Dear Colleagues,
I hope you can review the following 3 pages from the www.smallholderagriculture.com website I manage. They deal with an issue in nutrition that I feel has been largely overlooked. Namely the energy to undertake a full day of diligent agronomic field work. Typically I can only document smallholder diets of approximately 2000 kcal/day or about half the 4000 kcal/day needed for a full day of agronomic field work. This results in substantially reduced work day, often less than 4 hrs unless paced. This then delays much of the field operations well past recommended time frames as well as reduces the quality, all of which reduces the yield potential.
It also raises the question of until you have enough calories to undertake the work expected which will be the individual higher priority, getting the necessary calories or more balanced diet?
I apologize for the late submission but hope you can review the material and included it in you results.
Thank you,
Dick Tinsley
Professor Emeritus
Colorado State University
Webpages:
www.smallholderagriculture.com
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.echocommunity.org/resource/collection/62026577-227A-4FB0-8B25-B0838484CED7/Issue121.pdf (this was originally a webpage but converted to ECHO article.)
Dick Tinsley