This sound like an interesting forum, but I have some concerns. First I always get concerned when project suggest expanding government services. My basic definition of developing country, and the common denominator between them, is a financially suppressed economy in which consumer prices are only a fraction of those in developed countries, but wages are suppressed to 1/12th a developing countries. The result is more than 80% of income has to be spent on food. Since taxes have to come from the limited dictionary funds, there is very little tax base to generate the revenue for public services like extension programs. No taxes – no services. Thus while the government may employ people as extension agents, they will have a fairly low salary and virtually no support funds to implement programs, and thus effectively reach only a small percent of the intended beneficiaries. This also means they will often be seeking supplemental income which this could be a financial necessity. In short most host governments are financially stalled unable to undertake the services expected of them let alone add additional services like those envisioned in the article. Please review the following webpage from the www.smallholderagriculture.com website along with any appropriate links:
http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-suppresse…
http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-stalled-g…
The second concern is the relevance of improved nutrition to an impoverished society where the most impoverished are expected to undertake the most ardent manual labor. The improved diets being promoted are often develop from academic sources, and I will agree they are ideal and highly desirable, but are they feasible. That is can the impoverished people they are intended to benefit have a wage base that will allow them to afford the diet, or the energy needed to produce it. This gets to the issue of calorie energy balance, in which most smallholder farmers have access to only about 2000 kcal/day, which will barely meet their basic metabolism needs let alone allow them to engage in heavy manual labor. To undertake a full day of diligent agronomic labor the dietary energy needs to be in excess of 4000 kcal/day. The result is the work day is restricted to 3 or 4 hours of limited diligence and it can take up to 8 weeks for basic crop establishment with declining potential yield and food security with the delay. If they cannot afford or produce this dietary energy what are the rational compromises they should make in their diets that will optimize their very survival. Does the need for calories to complete the coming day’s tasks trump the desire for more diversified diets? Please review the following webpages and related links, and if possible take time to work through the exercise: Hard Choices in Quality Nutrition. If so inclined you are more than welcome to print and post the poster.
http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/calorie-energy-balanc…
http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/ethiopia-diet-analysi…
http://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/DietPoster.pdf
Dr. Dick Tinsley