Agriculture for nutrition: direct and indirect effects.

Abstract

This chapter describes three main channels through which changing agriculture can affect nutrition: (1) the level and stability of real income and purchasing power among poor people; (2) the relative cost and difficulty of acquiring more nutritious foods relative to other things; and (3) exposure to health hazards associated with agricultural production, including various pathogens but also other harmful agricultural practices. Within each channel, the chapter highlights recent research findings that have strong implications for the way in which agriculture can be redesigned to improve nutrition.

Rural Food Markets and Child Nutrition

“…Child stunting remains a predominantly rural problem in much of the developing world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa (Headey and Masters 2018 ), with a considerable amount of growth faltering in the six to twenty-three month age window when infants and young children’s growing nutrient requirements must be met by high-quality nutrient-dense foods. Because dietary diversity is extremely poor in most of rural Africa and developing Asia, significant efforts have been dedicated to leveraging agricultural production diversity to improve diets.…”

“…Arimond and Ruel ( 2004 ), Mallard et al ( 2014 ), Headey, Hirvonen, and Hoddinott ( 2018 ) and others find that diverse diets rich in animal-sourced proteins and micro-nutrients are associated with reductions in chronic undernutrition, particularly in the six to twenty-three months age range in which stunting rates in-crease sharply (Victora et al 2010 ). It is not surprising, therefore, that improving the diets of children has attracted attention from policy-makers and researchers, including a growing body of literature in agricultural economics (Headey and Masters 2018 ; Ruel, Quisumbing, and Balagamwala 2018 ).…”

“…The logic of these approaches is twofold. First, child undernutrition still remains a predominantly rural problem in low-income countries, especially Africa (Headey and Masters 2018 ). In Ethiopia, for example, we estimate that around 91% of the country’s 7.15 million stunted preschoolers are rural.…”

Testing the Various Pathways Linking Forest Cover to Dietary Diversity in Tropical Landscapes

“…Dietary diversity may increase with improved market access (Sibhatu et al, 2015). However, protein-rich and micronutrient-rich food can be several times more expensive than staple food, particularly in low-income countries (Headey and Masters, 2019). In such countries, with largely rural population, dietary diversity may thus be improved through diversity in farm production (Jones et al, 2014;Powell et al, 2015;Jones, 2017).…”