processing. The private sector can be encouraged to partner in this. Energy generation from food waste can be explored.
ii. Initiatives for collection of unused food from restaurants and eateries and its redistribution to the needy will help reduce food loss.
III. Fruit trees should be planted in parks and open spaces, with an eye on nutrition. An example is the number of jackfruit (national fruit of Bangladesh) trees along the streets and in parks in Dhaka
IV. Cities such as Kolkata and Dhaka with abundant freshwater bodies can promote freshwater aquaculture; fish processing enterprises can be promoted.
V. The Covid-19 pandemic clearly brought home the relevance of shorter, local value chains. An urban-peri urban connect of producers and consumers may be created for sourcing of vegetables, fruits, milk, and the like.
VI. The poor, destitute, and aged, should be covered by Social Protection schemes, for food security. Urban Employment Guarantee initiative for creation of public works can provide employment and create purchasing power.
VII. Access to safe drinking water, Rainwater harvesting and recycling of waste water have to be part of the urban food system transformation agenda.
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1. I am a little intrigued by the choice of food crops - I would have expected millets to be included, as a climate resilient crop, besides this being the International Year of Millets. Likewise, I am surprised to see oil palm under commercial crops, given that the negative environmental impact of the crop is well known.
2. Thrust on local enterprises and value chains I feel should be highlighted more strongly in the Results Framework. Their relevance was clearly demonstrated during the COVID pandemic.
3. Impact of nature positive methods improving soil health and thereby plant health and supply of nutritious food may be more explicitly stated.
4. In terms of scaling up, I was part of a Farming System for Nutrition Feasibility Study under the consortium research programme on Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA).
Starting with a cluster of seven villages in the state of Odisha, India, based on the evidence generated, funding was obtained from the state government to replicate the approach across an entire Panchayat (covering 25 villages). The state government also included support for nutrition sensitive agriculture in its agriculture budget.
Sharing the evidence with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research led to the approach being demonstrated by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (farm science centres), for wider outreach. (See http://59.160.153.187/blog/taking-farming-system-nutrition-approach-sca…)
5. Sharing research evidence with both the community and policy makers at both subnational and national levels is important for uptake (See http://59.160.153.187/voices-of-change; http://59.160.153.187/content/wardha-district-collector-meets-mssrf-lan…; http://59.160.153.187/sites/default/files/NITIAayog-MSSRF_Copy%20of%20F…).
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The Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia - LANSA, a multi-country, multi-institutional Research Programme Consortium on which I worked, produced research based evidence to feed into policy and decision making on nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Some examples of impact are available here:
Taking Farming System for Nutrition Approach to Scale
Bringing Women's work into Focus
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>> РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ НИЖЕ
Sad to see that this subject is not attracting attention. Am surprised too, for normally, this is a very active forum!! So here comes a second post from me:
The recent COVID pandemic has aggravated the problem with schools being shut. In India the government has mandated that dry rations should be given to the children in lieu of the hot cooked meal. While there is nothing to replace the hot cooked meal, there have been problems in delivery of dry rations also. It is expected that the nutrition status of our children will deteriorate further.
Local procurement and distribution could have helped reduce the scale of these problems.
Links to articles:
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-nutrition-fallout-of-school-closures/article33007020.ece
Печально видеть, что эта тема не привлекает внимания. Я тоже удивлен, потому что обычно это очень активный форум !! Итак, вот второй пост от меня:
Недавняя пандемия COVID усугубила проблему закрытия школ. В Индии правительство обязало давать детям сухой паек вместо горячей еды. Наряду с тем, что нет ничего, что могло бы заменить горячее питание, были проблемы с доставкой сухих пайков. Ожидается, что состояние питания наших детей будет и дальше ухудшаться.
Местные закупки и распространение могли бы помочь уменьшить масштаб этих проблем.
Ссылки на статьи:
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-nutrition-fallout-of-school-closures/article33007020.ece
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>> РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ НИЖЕ
India has a national legally mandated school meal programme (http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website that covers children in the age group of 6 to 14 years attending government and government aided schools. There is evidence of the programme having improved enrolment, poining to the importance of the midday meal. Children are provided a hot cooked meal that provides prescribed calories, energy and proteins. While the cereals and pulses that go into the meal are centrally procured, vegetables are sourced locally. Several states like Puducherry and Tamil Nadu have taken up initiatives to provide additional nutrition by providing food like milk, eggs and banana, that involves local procurement. There is also a national directive now for all schools to have their own nutrition garden of vegetables and fruits, so that the produce can go into the midday meal: See http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/Guidelines/2019/SNG_Guidelines_with_JS_DO_Letter.pdf and http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/School_Nutrition_Gardens/School%20Nutrition%20Gardens%20-%20Book.pdf;
The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation @MSSRF in India had undertaken a study on linking large scale institutional feeding programmes, including school feeding, with small and marginal farmers. The report recommended the potential value of this approach in encouraging local value chains and assuring market for small farners.
The advantage of local procurement will be catering to local food preferences, including nutritious cereals like millets. For instance, sorghum is the preferred millet (cereal) in northern part of Karnataka state while it is finger millet in south Karnataka. Decentralised local procurement will also provide an impetus to local processing and strengthen local value chains, contributing to generation of employment and income.
Bhavani
India
В Индии действует предусмотренная законом национальная программа школьного питания (http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website), охватывающая детей в возрастной группе от 6 до 14 лет, посещающих государственные и финансируемые государством школы. Есть доказательства того, что программа улучшила набор учащихся в школы, что указывает на важность еды в середине дня. Детям предоставляется горячая еда, которая содержит предписанные калории, энергию и белки. Зерновые и зернобобовые, которые идут в блюдо, закупаются централизованно, а овощи – через местные закупки. Некоторые штаты, такие как Пудучерри и Тамил Наду, выступили с инициативами по обеспечению дополнительного питания, предоставляя такие продукты, как молоко, яйца и бананы, через местные закупки. Теперь также существует национальная директива, согласно которой все школы должны иметь свой собственный огород для выращивания овощей и фруктов, чтобы их можно было использовать в полдниках: http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/Guidelines/2019/SNG_Guidelines_with_JS_DO_Letter.pdf ...а также http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/School_Nutrition_Gardens/School%20Nutrition%20Gardens%20-%20Book.pdf
Исследовательский фонд М.С. Сваминатана @MSSRF в Индии провел исследование по увязке крупномасштабных программ институционального питания, включая школьное питание из продукции мелких фермеров. В Отчете, доступном на http://59.160.153.188/library/node/700, рекомендуется потенциальная ценность этого подхода в поощрении местных производственно-сбытовых цепочек и обеспечении рынка для мелких фермеров.
Преимущество местных закупок будет заключаться в удовлетворении местных предпочтений в еде, включая такие питательные злаки, как просо. Например, сорго – предпочтительный злак в северной части штата Карнатака, в то время как пальчатое просо - в южной части Карнатаки. Децентрализованные местные закупки также дадут импульс местной переработке и укрепят местные производственно-сбытовые цепочки, способствуя созданию рабочих мест и доходов.
Бхавани
Индия
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On question 3, linking evidence from research to bring about desired change in policy is a challenge, but what is most needed for impact at scale. This calls for a process of continuous engagement with policy makers at multiple levels, keeping them informed, producing briefs that convey the evidence from research in simple, understandable terms sans technical jargon, targeting specific policies where feasible, clarity on costs and time required where possible, keeping an eye on every available opportunity to reach out and inform, and active use of social media.
The process is more impactful when the practitioners themselves become the spokespersons for what is being recommended. For instance, under the Farming System for Nutrition Study of LANSA, farm men and women in India are now sharing their experiences of imbibing and practising a farming system approach for bettering nutrition outcomes (e.g. see http://lansasouthasia.org/content/%E2%80%9Ci-wish-teach-others-line-sow…; http://lansasouthasia.org/search/node/Block%20level;).
To move to the next level of uptake, the FSN approach requires policy support for nutrient-dense crops in terms of input access, prices, and development of the value chain. The evidence provided by numbers, backed by voices of the practitioners, the stories of change are all elements that add up to provide thrust to the effort.
Bhavani
India
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كيف يمكن تشكيل سلاسل القيمة لتحسين التغذية؟
المشاورات--
What public and private actions are needed to strengthen the impacts of agri-food value chains on nutrition? is one of the themes that the research programme consortium LANSA has been working on. Following up from the very engaging discussion at this forum, there is an e-discussion forthcoming next week on 25-26 April to discuss the effectiveness of markets and post-farm gate value chains in delivering nutritious food in different contexts, based on case studies in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of LANSA research. Interested participants are requested to send in request for registration to [email protected]
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A major challenge in the context of markets for nutrition is how to make the private sector agri-food players see addressing the problem of malnutrition as a corporate responsibility, as important as shareholder satisfaction and market share. The processed food industry for instance has immense potential to address specific micrinutrient deficiencies like iron and vitamin A. There are many examples of pilot initiatives that have worked. For instance, in India, there is the example of Britannia, GAIN and the Naandi Foundation coming together to promote high fortified iron biscuits under supervised consumptino to address iron deficiency anaemia. The company, Britannia Industries, also introduced a low iron fortified variant in its commercial line. The direction given by senior management is very important for the private sector to retain this kind of focus., unless it is ingrained in the corporate philosophy of the business entity and comes naturally. The other possibility is mandatory fortification, like iodisation of salt and vitamin A fortification of edible oils, both of which are current in India. But then there are also a large number of players in developing countries who are in the informal unorganised sector. For poor and vulnerable low income households, it is the latter that is more accessible. There are issues of accessibility and affordability that come up. Packaging in small quantities priced affordably is one of the aspects to be taken care of in consciously addressing low income households.
The state becomes a major player in the value chain for nutrition in developing countries with a large population that is malnourished. In India for instance, the supplementary nutrition programme under the ICDS targets 0-6 years children, and pregnant and lactating women in a focussed manner. There is scope for the private sector to partner with the state in these food value chains as a businesss proposition and many such instances exist.
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Nutrition awareness and education for women is definitely important. It should not however be limited to women and adolescent girls. Men too need to be sensitized and made to realise the burden of work on farm and at home being shouldered by the women and its consequences. Better understanding and sharing or responsibilities at work and at home can help a great deal in addressing undernutrition in women. Easier said than done though!
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Adding on to the point made by Nitya on gender sensitization of agriculture graduates, engendering the curriculum of agriculture universities will be a good starting point and has to be actively pushed for. The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and Kerala Agricultural University had collaborated on preparing course material on these lines more than a decade ago: However, uptake is proving to be a slow process.
Another area is policy for women in agriculture, taking into account the multiple roles they play on the farm and on the home front. Government officials responsible for delivery of entitlements related to agriculture at the village level have to be gender sensitive.
The title to land is in most cases in the man's name. A woman farmer in spite of shouldering a lot of the work on the land, cannot get access to agriculture schemes in her name. In the process, widows of farmers who commit suicide are oftentimes left at a loose end.
A Women Farmers' Entitlement Act is very much needed.
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الدكتور Bhavani R Vaidyanathan
I share from my experience of working with FAO Bangladesh on how FAO can proactively work with governments for sustainable transformation of agri-food systems. FAO supported the government of Bangladesh in the run-up to the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in 2021 and took the lead in coordinating drafting of the national pathway document for accelerating transformation of food systems. Even prior to this, FAO has been closely supporting the government of Bangladesh in policy formulation and developing institutional frameworks for effective delivery. The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy 2020 and its Plan of Action (2021-2030) and Country Investment Plan (2021-2025) for sustainable and resilient food systems are examples.
Given the overlapping nature of food systems and the need for a coordinated approach, FAO and GAIN worked with the government in Bangladesh to develop a linking document, linking the commitments under UNFSS, N4G Summit and COP. Inter-ministerial and donor meetings have been convened to share the pathway commitments and the need for monitoring them.
Following the reporting at the first biennial stocktaking following the UNFSS last year, a draft roadmap was developed for drafting a plan of action and monitoring framework of the pathway commitments for the transformation of agrifood systems. This is work in progress. Given its pool of technical expertise, FAO is well positioned to extend support in realization of many of the pathway commitments such as for example, developing a national strategy for reducing food loss and waste.
I feel that keeping the UNFSS national pathway commitments at the centre, will enable FAO country offices to develop the strategy for sustainable transformation of agrifood systems and effectively extend support to national governments.