We put forward the following ideas as part of the first question posed on the top five things to be done as part of an agricultural investment program to maximize policy impact on nutrition. They are listed in brief, as follows:
1. Raise awareness to the targeted population on the importance of nutritional diet
2. Promote and foster technological change through support of research and marketing
3. Encourage institutional support/participation
4. Increase the availability and accessibility of high value food in both rural and urban communities
5. Initiate and manage a crisis response agency
In keeping with these five initiatives, we see key areas that would benefit from intensified research:
1. Knowledge of farm incomes - especially of lower income ‘peasant’ farms that often elude the informational net of relevant institutions.
2. Knowledge of disaster/climatic impact - knowing how adversely a disaster or inclement weather affects low income/disadvantaged communities both in financial terms and in terms of ‘well-being’ and the degradation of individual livelihoods can prove useful in the design phase of an agricultural policy. However, one should remain cognizant that in LDCs this information may not always be available or reliable.
3. Knowledge on the different communication channels so as to encourage high income countries to invest in the promotion of nutrition in LDC’s, whether through the private and public sector, NGO’s or any other means of communicating information across to LDC’s.
4. Knowledge is most needed in areas of agriculture such as nutrition and health, in the LDC’s, so as to encourage individuals to make wise nutritional decisions in order to take better care of their health and by extension expand the demand for healthier agricultural products.
Final Year Economics Students (group 4) University of Guyana