Question 1: What are the top five things you would do to maximise the impact of an agricultural investment programme on nutrition?
There is considerable evidence(I have seven highly reputable studies on my list of references, including the World Bank and WFP) that nutrition education is an essential catalyst for sustained nutrition impact in agricultural, community and health projects, with a pivotal role in food security interventions, and particularly visible effects in projects dealing with homestead gardening. The same documents (and others) make it clear that simply increasing food supply or improving agricultural productivity frequently fails to have an impact on nutritional status,in particular of young children: stunting rates remain high in countries which have notionally achieved MDG1 through increasing food production.
This makes perfect sense: if you are not aware that your diet needs improving, or that your children fall ill because they lack a variety of micronutrient-rich foods, why should you grow, purchase or eat foods which will improve the diet? Why not instead buy a video or a mobile phone? Even if you are aware, you may not be aware enough: as one Indonesian peasant said "You see, television is more important than food".
In the light of the evidence, I was glad to see several references in the discussion to a "social and behaviour change communication strategy" (which I would call nutrition education)recommended in the IYCF guidelines. But in my naive picture there remain several questions about how agriculture translates into better nutrition through education. Here is one of them.
In the case of homestead gardening is easy to see how women who learn to feed their families better find a ready-made strategy for improving diet in their own backyards. But what about the urban population and others who source their food outside the home? Suppose we mount a successful behaviour change program (let's say, to eat more beans) and at the same time persuade farmers to produce more beans in the hope of increased market demand. Can/do these two initiatives march together in sync? How do market mechanisms work between supplier and consumer to make the magic work for better eating habits? Do we have convincing examples of such synergies?
Perhaps some participants have the experience to answer my question.
Question 1: What are the top five things you would do to maximise the impact of an agricultural investment programme on nutrition?
There is considerable evidence(I have seven highly reputable studies on my list of references, including the World Bank and WFP) that nutrition education is an essential catalyst for sustained nutrition impact in agricultural, community and health projects, with a pivotal role in food security interventions, and particularly visible effects in projects dealing with homestead gardening. The same documents (and others) make it clear that simply increasing food supply or improving agricultural productivity frequently fails to have an impact on nutritional status,in particular of young children: stunting rates remain high in countries which have notionally achieved MDG1 through increasing food production.
This makes perfect sense: if you are not aware that your diet needs improving, or that your children fall ill because they lack a variety of micronutrient-rich foods, why should you grow, purchase or eat foods which will improve the diet? Why not instead buy a video or a mobile phone? Even if you are aware, you may not be aware enough: as one Indonesian peasant said "You see, television is more important than food".
In the light of the evidence, I was glad to see several references in the discussion to a "social and behaviour change communication strategy" (which I would call nutrition education)recommended in the IYCF guidelines. But in my naive picture there remain several questions about how agriculture translates into better nutrition through education. Here is one of them.
In the case of homestead gardening is easy to see how women who learn to feed their families better find a ready-made strategy for improving diet in their own backyards. But what about the urban population and others who source their food outside the home? Suppose we mount a successful behaviour change program (let's say, to eat more beans) and at the same time persuade farmers to produce more beans in the hope of increased market demand. Can/do these two initiatives march together in sync? How do market mechanisms work between supplier and consumer to make the magic work for better eating habits? Do we have convincing examples of such synergies?
Perhaps some participants have the experience to answer my question.
Jane Sherman
Nutrition education consultant