Agriculture

The INGENAES project endeavors to build the capacity of both public and private institutions engaged in agriculture extension to provide gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive advising services to smallholder farmers, and to contribute to the evidence base by documenting experiences.

Ronald Vargas and Lucrezia Caon from FAO’s Land and Water division described the various ways soils are fundamental for food and nutrition security, the current threats to soil health, and the strategies which can be promoted to prevent soil degradation and improve soil health.

Micronutrient deficiency continues to undermine public health and prosperity in developing countries. Food fortification and supplementation have been effective at addressing these problems, but millions of smallholder farm families have limited access to these interventions.

The June 2015 issue of the journal Food Security includes a special section: "Strengthening the links between nutrition and health outcomes and agricultural research." This collection of papers advances the boundaries of the field of agri-health research beyond farming households, and toward markets and food systems.

One of the issues the Ag2Nut community has discussed is the need to make diverse, nutritious foods more available and accessible. Within an overall agenda of sustainable development, increased nutritious food production needs to align with environmental sustainability, economic viability and social equity.