Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage

THE AGRICULTURE-NUTRITION Advantage project was initiated in 2002 to address hunger and malnutrition in Africa. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage involves the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Through a variety of projects, situated in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda, the program employs multiple approaches to develop links among agriculture, nutrition, and gender. Of these five countries, Mozambique and Uganda are considered “unlikely” to reach the Millennium Development Goal of reducing under-5 mortality by two-thirds by 2015, while Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria are considered “very unlikely.”

The Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage recognizes that an increase in agricultural production does not necessarily lead to reductions in hunger, since larger harvests will likely be sold for cash. Similarly, income from agricultural production may be diverted toward areas that do not promote health and nutrition. In addition, as others such as Food First have suggested, the production of greater quantities of food does not guarantee that those who are hungry will gain access to food. Neither does it guarantee that the nutritional quality of the food accessed by poor people will be adequate.

Project participants argue that while growing attention has been given to issues of poverty and hunger in Africa, issues of malnutrition have received far less notice. The Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage stresses that hunger and malnutrition are related, but not identical, and too few policies and programs recognize that reducing hunger does not necessarily reduce malnutrition.

The project was initiated after a study of institutions in Uganda, Mozambique, and Nigeria carried out by IFPRI, ICRW, and USAID revealed that nutrition concerns were absent from most policy approaches to reducing poverty and hunger. The study also found a lack of collaboration between agriculture and nutrition workers. The study concluded that such collaboration across sectors might provide a powerful strategy in combating malnutrition along with poverty and hunger.

Based on its ongoing research projects the Agricul-ture-Nutrition Advantage works to promote the links between agriculture and nutrition with the intention of improving people's nutritional intake in a timely and sustainable fashion. Some of the linkages provided within the Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage include health education directed toward improving food care, consumption, and feeding practices; improving the preservation, processing, and distribution of food to reduce waste and postharvest nutrient loss; improving access to food by the hungry; and breeding crop varieties for better nutrient content. Yearly workshops are held bringing participants from the various country teams together to share information and develop effective strategies. During the year each country team works locally to advocate changes in policies that are informed by agriculture, nutrition, and gender linkages and to allocate resources adequately.

A key part of the Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage is the gendered analysis of food and nutrition. Women and men occupy different roles within different contexts, and have varying access to resources and decision-making processes. Such factors influence the contributions that women and men are able to make toward family nutrition. Agriculture is the mainstay of most economies in sub-Saharan Africa and women are playing central roles in food production and household nutrition. Presently, African women farmers produce up to 80 percent of food crops for family consumption and are the ones primarily responsible for providing their families with an adequate diet.

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