Many interesting comments were already made. I only want to briefly add a few minor and very down-to-earth points:
- Household food security, objective and subjective, as well as quantitative (enough food) and qualitative (enough diversity and nutritional adequacy), could be considered as prominent indicator of successful nutrition-sensitive value chains for the food systems.
- Beyond food production, adequate transport and processing are essential to limit food losses and enhance the nutritional value of local foods. Local and efficient (and limited) processing of local foods may not have received the attention it deserves, for instance in French-speaking West Africa, possibly because of the competition by international food industries which reap the profit margins of food processing.
- Nutrition-sensitive food processing technologies exist but may not be adopted, perhaps because of their cost. Let me give 3 examples: 1) The technology for refining red palm oil while preserving its natural antioxidans including provitamin A carotenoids was developed in Malaysia. Why is it not used for instance in Côte d'Ivoire? 2) I am not sure that parboiling in order for the rice to retain some of its B-vitamins is used in African firms processing the rice; 3) Lactic fermentation, sprouting and dextrinization could be more widely used in food processing, particularly for the industrial or semi-industrial development of local complementary foods with enhanced nutritional value.
Prof. Hélène Delisle