Theme III. Nutrition and Health Peter R. Berti Eating is an agricultural act: On the Edge of Understanding Nutrition- Sensitive Agriculture

Agriculture – Sensitive Nutrition

… investing broadly in five types of capital, especially human capital, increases the prospects for nutrition improvement. Our analysis … was often hampered by the projects using study designs that were not suitable to assess this relationship. The agriculture–nutrition link must be studied in a large variety of projects and settings, in order to build a body of knowledge

[positive] nutrition outcomes when they involve diverse and complementary processes… Future programs should be carefully monitored and rigorously evaluated to ensure that performance can be continually tracked and improved.

… we concluded that the absence of … significant impact of agricultural interventions on children’s nutritional status should not be attributed to the inefficacy of these interventions. Rather it is the lack of[statistical] power of the studies.

Food and Nutrition Bulletin (2014) 35:

Food and Nutrition Bulletin (2013) 34:

Turner et al. Food and Nutrition Bulletin (2013) 34: Ag production of nutritious foods Value chains Ag-based development Multisectoral Aflatoxin Policy / methodology Agriculture for improved nutrition: The current research landscape Research theme N studies

Turner et al. Food and Nutrition Bulletin (2013) 34: ChildrenWomenOther Agriculture for improved nutrition: The current research landscape: Populations of interest N studies

What we know What we don ’ t know, but need to know What we don ’ t know, but it doesn ’ t matter

Home gardening with focus on vitamin A rich crops can improve vitamin A status What we know: For agriculture interventions to have a positive impact on nutrition of the participating households they should invest in multiple areas of the farmers ’ lives, including, but not limited to, nutrition education. Animal husbandry focused projects can lead to increases in ASF consumption

What we don ’ t know, but need to know: What are the characteristics of self-replicating (or, at least, scalable) nutrition-sensitive agriculture? How do nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions impact women’s work loads?

What we don ’ t know, but it doesn ’ t matter: What are the nutrient-specific benefits of various types of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions?

We have a lot to learn… how can we work together? Dietary diversity and ultra-processing The relationship between biodiversity and dietary diversity can be a mutually interesting starting point The key issue in nutrition: is NOT “nutrition”, but behaviour change

Grains, roots or tubers Vitamin A-rich plant foods Other fruits or vegetables Meat, poultry, fish, seafood Eggs Pulses/legumes/nuts Milk and milk products Oils/fats Dietary Diversity – more diverse=better

Monteiro C (2010) The big issue is ultra-processing. [Commentary] World Nutrition:16:

Potato Wh grain bread Wonder bread Milk Sw. Yogurt Cheez Whiz Olive oil Butter Veg Lard

Lesson 1: ‘Interdisciplinarity’ is tough I had no idea that working across disciplines [….]was this painful, but it might be worth it Lesson 2: Beware geeks bearing gifts. What kinds of people do you want in the room? … the ability to empathise is probably more essential than being top of the field.

Peter R. Berti Nutrition Advisor/Deputy Director