A Review of the Food Security and Nutritional Impacts of Agriculture Interventions

Tom SchaetzelInfant & Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project

Maximizing Nutritional Benefits of Agricultural Interventions

The Infant & Young Child Nutrition Project

• USAID Global Health Bureau flagship project

on infant and young child nutrition.

• Prioritizes the prevention of malnutrition for

mothers and children, focusing from

pregnancy until two years of age.

• Led by PATH in collaboration with CARE,

The Manoff Group, and University Research

Co., LLC.

Photo: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein

A New Era for Agricultural Development

Source: Farming First

Does Increased Agricultural Production Improve Nutrition?

“…one of the most persistent

of misperceptions…about

technology and economics…is

the idea that as long as

production is rising, any

problems of consumption will

sort themselves out.”

Pacey and Payne, 1985

Photo: © 2008 Monirul Alam, Courtesy of Photoshare

Does Increased Income Improve Nutrition?Not everything can be bought…

“Income is a rather dubious indicator of the opportunity of being well

nourished….” (Drèze and Sen, 1989)

Health Education

Clean Water Gender Equality

Photos: PATH

The Problem

There are trade offs and complementarities between production/employment goals and meeting nutritional goals which should be taken into account…when making program decisions. (USAID, 1982)

• How can we maximize the complementarities?

• How can we minimize the tradeoffs?

Review of Experience

• What are the characteristics of agriculture interventions that:

– Improve food security?

– Improve nutrition?

• What are the characteristics of interventions that have negative effects?

Negative Food Security Impact

• Results when increase unemployment among population groups already un- or under-employed.

– Increased production tends to increase employment, but not always

– Mechanization can decrease employment

Negative Food Security Impact

• Increased prices (e.g., price supports) have negative impact when vulnerable households are net purchasers.

– Smaller producers may increase production, but not enough to become net sellers

– Cameroon calculation for 10% price increase:

• 3% income increase and 0.5% consumption increase

• 11.6% reduction of consumption due to purchase

• Lower prices have negative impact when vulnerable households are net sellers.

Positive Food Security Impact is More Likely When…

• Involve women

– Better translation of income increases to food security

– Small-scale processing (often an income source)

• Food promoted is disproportionately produced by food insecure households (usually also disproportionately consumed by these households). Photo: QFP/Mario DiBari

Positive Nutrition Impacts are More Likely When…

• The intervention includes explicit nutrition counseling (coupled with access to health care, sanitation and hygiene).

– Calculation (Rwanda): doubling energy intake decreases stunting by only ¼ standard deviation—a clean latrine has twice the effect

– Comparisons of orange-fleshed sweet potato with and without counseling

Positive Nutrition Impacts are More Likely When…

• The intervention involves women.

• The intervention includes home gardens.

• The intervention introduces micronutrient-rich crop varieties.

Positive Nutrition Impacts are More Likely When…• Vulnerable households regularly consume the

food commodity being produced.

– Independent of income effects

– Even for commercial crops

– Examples: fish, vegetables, dairy, poultry and eggs

Photo: PATH

Positive Nutrition Impacts are More Likely When…• Interventions are designed

to benefit/protect nutritionally vulnerable populations.

• Requires identifying and considering the situation of vulnerable households before the project takes place.

Photo: PATH

Solutions

1. Include meaningful nutrition objectives in project design (with activities supporting them).

2. Protect nutritional considerations in the design of production/income projects.

Photo: QFP/Mario DiBari

Key Considerations

• The expected impacts are often unclear and require modeling at the outset.

• Modeling requires identifying the nutritional vulnerable, and understanding why they are vulnerable.

Thank you

Contact me: tschaetzel@path.org

The preceding slides were presented at the

CORE Group 2010 Fall Meeting

Washington, DC

To see similar presentations, please visit:

www.coregroup.org/resources/meetingreports