From nutrition plus to nutrition driven: How to realize the elusive potential of agriculture for nutrition?

Abstract

Background. Agriculture has the potential to have a bigger impact on nutrition status than it currently does. The pathways between agriculture and nutrition are well known. Yet the evidence on how to increase the impact of agriculture on nutrition is weak. Objective. To outline some of the possible reasons for the weak evidentiary link between agriculture and income and to highlight some approaches to incentivizing agriculture to give nutrition a greater priority. Methods. A review of literature reviews and other studies. Results. Agriculture does not have a strong poverty and nutrition impact culture, the statistical links between aggregate agriculture and nutrition data are weak, literature reviews to date have not been sufficiently clear on the quality of evidence admitted, and the evidence for the impact of biofortification on nutrition status is positive, but small. Some tools are proposed and described that may be helpful in raising the profile of nutrition outcomes, building nutrition outcomes into impact assessments of agriculture, measuring the commitment to undernutrition reduction,and helping to prioritize nutrition-relevant actions within agriculture. Leadership in agriculture and nutrition is also an understudied issue. Conclusions. Agriculture has a vast potential to increase its impact on nutrition outcomes. We don't know if this potential is being fully realized as yet. I suspect it is not. Tools that help promote the visibility of nutrition within agriculture and the accountability of agriculture toward nutrition can possibly contribute to moving "from Nutrition Plus to Nutrition Driven" agriculture. © 2013, The United Nations University.