Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Under the World Food Programme's Purchase for Progress (P4P) project, we are undergoing a great deal of work to link nutrition and agriculture. Efforts are many and varied based upon country contexts, but here are a couple exciting and innovative examples:

In Afghanistan P4P supports linkages between smallholder farming and nutrition, with an emphasis on soya production and by supporting millers to produce fortified flour while buying smallholders' crops. Plus, a mobile factory has been introduced to produce High Energy Biscuits (HEB) for sale on the local market and use in WFP emergency responses. The biscuit factory is sourcing part of the soy and wheat used to make HEB from smallholder farmers participating in P4P. The pioneering design of this factory is particularly exciting. Because it is made of mobile containers that take up minimal space and can be installed quickly they can be used in a variety of rural or conflict environments, where lack of infrastructure might otherwise make it difficult to produce fortified foods locally.  Read more

In Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia we are working closely with HarvestPlus and national governments to increase the availability of micronutrient-rich staple foods. P4P-supported smallholder farmers are cultivating biofortified crops such as Iron Beans, Vitamin A Maize and Vitamin A Sweet Potato, benefiting from home consumption of these nutritious foods, as well as selling their produce which is used as seed as well as in school meals programmes. Read more

Dear Contributors,

First may I apologise for my delayed response to your many incredibly thoughtful and helpful comments.  Might I add that I too am honoured to be working alongside Professor Swaminathan and I shall ensure to pass on to him all your many generous comments and kind words.

I am taking a few days of holiday with my family in farming country in Wales – a beautiful part of the UK.  We’re in sheep farming country and speaking with the many farmers around here makes it clear that farming traditions are hard to change.  This has always been sheep farming country as long as anyone can remember – the land is not thought to be good enough for anything else.  Interestingly, many farmers here also used to own dairy cows – small herds of less than 5 cows per family – until it became uneconomical both for the farmers to tend such small herds and for the lorry to come to each farm to collect their milk on a daily basis.

This has immediately reinforced two important aspects.  First that context is critical, the farming method that is successful in one location is often one that has been demonstrated to be successful over many generations, and in this situation it can be very difficult to introduce innovations.  And second that without easy access to markets farming systems struggle to survive.

It is therefore interesting to note that your extremely helpful suggestions included ideas to introduce new plants or crop varieties, re-introduce existing crop varieties that have fallen out of favour, and use modern approaches to improve existing farming practices.  There is also an interesting focus on the pathways from agriculture to nutrition – specifically the income (market) pathway – does farming improve household incomes and if so what is the best route through which it can enhance household nutrition?  I wonder if there is knowledge on how best to improve market access for small-scale farming households and how best to increase household incomes year-round – taking into account the seasonality of income that plays such a powerful role in farming systems.

Finally, for now, as night falls in Wales and I hear the owls hooting outside, what about the impact that environmental changes will have on farming systems.  Many farming environments have already started to face the challenges that our changing ecosystem will bring.  Are there any early learnings that can be spread to help farmers face this uncertain future?

Many thanks again for your interest in this consultation.  Do please spread the word to your colleagues and I look forward to continuing our online discussions.

Best wishes,

Alan

The research on   Indian     sustainable  cereals  and  millet was   undertaken to highlight technological opportunities for value addition and  promotion of ethnic foods through home based industries  for food and nutrition  security under the following projects and outcome is briefed :

1. UPCD Tier-I project of the Canadian International Development Agency “Consolidation of nutrition security in Southern India”, McGill University, Canada (2002-2007)
2. Research on small millets under the project entitled IFAD, IPGRI, MSSRF project on ‘Enhancing the contribution of nutritious but neglected millet crops to food security and incomes of the rural poor-Asia component: Phase I and II (2000- 2007)
3. Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, IDRC Canada. i.e. “Enhancing food security of rural families through production, processing and value addition of regional staple food grains in India” (2010-2013)

Established strong therapeutic value to regional crops:   

Meticulous efforts of assessment of grain quality for chemical composition, nutrition, therapeutic use, processing characters and acceptability of end product at consumer level resulted in diversification of food grain for different end utilization in the management of diabetics, development of high yielding varieties and hybrids with improved quality, suitable for diverse production.  Grain quality research has helped to sustain food security through post-harvest technology for conserving food in better form and economic accessibility to food.  Product development was done with applying various principles like community nutrition problems, storage quality, preservation and packaging, food adulteration, quality control, food safety and sanitation, consumer acceptability and market potentiality. Innovative research fetched in development of several technologies, to solve community nutrition problems viz., diabetes, anemia and protein calorie malnutrition.

Created developmental prospective to indigenous food technologies   

            The present day economics scenario, emerging globalization and growing consumerism have fast changed the perception of food.  Today the consumer is looking for food of convenience, easy commercial   availability; ready to eat nature, high quality, nutritive, minimally processed.  Through research sufficient scientific information has been generated on regional traditional foods and indigenous food technologies with respect to the quality of ingredients, standardization of recipe,     packaging of products and exploitation of simple low cost technologies at commercial level to improve the economic status of the rural community.

Establishing and strengthening proper linkage between producer, processor and consumer

            Scientific information generated on sustainable regional crops with respect to nutritional, therapeutic and processing qualities has created value to the local food grains as a high quality grain and thus helped in strengthening the proper linkage between grain quality research and agriculture for developing better quality grains suitable for specific end use, value addition and to improve India’s socio-economic and health status. Scientific information has been communicated to different segments of population throughout reach activities.

Nutrition awareness on local cereals has improved the knowledge and health status of women entrepreneurs and adolescent girls. Developed value added products are highly acceptable by the community and proven technologies are being popularized through farming community and also has an impact on the nutrition and economic security of women entrepreneurs who have taken food processing as one of the challenging entrepreneurial activity.

Women entrepreneurs have succeeded in supplying value added nutri rich recipes of millets in school feeding programmes. They have also started supplying therapeutic foods to education institutions and hospitals with effective feedback and encouragement by the consumers.

The basic research has helped in developing large number of value added products like ready to eat breakfast cereals, therapeutic foods, micronutrient rich composite flours, ready to use mixes, pre-processed and value added traditional products.

Creation of awareness on entrepreneurial activities to political and local leaders and policy makers has helped in mobilization of financial support from MPs fund in starting food processing incubation centers in few villages.

Few SHG’s groups from   villages are actively involved in marketing of value added regional cereal products.

Postgraduate students have worked on the quality of local cereals and strengthened the economic value for better marketing. Achieved significant success in popularizing local grains and strengthened the local identity through various communication techniques to the community.

Technologies developed in the area of post harvest technology have reached stake holders through trainings and demonstrations and other communication means. The outcome of research has empowered the rural and urban community economically, by overcoming the problem of drudgery, increased productivity, improved nutritional status, instilled confidence and created self employment opportunities.

 Created infrastructure facility for running of B Tech. (Food Technology) under graduate degree programme in UAS, Dharwad. Development of academic curricula of 4 years degree  programme in B Tech. (Food Technology).

Development of Infrastructure facility for conducting training and research under CIDA, MSSRF and IDRC funds.

Facilitated an international exposure to post graduate students towards education and    research .

Transfer of   developed technologies to  elective students of FSN under experiential learning course.

Designed rubber Sheller for de-hulling of millet   at household level and   multiplication and distribution of ten  de-hulling machines to three NGO’s under IDRC project.

Introduced post harvest processing units of millet such as de-stoner, grader and emery mill in four millet growing   villages   to reduce drudgery of women and utilization of millets for household consumption, value addition   and marketing.

Introduction of food  processing  units  in villages to run home based food industry.

Developed products from different local cereals can be recommended in combating  nutritional problems of the community and supplements the food composition for use in planning therapeutic diets.

The success of   value addition to local crops for food and nutrition security, promotion of consumption local staple cereals through innovative post harvesting technologies and strengthening of economic security of rural women entrepreneurs through home based food industries under the above mentioned International projects was mainly  because of  holistic multidisciplinary approach.  This can be up scaled at all India level by strengthening the research and extension of dry land crops.  All India Co-ordinated dry land crop improvement projects comes under ICAR, pursue mandated activities in improvement production and protection. Under these projects additional grants should be released for research in the area of value addition, nutrition, post harvest technologies and promotion of technologies.  Research and extension should be   in collaboration with the additional disciplines from Home Science and Food Technology. Discipline of Food Science and Nutrition, Food processing, post harvest technology and  Subject matter specialist  of Home Science from  KVK’s should be included as specially recognized areas to overcome existing malnutrition in India.

Dear all,

I am herein sharing with you the link of my paper on strategies to reduce the impact of salt on crops production, published in 2oo7.

The due paper examines the tolerance of three crops (rice, cotton and chilli) to salt. (NaCl

www.sciencedirect.com/science.com/article/pii/s0011916406014536..

Your comments are welcome.

Kind regards.

Norbert TCHOUAFFE

Visiting scholar at MIT-DUSP.

144 Pemberton Street

Cambridge, MA.02139

USA

Dear All,

In the context of present discussion, I proud to quote the following three systems operational in India & other countries which are most logistic & realistic to achieve “Food-Nutrition & Economically sustainable livelihood”

• The first one is FSN (Farming system for Nutrition), led by Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, ‘Leader of Green revolution’ in India.
• The second one is LANSA, again led by the World Icon in Agriculture - Prof.M.S.Swaminathan & its foundation- ‘MSSRF’.
• The third one is “INEA”(International Network For edible Aroids,funded by European Union),led by the Global Leader, Dr.Vincent Lebot, CIRAD,France. Under INEA-The Goal is to “Adapt Clonally propagated crops to climatic & commercial changes” most befitting in the scenario of climate change.       The said programme is launched in April 2011 with the crop “Taro” (Colocasia esculenta) – involving 22 countries across the globe considering its importance as Staple/Vegetable and sustainability to cope with the fragile environment.

The Doctrine of this programme is stepping towards Global Food-Nutrition with ‘Climate resilient clonally propagated crops’. It is based on exchange of biotic, abiotic stress tolerant & commercially acceptable ‘Taro Gene sources’ involving the NARS.

Further the genetic enhancement of Taro for calorie content & micronutrients especially Zinc, Iron & Calcium through ‘Participatory breeding’ involving the farmers & researchers of agro-climatic & commercially site-specific zones under NARS of different countries- “An unique concept “ from grassroots’ to outreach globally.

For Details, Please contact –[email protected]

                                             [email protected]

One of the crucial factors in improving the nutritional value of our food is to get the crops we grow to function in the field at optimum rates. One of the ways this can be achieved is by the application of trace elements in the right configuration for those crops in their situation. The one size fits all approach does not work. By testing we have to tools to determine quite accurately what the needs of a given crop in a given location are. If we respond correctly then that crop will function at an optimal level in the field. The resulting harvest will then also give food that will meet our criteria for good and balanced nutrition. Over the past forty years I have done many tests which invariably prove that to be the case.

Addressing challenges of seasonality through value addition

Undernutrition (macro- or micronutrients deficiency) among smallholders is, in most cases, seasonal. Seasonality in malnutrition is caused by many factors including, diseases (some associated with agriculture activities), high labour (affecting energy expenditure and time for child care and cooking good meals), sanitation/hygiene—also affected by seasonal water and fuel availability. Seasonality also affects two major factors in diet quality: access to nutritious foods (fruits and vegetables, and animal protein sources) and food safety. What can agriculture interventions do to minimize undernutrition variation associated with seasonality? The conventional innovations in agriculture would be to provide simple, affordable, irrigation approaches; agronomical methods that preserve water for growing of vegetables; drought resistant varieties or preservation methods of the excess.

I recall an innovation in Kenya in late 1990s by the Nutrition CRSP—with funding provided by the Centre for Higher Education of the United States Agency for International Development—that enabled over 2000 rural Kenyan women farmers to produce a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables. The intervention also helped cooperatives of women to add value to their produce by processing and locally marketing nutritious, convenient, culturally-appropriate complementary feeds. The women worked with researchers from local and northern universities to produce feeds of composite flours from (solar dried) the fruits/local vegetables and cereals, and in other areas animal source protein was included in the locally formulated recipes. Researchers support ensured quality and sensory needs of the market are met at acceptable price throughout the year. 

Dear All,

I am proud to declare that I couldn’t join in time as I was in Trivandrum involved in felicitation programme of the World “Agri Icon”- Prof. M.S.Swaminathan. It is because of him today we are in common platform for-‘Innovations in agriculture to improve nutrition’

I suggest you all to go through his Latest Publication ‘Indian Agriculture Challenges Ahead’.

 Despite of my ill health (Stage –IV Cancer), I get inspired manifold seeing ‘ever smiling, ever active (90+) Prof. M.S.Swaminathan.’

I suggested in earlier e-discussion during 24th to 27th February LANSA programme that ‘Food Habit’ is a complex phenomenon and need to be tackled sensibly.

Therefore to achieve the targets of Food- Nutrition & livelihood security, following activities need to be  prioritized-

• Farming system nutrition tuned with Agro-climatic-site specific crop species.
• Crop diversification with locally available under utilized nutritionally enriched crops or their reintroduction.
• Escalation of SHGS (Self Help Groups) to cooperatives.
• Political will & support for promotion of climate resilient, affordable, nutrient rich underutilized crops as fresh as well as processed products for Food-Nutrition & economic sustainability.

With Regards,

Archana Mukherjee

>> ENGLISH VERSION BELOW <<

La sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle est devenue une épine dans les orteils du développement dans le monde en général et en particulier en Afrique et en Asie. Tout porte à croire que les diverses initiatives qui se prennent depuis des décennies ne marchent pas à la vitesse qu’il faut. D’après FAO et al. (2014), on continue de progresser dans la lutte contre la faim dans le monde: on estime qu’environ 805 millions de personnes étaient en situation de sous-alimentation chronique en 2012-2014, soit une diminution de plus de 100 millions de personnes sur la dernière décennie, et 209 millions de personnes de moins qu’en 1990-1992. Sur la même période, la prévalence de la sous-alimentation est passée de 18,7 à 11,3 % dans le monde et de 23,4 à 13,5 % dans les pays en développement. L’Afrique subsaharienne est la région où la prévalence de la sous-alimentation est la plus élevée, et les progrès accomplis ces dernières années y ont été modestes. Dans cette région, environ une personne sur quatre reste sous-alimentée. L’Asie, la région la plus peuplée du monde, compte toujours le plus grand nombre de personnes sous-alimentées. Les auteurs parviennent à la conclusion qu’il faut créer un environnement plus propice à la sécurité alimentaire et à la nutrition.

A notre avis, la vraie cause de la persistance de la sous-alimentation et de la malnutrition en Afrique se trouve dans les mauvais choix stratégiques des pays. Dans beaucoup de pays africains, les choix stratégiques de la production agricole sont orientés sur des spéculations d’exportation, au détriment des productions vivrières. L’Afrique s’engage dans des spéculations qui ne lui procurent pas d’avantage comparatif ; des spéculations faiblement consommées par le marché intérieur (donc par les populations) et qui, par surcroît, rendent l’Afrique fortement dépendante de l’extérieur, alors même qu’elle est désavantagée par la faible productivité et la faible part de marché qu’elle peut conquérir. Par exemple, l’Afrique s’illustre dans la production cotonnière alors qu’elle consomme seulement 1 % de la production mondiale de coton et le rendement y est le plus bas dans le monde (Houngbo, 2014).  Les innovations agricoles qui amélioreront la situation nutritionnelle en Afrique sont celles qui mettront en avant le développement de la production de spéculations vivrières d’intérêt socio-nutritionnel pour l’Afrique et pour lesquelles celle-ci peut aisément se comparer aux autres continents tant du point de vue de la productivité. La compétitivité de l’Afrique serait évidente dans ce cas. Un accent particulier doit donc être mis sur la promotion des filières suivantes : riz, datte, manioc, igname, tomate, mangue, orange, pomme de terre et oignon. Il s’agit là de spéculations bien adaptées aux conditions agroécologiques et aux besoins alimentaires majeurs de l’Afrique.

Mais, comment cela pourrait-il se faire ?

Il faudra considérer deux axes d’innovation : l’axe relatif à la définition des politiques agricoles et l’axe relatif à la production agricole communautaire.

Concernant les politiques agricoles en Afrique, il importe de veiller à la mise en place de lois d’orientation agricole dans tous les pays africains. Mieux que les plans stratégiques de promotion agricole en vogue et qui n’ont pas pouvoir de s’imposer à tous les gouvernants, ces lois d’orientation agricole sont susceptibles de s’imposer à tous les gouvernements, d’obéir rigoureusement à la volonté du peuple et de réaliser à terme son rêve. C’est l’absence de ces lois qui justifient le trop engouement pour les cultures d’exportation désavantageuses pour la plupart des pays africains. Car, c’est certain que ces lois d’orientation ne pourront pas négliger la production vivrière qui reste le principal souci des peuples africains. Des pays comme le Mali, le Sénégal et le Cameroun sont déjà dans cette dynamique. Mais, il faut bien que cela se généralise.     

La production agricole communautaire dont il est question est de porter une attention particulière aux productions agricoles de groupe : agriculture coopérative, agriculture villageoise, agriculture scolaire. La promotion de ces formes d’agriculture ne peut non plus occulter le volet nutritionnel qui reste la première préoccupation. De plus, les expériences accumulées à travers le temps dans les communautés seront valorisées. Toutes les communautés ont des expériences sur les spéculations viables, adaptées aux conditions agroécologiques et à valeur nutritionnelle majeure. Dans cette logique, l’ONG GRAAP du Bénin entreprend depuis novembre 2011 un projet communautaire d’adaptation aux changements climatiques. L’initiative est fondée sur l’agroécologie comme modèle de production agricole, une approche agricole conciliant l’agriculture avec les exigences écologiques pour entre autres maintenir et valoriser la biodiversité. L’initiative mise spécialement sur les spéculations traditionnelles qui ont un pouvoir élevé d’adaptation aux variabilités climatiques. Elle privilégie aussi la diversification des cultures qui améliore la résilience des systèmes de production qu’elle engendre. C’est ainsi que dans les exploitations du projet les variétés traditionnelles de manioc, de maïs, de gombo, de voandzou, de soja, de niébé, de papayer, etc.… sont préférées aux variétés exotiques. Les bénéficiaires sont principalement les petits producteurs agricoles qui sont reconnus comme les plus vulnérables. Il est renforcé au niveau de ceux-ci la capacité de valoriser de façon optimale les petits espaces. Les jardins, de 0,5 à 1 ha ou moins, ont porté une diversité de cultures qui ont rehaussé les productions des producteurs. L’évaluation effectuée en août 2014 a révélé que la sécurité alimentaire, nutritionnelle et même financière des ménages impliqués a été améliorée. Car, les productions agricoles sont d’abord de grand intérêt nutritionnel pour les producteurs, puis rencontre une forte demande locale, créant un marché local important.

Food security and nutrition has become a thorny issue for development in the world in general and in particular in Africa and Asia. There is every reason to believe that the different initiatives taken over decades are not working at the speed they should. According to FAO et al. (2014), we continue to progress in the fight against world hunger: it is estimated that around 805 million people were in a situation of chronic underfeeding  between 2012-2014, that is a decrease of more than 100 million people in the last decade, and 209 million people less than between 1990-1992. In the same period, the prevalence of underfeeding has passed from 18.7 to 11.3% in the world and from 23.4 to 13.5% in the developing countries. Sub-Saharian Africa is the region where the prevalence of underfeeding is the highest, and the progress achieved in recent years has been modest. In this region, around one person in four remains underfed. Asia, the most populated region, still has the greatest number of people underfed. The authors reach the conclusion that it is necessary to create an environment more favorable to food security and nutrition.

In our view, the true cause of the persistance of underfeeding and malnutrition in Africa is the countries' poor strategic choices.  In many African countries, the strategic choices for agricultural production are oriented towards speculative exports at the expense of food production. Africa is involved in speculations which do not procure a comparative advantage; speculative products for which there is weak internal market  consumption (therefore by the population) and which by extension, leave Africa very dependent on foreign markets, while at the same time  at a  disadvantage  due to low productivity and the small share of the market that it can win. For example, Africa is renowned for cotton production even though it consumes only 1% of world production  of cotton and has the lowest productivity in the world. (Houngbo, 2014).  The agricultural innovations which improve the nutritional situation in Africa are those which promote the development of enterprise in food products of socio-nutritional interest for Africa and for which Africa can comfortably becompared with other continents, from the productivity point of view. The competitiveness of Africa would be evident in that case. A particular accent should be put on the promotion of the following sectors: rice, dates, cassava, yam, tomatoes, mangoes, oranges, potatoes and onions. In these cases it is about ventures well adapted to the agro-ecological conditions and to the main food needs in Africa.

But, how can that be done?

Two innovative approaches should be considered: the approach related to the definition of agricultural policies and the approach related to community agricultural production.

Concerning agricultural policies in Africa, it is important to work towards the implementation of laws governing the orientation of agriculture in all African countries. Better than the currently favored strategic plans for agricultural promotion which cannotbe imposed on all governments, these agricultural guidance laws could oblige all governments to rigorouslyobey the people´s wishes and to ultimately achieve their dream. It is the absence of these laws which justifies the excessive passion for exportcrops which are disadvantageousfor the majority of African countries. Because, it is beyond doubt that these guidance laws could not neglect food production, still the main concern of African peoples. Countries like Mali, Senegal and Cameroon are already part of this movement. But it really needs to be generalized.

Community agricultural production has the purpose of paying particular attention to group agricultural production: cooperative agriculture, village agriculture and school agriculture.  The promotion of these forms of agriculture can also not conceal the nutritional component which is the main concern. Moreover, the accumulated experiences of the communities in time will prove their worth. All the communities have experience of viable business ventures, adapted to the agro-ecological conditions and to greater nutritional value. On these lines, in Benin the NGO GRAAP [Groupe de Recherche et d'Action pour l'Auto-Promotion rurale, Research and Action group for rural promotion], since november 2011 has undertaken a community project on adaptation to climate change. The initiative has been based on agroecology as a model for agricultural production, an agricultural approach reconciling agriculture with the ecological demands for,among other things, maintaining and valuing biodiversity.  The initiative concentrated especially on traditional ventures with a high capacity for adaptation to climatic changes. It favours also the diversification of crops which improve the resilience of the production systems which it brings about. It is thus that in the project ´s implementation the traditional typesof cassava, maize, okra, Bambara,groundnut, soja, blackeye bean, papaya, etc.are preferred to exotic varieties. The beneficieries are mainly the small farmers who are recognized as being the most vulnerable. It is at their level that the abilityto make full use of small areas is reinforced .The plots, of 0.5 to 1 ha or less, havesupported a variety of crops which have raised farmers´ production. The assessment carried out in August 2014 has shown that the security of food,nutrition and even finance in the households involved has been improved. Therefore, agricultural products are firstly of great nutritional interest for producers, and also find strong local demand, creating an important local market.

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Our commercial algae farmers grow algae for food, feed and higher value co-products. Algae is used to clean wastewater and sequester CO2. It doubles every 24-48 hours and can be harvested every few days. If the FAO is looking for one solution to put into action algae farms can be built on non-arable land that has a source of water (recycling 80% of water used in closed-loop growing systems) and a source of CO2 anywhere in the world. If you have any interest, please feel free to contact: [email protected]