Agriculture and Nutrition Resource Review

2015 is the International Year of Soils, in recognition of the fundamental role our soils play in delivering ecosystem services that enable life on Earth. One of these critical ecosystem services is the provision of food: 95% of our food is estimated to be directly or indirectly produced on our soils. Soil health is key for nutrition, both as a key determinant of agricultural productivity and nutrient content of foods. But our soils are under threat. The October 2015 Ag2Nut call was held on this topic.

Farmers in the Lake Zone of Tanzania were sampled for their perceptions towards the production and consumption of Orange-Flesh Sweet Potato (OFSP). In general, farmers' perceptions were positive for such attributes as taste, yield, storability, disease resistance, and popularity. The study finds that farmers that participated in an OFSP project were more positive about its superior nutritional value and popularity among children.

This article reviews various theory of change models for agriculture and nutrition interventions and provides an analysis of their applicability. Evidence-based theories of change are discussed and the need for adapting a theory of change for a particular purpose are discussed.

Inequality determines who eats and what they eat—this in turn affects peoples’ resilience in the face of climate change and other environmental factors. This report recommends priorities beyond food production such as women’s empowerment, policymaking power for small-scale producers, and climate action to answer inequality.

Monotonous diets fail to provide sufficient micronutrients. Consequently, dietary diversity is crucial for vulnerable groups, in particular women of reproductive age. This report reviews results of the Women’s Dietary Diversity Project and explores the possibility of measuring dietary diversity for women on a population level.

Some 2 billion people suffer from hidden hunger caused by infections and diets lacking in essential micronutrients, such as, vitamin A, iron, and zinc. This two page brief explores how biofortification of staple grains can increase dietary diversity.

Key messages in the 2015 State of Food Security report revolve around social protection, gender-sensitive programs, and national commitment. The report explores what social protection can offer people and its limitations in moving people out of poverty.

This report discusses the growing evidence that micronutrient deficiencies may increase due to climate change. Donors and governments are called to fund climate-adaptation efforts for smallholder farmers and to allow local governments to allocate funds as needed.

This blog introduces the special issue of the Journal of Development Studies) on “Farm-Level Pathways to Improved Nutritional Status,” which features 8 studies exploring the linkage between household agricultural production and nutrition. The studies range in data, methods, and topics, including: the role of biofortification in improving children's diets; findings of a positive association between crop diversity and dietary diversity; and the positive effects of livestock-ownership on animal-sourced food consumption.

This video features the pathways through which agriculture can support good nutrition, indicators that can be used to measure agriculture’s impact on nutrition, and key recommendations for improving nutrition through agriculture and food systems.

Efforts to improve nutrition outcomes are impaired by fragmented evidence on which policies and interventions work best. The existing tools that are intended to measure the outcomes of agricultural and food policy interventions only capture some elements. This technical brief calls upon the research community and governments to jointly develop better ways to collect data.

The 42^nd session of the Committee on Food Security in Rome explored a range of issues including nutrition in protracted crises, water access, and connecting smallholder farmers to markets. The final report from the conference includes meeting items, photos, and information from side events.

This SPRING webinar explored biofortification, with a focus on implementation and incorporating it into development projects. HarvestPlus experts explained their implementation process, dissemination, social and behavior change efforts, as well as myths surrounding biofortification.

A 3 day course-themed conference, 'Borlaug 101: The Fundamentals of Global Food Security,' celebrated the 101 years after Dr. Norman E. Borlaug's birth. Presentations included the impact of aquaculture and marine fisheries on food production, nutrition and the environment, confronting malnutrition through biofortified crops, and the effect of Ebola on agriculture in afflicted countries.

Biofortification is among the highest value-for-money investments for economic development and reducing micronutrient deficiencies. In this webinar, Director of HarvestPlus Dr. Howarth Bouis, discussed the impact of biofortification on nutrition and smallholder farmer income and its cost-effectiveness compared to other nutrition interventions.