Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

I as a motivator and person from Swaminathan School of thoughts promoted 3 things in my career and projects works in strengthening nutrition enriched agriculture. The first approach was to increasing the area of cultivation of non-cereal crops mostly neglected nutritive horticultural species suitable for human being and domestic animals.Making availability of good nutritive feed for animals is a challenge area . But it could be made possible in Jharkhand because of Govt. support. Second aspect, I tried to boost local women SHGs through awareness programs and trainings  on nutrition and conducted special trainings on kitchen behaviour and recipes on various  nutritive stuff available at local level. As the demand is increased so the pressure for production is increased. I tried to influence Govt and other large parties involve in MDM, hostels, or mass food distribution to include millets and other nutritive stuff for mass use  Here I failed miserably.

Thanks with warm regards

Bibhu

The global agricultural system is primarily concerned with ensuring that sufficient food will be produced to feed the global population.  However, to tackle global public health problems associated with both under- and over-nutrition, healthy diets must be available, just not only calorie supply.  In order to reach nutrition security, more strategic partnerships between agricultural research departments and health and nutrition research communities are required. Public investment in agricultural research and development has been steadily decreasing, even as the GDP of India is on the rise.

 The Indian agriculture sector remains one of the least productive in the world. Continued growth of the agriculture sector is important for maintaining food and nutrition security, and enhancing the purchasing power of the rural population. Expansion of agriculture requires public investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure, and regulation of farm inputs and services.

Good nutrition is often equated with balanced food consumption only.  Even if a person consumes enough calories, they may still undernourished due to lack of essential vitamins, which provide by a high diverse diet.  Increasing the production of nutrient-dense foods, particularly locally adapted varieties rich in micronutrients and protein, is vital for combating nutrition related chronic diseases.

Therefore, promotion of production more of green leafy vegetable and fruits in the backyards of rural houses is very important. We have also seen many success stories in this direction. Horticultural promotion through social marketing approach can decrease micronutrient deficiencies in the world. The magnitude of micronutrient deficiencies are wide spread over among 2 billion populations.

In this connection, we are also carrying out a major study in the states of Orissa and Bihar (Nutrition and Agricultural disconnect).

As per the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) health and nutrition periodical surveys, revealed that  even though the farmers produce many variety of food products like milk, fruits and vegetables, but they never consume in recommended amounts (RDA) due to economic reasons and they sell out entire their produces (elastic foodstuffs) for sake of money. Many of these farmer communities are generally illiterates; it is too much to expect their nutrition literacy. Even literates are nutritionally illiterates.  India has more 65% families are farm dependent. If increase their nutrition knowledge, will definitely reduce the undernutrition in India.

The rural and tribal schools may be promoted to grow fruits and vegetables in the school premises and encourage them to consume the same. Most of the vegetable may be encouraged to use in the MDM preparations to enrich their micronutrients.

Dear Sir,

In response to your query, I am attaching an article by me, which was published in the farming matters journal, and can be accessed at: http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/farmers-landscapes/tribal-farmers-reclaiming-denuded-landscapes .

I do hope it will take the discussion forward

Vidhya 

Over its years of work with tribal farmers, Agragamee has gained the understanding that the best innovations in agriculture for improving nutrition would be to help farmers reclaim their agricultural lands and improve and increase the cultivation of their traditional crops, which ensured a holistic and balanced nutrition of cereals, pulses, and oilseeds, supplemented by tubers, fruits, spinach, and other items from the forest. The following article describes our efforts to help tribal communities reclaim degraded lands for indigenous agricultural crops, and perennial plantations. It was published in farming matters, and can be accessed through http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/farmers-landscapes/tribal-farmers-reclaiming-denuded-landscapes . In the meanwhile, we have taken the processes described herein under further, experimenting with millets and pulses for settled upland cultivation. The processes involve minimum or no soil disturbance methods, and Masanobu Fukuoka’s principles of no tilling, no weeding, no chemicals, and no pesticides. Working closely with tribal farmers, we expect that in a few years time, these efforts will have spread amongst tribal farmers, helping them make a major shift away from slash and burn cultivation, and leading to a rejuvenation of tribal eco-systems, and improvement in quality of life within tribal communities.

Reclaiming Tribal Landscapes: Challenging the TINA Myth

By

Vidhya Das

‘Podu Chaso’ as slash and burn cultivation is called in the tribal regions of Orissa is significant for the  biodiversity of crops it has helped to sustain, as also the diversity of cultivation practices it has generated. Crop rotations, intercropping, and other sustainable agricultural practices are a part of the inherited knowledge system of the Podu farmer. More than 1000 varieties of rice (http://www.mssrf.org/bd/bd-pub/rising%20on%20rice_booklet.pdf ) are known to have been preserved by the tribal farmers in the undivided Koraput (now divided into 4 districts, and forming the entire southern tip of the Eastern Indian State of Odisha) region of Odisha. They have several varieties of short duration and long duration upland paddy that grows on the middle region slopes. They also grow some of the most exquisite varieties of scented rice, the most famous amongst them being ‘Kala Jeera’ so called because the paddy is black in colour before being de-husked. Apart from this, they have short and long duration varieties of Ragi, and the less common millets, including fox tail millet, pearl millet, sorghum, and others I have not been able ascertain the names for. Amongst pulses, they grow several varieties of broad bean, arhar, cow pea, rice bean, urad, and a local variety commonly called 'Bailo'.

Not all of this is grown on hill or mountain slopes, the typical shifting cultivation or swidden land. For example, most of the scented varieties of paddy are low land varieties. Not all of the land under shifting cultivation is mountain land either. But, it is the entire system of agriculture practised by the tribal communities that has helped preserve this rich bio-diversity of crops, as also the diversity of cultivation, as different systems of cultivation are practised on different types of land and different types of soil.

However, all of this is under increasing threat. Commercial felling has devastated thousands of acres of land of the tribal communities. In addition, the undivided Koraput District has long suffered from lopsided sided development with rail, road and water reservoirs being built to woo corporate investment at the cost of the tribal land and livelihoods. Studies estimate that just in the Koraput region, more than half a million people have been displaced due to big dams, and more than ten thousand hectares of forest land destroyed. Governments in India have adopted the TINA (There Is No Alternative) philosophy for addressing poverty, based on the claim that despite several efforts, programmes, schemes for land, village and community development, poverty persists in the tribal regions. They underline that the only solution to this is to invite corporate investment. However, most displacement due to multi-million dollar projects investments have only further impoverished tribal communities (http://infochangeindia.org/agenda/migration-a-displacement/paying-the-price-for-someone-elses-displacement.html).

In addition, climate change has also affected the rainfall patterns of the region, affecting cultivation practices, and the fragile geo-physiology of these regions. The result of all this, is the near decimation of the 'Podu' system of cultivation, and the livelihoods of the tribal communities, which were in tandem with the local agro-climatic conditions, and the eco-niche of the eastern ghats.  All this has brought the tribal communities, to the brink of starvation. In fact hunger stares them in the face for several months in a year, their rich forests have disappeared, their luxurious hill slopes on which they could grow upto 10 different crops in one place in one season have turned to barren patches of rock, and rubble, on which they keep trying their 'Podu', in desparation trying to relive the memories of those bountiful days, in not such a distant past.

What is the way out? Seeking to address the situation with a people centred and holistic approach, Agragamee entered into dialogue with tribal farmers, on what could be the alternative that might be sustainable, and eco-friendly, while helping tribal communities preserve their cropping patterns and produce their own food. The dialogue lead to the idea of eco-villages. The best initiative came from farmers in Chandragiri Panchayat (Panchayat is a cluster of villages) Rayagada District, in Odisha. Here, farmers pointed out that there was a need for addressing the problem in a multi-pronged manner, whereby the multiple stress on the land and the hill slopes could be managed in a more organised manner. This included better governance of commons, improved land use and soil management, moving towards settled cultivation, and rejuvenating uplands with miscellaneous multi-tier plantations and permanent tree crops that could provide livelihood support as well as cash income. This was a huge task, and a challenge for tribal farmers who have little resources other than the land and their own labour. However the longest journey begins with one step. The first step then was to frame the rules for better governance of resources. Over a process of dialogue, and discussion, the rules emerged: controlled grazing of cattle; no intoxicants including alcohol, 'Gudaku' (A sticky paste made of tobaco and lime) or cigarettes; every child in school; protection of all forests, collective labour for village development; everybody to maintain compost pits for disposing waste.

This was followed by involved discussions on improved land use. Agragamee members provided inputs through their long experience on working with tribal communities and tribal lands. Support also came from organisations like IPAF (Indigenous People's Assistance Facility) NABARD (National Bank for Agricultural Development) and KKS (Karl Kubel Stifftung). The first task everybody agreed was to improve agricultural practices, and soil fertility. Through the practise of shifting cultivation, much of the agricultural lands were almost waste lands. They were being cultivated in rotations of 7 to 8 years, with the fallow period ranging from 3 to 6 years. Even then, the yield in these crops was erratic and uncertain. Often times, even the input costs were not recovered. This necessitated cultivation of hill-slopes, which were common lands, used for grazing, as also accessed for firewood by women. Gradually, women were loosing their firewood sources, and food gathering on the forested commons had almost completely disappeared.  

A series of consultations with 25 tribal villages was taken up, based on past experience with natural resources and agricultural development programmes. The details of a plan began to emerge. The community felt that they had been very short sighted, in the past, wherein they had neglected plantations, and orchards, and allowed them to die. The loss was underlined by the few, less than 5 % of tribal farmers, who had taken the trouble to maintain their plantations of cashew and mango. These people were getting significant returns today from the sale of cashew and mango, when others were in penury. The village community decided they would take up action at three levels. One at the level of governance, based on the rules formulated as mentioned above, the second would be collective effort to rejuvenate the commons, this was a prime need emphasised by women, and the third would be efforts to move away from shifting cultivation to settled plots, conserving energy and resources on cropped land, and allowing uncropped lands to rejuvenate.

The process was a challenge in the steep stony uplands, much of which was already denuded. However the farmers took it up with courage and determination. They decided to first address the problems of their agricultural uplands. Agragamee stepped in with support for fencing, and other land development works. farmers also wanted plant material for developing income generating plantations. So a common design for the farmers' lands was worked out which combined perennial plantations with rainfed cropping, and also included development of the hedgerow with fire-wood and timber trees for an integrated livelihood support to the family.

Women in the community felt that it was not enough to protect just the private lands, they pointed out that this would not provide them with firewood and fodder that was as essential as agriculture. Thus, it was decided to address the question of commons by initiating protection and rejuvenation. Women took the initiative in this, deciding what trees they would plant, and also taking up annual intercropping, which ensuring their commons was properly fenced in, and no cattle could come in.

In Kebedi Village, 35 farmers, which is almost the entire village decided to address the situation through collective effort. Realising that open grazing of cattle was doing much harm, they decided to fence in their areas, to protect and conserve it. Every farmer agreed to take up one acre of up land, and develop it for settled agriculture. Farmers with common borders decided to fence in their lands together. Within 2 years, farmers have been able to find the difference between fenced in lands, and those left for open grazing. Not only have the perennial tree plantations established, they have also been able to take annual crops of lentils and millets, without soil degradation. They are also gradually adopting zero tillage practices, which has improved soil fertility.

Women have come together as a group, for protecting common lands. as a first step, and an example, they have protected 25 acres of uplands through a combination of social fencing, and green and mechanical fencing. The green fencing will reach the stage of forming a complete protective barrier in another year's time. They have combined income generating trees like cashew with firewood trees, and also intercropped with annual legumes, the returns from which has been shared amongst all.

These efforts have inspired other villages also to take up similar effort. In many villages, people have begun to fence in their lands, and develop it with permanent tree cover combined with annual seasonal crops.

The more important effort is being taken up by women on common lands, which are being reclaimed with huge effort by women's collectives. In the village of Maligaon, women have fenced in 25 acres of land, and have intercropped seasonal legumes with Mango plants. While the mango takes time to mature, they have been taking legume crops from the land. These two villages have set an example for the entire regions, and inspired several other villages also to make similar effort.

Poverty and neglect by the government has set back the community of tribal people in southern Odisha significantly. Under these circumstances, their efforts for reclaiming lands in the hilly terrains of Koraput is a difficult challenge for the people, as also for Non-governmental organisations like Agragamee who are committed to tribal development and wellbeing and works in Koraput and other tribal districts of Odisha. A beginning has been made with the courage and determination of the tribal people, and specially the tribal women, who have bravely stepped out to save their commons. These are efforts which provide the alternatives to big dams and industry, which need to be recognised, supported and promoted. 

Malnutrition in the rural communities particularily young married women is of major concern, to eradicate the malnutrition among them, nutrient dense crops should be  produced with cost effectiveness and can be addressed through simple biofortification agricultural techniques. Application of PSB to the soil. Study on spinach crop have clearly shown that, application of PSB not only improves yield but also nutritional quality. The application of PSB in combination with FYM or organic treatments is recommended which also helps in lowering antinutrional parameters such as, phytates, tannins and oxalates content in the food crop.

There is comparatively little current research on indirect effects of agriculture on nutrition, or the effect of policies or governance, rather than technical interventions. Most research is focused on under-nutrition and small farmer households, and few studies target consumers generally, urban populations, or nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. There is very little work on the cost-effectiveness of agricultural interventions. The answer to addressing these challenges starts from addressing leakages in official spending, monitoring of progress and creating linkages among different agencies in several on-going nutrition schemes and projects. Agriculture and Nutrition challenges can be best addressed only after a complete achievement of desired behavioural change goals which somehow have still not reached the lower strata of the Indian society. The maximum challenge to address this problem emerges from the unorganized programmes with the lack of technical expertise knowledge disrupting. Building more support for open data with published case studies in the agriculture and nutrition sectors. This will include starting and continuing conversations with more people in more organisations and from more countries around the world on how thematic networks can really unlock the benefits of open data across the world. Ideally we need to be more focused on agriculture, funding, global policies, malnutrition and nutrition.

Sumit Karn's interesting comments from Nepal stirred me up to write myself. He talks of "trying to integrate crop, livestock and nutrition for sunergistic effect" Very correct and crucially important for Nepal where livestock are really about the only resource for improving fertility. It is many years (unfortunately) since I have been in Nepal, but I hope the good work by H.R. Stennett on watershed management (Report FAO-FO-NEP/85/008) - for which he was received the B.R.Sen Award - has born fruit and not - as so often happens - been quietly forgotten. His work included underplanting of paddy with fodder species so as to get more forage in the stubble after the paddy had been harvested. The main problem was the cultural change and social discipline involved in getting all the famers to undertake the same practices and to share equitably the improve feed for their livestock.

Many thanks for an interesting discussion and comments,

Best regards, John Weatherhogg  

Hello everyone,

I am glad to be here with you and share an interesting experience that shows how participatory approaches like FAO Dimitra Clubs can highly contribute to improve food nutrition and promote dietary habits.

The Dimitra Clubs are a gender-sensitive participatory approach implemented by FAO that is recognized by development as a good practice. They are groups of women, men and young - mixed or not, who decide to organize themselves so as to work together to bring about changes in their community.  They meet regularly to discuss their problems and take action to solve them.  These communication spaces for discussion and action have been set up in isolated and remote rural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa (DR Congo, Senegal, Niger, Burundi, and Ghana).

The Dimitra Clubs have had a great success wherever they have been created.  The process they stimulate has impact in various fields: improved agricultural practices, food security and nutrition, social mobilization, community governance, transformation of gender relations, behavior changes, and women’s leadership.  As a result, the clubs facilitate a more gender-equitable access to productive resources, information, services, markets and agricultural innovations. 

With regards to nutrition and agriculture issues, the Dimitra Clubs of FAO have been crucial in changing behaviors and improving food security in the communities. For example, in the village of Banizoumbou (Niger), a group of women’s members of the Dimitra Clubs obtained a 99-year land lease contract of almost 3 ha of arable land. This was possible thanks to the social dynamics triggered by the FAO-Dimitra Clubs. Today, these women grow nutritious crops and vegetables to feed their families and sell on the market.

To know more about this story, visit:

http://www.fao.org/gender/gender-home/gender-insight/gender-insightdet/en/c/257888/

 In Oriental Province (DR Congo), 80 Dimitra Clubs were created to tackle poverty, gender and food security issues. One of the results is the new energy and enthusiasm in the villages that are reflected in concrete achievements that improve people’s livelihoods. The issue of nutrition has been selected by most clubs and action has been taken. In collaboration with the community radio programme «Mamans et papas réunis» and the implication of traditional chiefs, the clubs have discussed the importance of diet diversity and food taboos.  The results have been remarkable, with changes in the food habits.  In Botike village, a member of the «Litomba ya Mosala Club» enthusiastically said: «Before we had food taboos: tortoise and today thanks to the club everyone eats it».

One of the main lessons learned with FAO-Dimitra Clubs is that people need to be considered as actors of their own development and not simply as “beneficiaries”. Local ‘ownership’ is essential to sustain capacity but depends on wide-spread and gender-sensitive participation. If both men and women are equally involved at all stages, then programmes have a far greater chance of success.

For further information about this approach please go to the following links:

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/dimitra/pdf/fiche_cec_2013_en.pdf

Other examples of impact can be found in the Dimitra Newsletter:

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4402e.pdf

Dear Sir

I am sending here with an attached file of a success stories on mungbean for your kind information and necessary action.

With best regards

Dr.Md. Omar Ali

Principal Scientific Officer,

Pulses Research  Centre

Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)

Joydebpur, Gazipur.-1701, Bangladesh

 

Dear all,

I would like to share our activity in Bangladesh which can play a very promising role to improve nutritional status of our population.

To address the micronutrient deficiency of zinc which is prevalent in Bangladesh, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has chosen to enrich rice, which is a staple food in the country. Enriched rice can fit into traditional consumption patterns as it involves limited behaviour change on the part of the consumer and can take advantage of current supply and distribution channels. Taking this into account, GAIN engaged in a series of comprehensive nutrition and market-feasibility studies to assess the effect that particular modifications to the rice value chain would have in improving the nutritional density of rice. Amongst the concepts studied, fortifying rice during the soaking process has shown to have a significant effect on the nutritional quality of rice such that it warrants further investigation and validation. Preliminary market-feasibility research identified several constraints that must be further tested in field and industrial settings. We have already tested this method in an Engelberg mill and now analysing the zinc content of fortified milled rice and by-products. Should the field validation study bear positive results, this particular innovation that uses a new entry point on the rice value chain could have a transformative effect on human nutrition in Bangladesh.

Thanks & regards,

Debashish, GAIN

Dear FSN Moderator,

I would like make the contribution provided below.

Thank you.

Regards,

Akhter Ahmed, Ph.D.

Chief of Party

Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program

IFPRI/Bangladesh

Positioning Agriculture toward Improved Nutrition and Women’s Empowerment

How can Bangladesh’s agriculture policies and interventions be designed and implemented to increase positive impact on nutrition? Agriculture provides a source of food and nutrients, a broad-based source of income, and affects food prices. It also has a range of effects on women’s health, nutrition, empowerment, and time allocation, which, in turn, affects the care of infants, children, and other family members. Given these links, agriculture has the potential to be a strong driver of women and children’s nutrition and health. That potential, however, is not being fully realized in Bangladesh.

From production to consumption, women are key actors within the food system but are historically less empowered in Bangladesh, according to a recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The lack of women’s empowerment weakens the links between agriculture and nutrition. In spite of playing an important role in agriculture growth in Bangladesh, women face persistent obstacles and societal and economic constraints that limit their further inclusion in agriculture. By empowering women, ensuring their nutrition status, improving access to clean water and sanitation are all vital for nutrition security. In the absence of such circumstances even nutrition-sensitive agricultural growth will not fully achieve its potential impacts on nutrition status.

IFPRI researchers at the Policy Research and Strategy Support Program (PRSSP) in Bangladesh have designed a pilot study to identify actions and investments in agriculture that can leverage agricultural development for improved nutrition and stimulate pathways to women’s empowerment within agriculture. The pilot project focuses on strategic choices in high-value agricultural production (high-value food commodities are also usually rich in essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals) and in developing “nutrition-sensitive value chains” that enhance or help maintain the nutritional value of agricultural commodities along the value chain, while also focusing on empowering women. 

The pilot project implements and evaluates the impact of three alternative modalities for nutrition and gender sensitive agriculture. The modalities are: 

1.       Agriculture Production: Facilitating the production of the high-value food commodities that are rich in essential nutrients. The focus would be on diversifying agricultural production (fruits and vegetables; pulses; oilseeds; and poultry, dairy, fish, livestock)

2.       Nutrition BCC: Conducting high-quality behavior change communication (BCC) training to improve nutrition

3.       Gender Sensitization: Undertaking gender sensitization activities that lead to the improvement in the status/empowerment of women.

The Agricultural Policy Support Unit (APSU) of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Government of Bangladesh, and the Department of Agricultural Extension of the MOA will implement the pilot project from mid-2015 to 2017. Using the randomized controlled trial (RCT) method of evaluation, the IFPRI-PRSSP researchers will evaluate the impact of the project on farmers’ incomes, household food security, women’s empowerment, and child and maternal nutrition. The evidence gathered will be used to inform the design of a national program.