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by IFPRI | June 14, 2019
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Issue Paper
Newsletter article
Project Note
Acute course
Adolescence (human)
Adolescent fertility
Aflatoxicosis
Aflatoxin producing mould
Aflatoxins
African swine fever virus
Agent-based models
Agricluture
Agricultural cooperatives
Agricultural development
Agricultural extension
Agricultural extension services
Agricultural growth
Agricultural growth and technologies
Agricultural households
Agricultural investment
Agricultural investments
Agricultural mechanization
Agricultural prices
Agricultural trade
Agricultural value chains
Agricultural workers
Agriculture production
Agrifood sector
Agrifood systems
Agroecological zones
Agroindustrial sector
Agronomic characters
Agropastoral systems
Aid programmes
Anopheles coluzzii
Anopheles funestus
Anthropometric dimensions
Antibody formation
Arboviruses
Avian malaria
Bacillus anthracis
Bargaining power
Beef tapeworm
Behavioural changes
Behavioural modification
Behaviour changes
Biofortication
Biological contamination
Biological phenomena
Biosafety regulations
Bovinae
Breeding methods
Breeds (animals)
Brucella
Cancer (disease)
Capacity assessment
Cash Transfer Programs
Caste systems
Cereal crops
Cereal production
Child feeding
Child growth
Chronic course
Climate-smart agriculture
Cluster sampling
Combining ability
Complementary feeding
Consumer attitudes
Consumption patterns
Contingent valuation
Coownership
Cost effectiveness analysis
Critical control points
Crop improvement
Crop losses
Crop modelling
Crop residues
Crop storage
Crop yield
Cucurbita moschata
Cultural factors
Cytoplasmic male sterility
Deficiency diseases
Demand elasticities
Development indicators
Development policies
Development programmes
Dietary assessment
Dietary diversity
Dietary minerals
Diet preferences
Diet quality
Diffusion of information
Diffusion of research
Diminazene
Disease surveillance
Disease surveys
Disease transmission
Docosahexaenoic acid
Domestic gardens
Dosage effects
Drought resistance
Dry matter content
Eating behaviour
Ebolavirus
Econometric models
Economic behavior
Economic competition
Economic crises
Economic distribution
Economic infrastructure
Economic losses
Economic viability
Eicosapentaenoic acid
Elasticity of demand
Energy expenditure
Epicatechin
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae
Evaluation techniques
Ex-ante impact assessment
Excreta
Extension workers
Extensive land use
Factor analysis
Farmer participation
Farmers organization
Farming systems research
Farm surveys
Feed conversion
Feeding habits
Feeding preferences
Female labour
Field experimentation
Field experiments
Fish consumption
Fish culture
Fishery production
Food access
Food analysis
Foodborne diseases
Food composition
Food contamination
Food enrichment
Food fortification
Food intake
Food losses
Food plants
Food policies
Food purchasing
Food saftey
Food stocks
Food supplementation
Food supply chains
Food sytems
Food wastes
Foreign enterprises
Fortified foods
Fumonisins
Garri
Gene interaction
Genetic divergence
Genetic improvement
Genetic inheritance
Genetic mapping
Geographical distribution
Germplasm collections
Gestation period
Girls education
Glossina
Goal 2 Zero hunger
Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
Good agricultural practices
Grain legume
Grain legumes
Grain production
Grain yields
Grassroots organizations
Haemoglobin
Harvesting date
Head dimensions
Health surverys
Helicoverpa armigera
Helminths
Hepatocellular cancer
Highly pathogenic avian influenza
High yielding breeds
High yielding varieties
Homestead food production
Homestead garden
Household consumption
Household food security
Household level production
Human faeces
Human milk
Human nutrition research
Hunger (socioeconomic problem)
Impact evaluation
Import controls
Improved varieties
Inbred lines
Inclusion bodies
Independent experts
Infant and young child feeding practices
Influenzavirus
Informal sector
Information and Communication Technologies (icts)
Innovation adoption
Innovation policies
Inorganic fertilizers
Intensification
Ipomoea batatas
Iron absorption
Iron bean
Irrigation schemes
Keeping quality
Kernals
Knowledge, beliefs
Lactating women
Land use change
Lectins
Lens culinaris
Leptospira
Less favoured areas
Livestock censuses
Livestock productivity
Long chain fatty acids
Low birth weight infants
Low income countries
Low income groups
Maize flour
Malnutriton
Manihot esculenta
Marker-assisted selection
Maternal and child health and nutrition programmes
Maternal behaviour
Measurament
Meat hygiene
Meat inspection
Mechanization
Meloidogyne
Meloidogyne incognita
Micronutrient deficiencies
Micronutrient deficiency
Milk consumption
Milk marketing
Milk prices
Milk production
Milk yield
Milk yielding animals
Milletss
Mineral deficiencies
Mineral nutrients
Minimum prices
Mixed model method
Mobile telephones
Molecular cloning
Movement restrictions
Musa (bananas)
Neutralization tests
Non-communicable disease
Non-pharmaceutical interventions
Non communicable diseases
Nongovernmental organizations
Nongovernmental organizations (NGO's)
Nutrient availability
Nutrient cycling in ecosystems
Nutrient excesses
Nutrient intake
Nutrion
Nutritin policies
Nutrition, health
Nutrition-sensitive
Nutritional adequacy
Nutritional disorders
Nutritional intervention
Nutritional state
Nutrition intake
Nutrition labelling
Nutrition policies
Nutrition policy
Nutrition programmes
Nutrition security
Nutrition surveys
Off farm employment
Orange maize
Orange sweet potato
Organoleptic analysis
Oryza sativa
Parasitoses
Parboiling
Participatory approaches
Pastoralists
Payment for Ecosystem Services
Pearl millets
Pennisetum glaucum
Peri-urban agriculture
Perinatal period
Periurban areas
Pest resistance
Phytates
Phytic acid
Phytohaemagglutinins
Pig diseases
Pigeon peas
Plant condition
Plasmodium falciparum
Plasmodium gallinaceum
Plasmodium vivax
Plate count
Postharvest losses
Postharvest technology
Poultry droppings
Poultry feeding
Pregnant adolescents
Price support
Private investment
Probit analysis
Processed animal products
Processing losses
Production increase
Program effectiveness
Protein content
Protein deficiencies
Protein intake
Protein quality
Provitamins
Public-private cooperation
Public distribution system
Pure lines
Quantitative trait loci
Rainfall patterns
Rainfed farming
Rape (trauma)
Recommended dietary allowances
Reproductive stage
Resistance to antibiotics
Rift Valley fever virus
Role of women
Root crop
Rural poverty
Salmonella enterica
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica
School feeding
Seasonal cropping
Seasonal variation
Seed systems
Serotypes
Serovars
Serum protein
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Slaughterhouses
Small farmers
Small scale farming
Social indicators
Social safety nets
Sociocultural systems
Socioeconomic development
Socioeconomic environment
Socioeconomic organization
Socioeconomic systems
Soft wheat
Soil organic matter
Spring wheat
Staple crops
Starch crops
Structural change
Supply balance
Swine erysipelas
Synergism
Systems approach
Taenia saginata
Technological changes
Temporal variation
Time study
Trace element deficiencies
Trace elements deficiencies
Trade liberalization
Trade policies
Traditional foods
Traditional methods
Traditional technology
Transfer of waters
Tribal peoples
Tropical crops
Tropical zones
Tuber (Tuberaceae)
Undernourishment
Undernutrition
Value added product
Value chains
Variance components
Vitamin a cassava
Vitamin A excess
Vitamin a maize
Vitamin content
Vitamin deficiencies
Wastewater irrigation
Wasting disease
Wasting disease (nutritional disorder)
Weight grading
Wheats
Wild food
Willingness to pay
Women's empowerment in agriculture index
Women farmers
Women of reproductive age
X-ray spectroscopy
Xanthomonas oryzae
X ray fluorescence
Yellow cassava
Yield increases
Regions/Countries
AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA
FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
IRAN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
MELANISIA
SOUTHWESTERN ASIA
Observability of food safety losses in maize: Evidence from Kenya
Hoffmann, Vivian; Mutiga, Samuel K.; Harvey, Jagger W.; Nelson, Rebecca J.; Milgroom, Michael G.. Article in press
Record detail | View
Effects of dose and duration of zinc interventions on risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Pompano, Laura M.; Boy, Erick. Article in press
Abstract | View
No meta-analysis has examined the effect of dose and duration of zinc interventions on their impact on risk factors for type 2 diabetes (T2D) or cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed first to compare the effects of zinc interventions dichotomized as low versus high dose (<25 mg/d and ≥25 mg/d, respectively) and short versus long duration (<12 wk and ≥12 wk, respectively) on risk factors for T2D and CVD. Second, it discusses the results from the low-dose and long-duration meta-analyses as a foundation for understanding what impact a zinc-biofortification intervention could have on these risk factors. The PubMed and Cochrane Review databases were searched through January 2020 for full-text, human studies providing zinc supplements (alone) at doses ≤75 mg/d and a placebo. Data on study and sample characteristics and several T2D and CVD risk factors were extracted. There were 1042 and 974 participants receiving zinc and placebo, respectively, from 27 studies. Low-dose zinc supplementation (<25 mg/d) significantly benefited fasting blood glucose, insulin resistance, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol. High-dose zinc supplementation (≥25 mg/d) benefited glycated hemoglobin and insulin resistance. Short-duration interventions (<12 wk) benefited fasting blood glucose, insulin resistance, and triglycerides, while long-duration studies (≥12 wk) benefited fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and total and LDL cholesterol. Effect sizes for low-dose and long-duration interventions were of equal or greater magnitude to those from high-dose or short-duration interventions. Low-dose and long-duration zinc supplementation each improved more risk factors for T2D and CVD than high-dose and short-duration interventions, respectively. It is currently unknown whether low doses of zinc delivered over long durations via a biofortified crop would similarly impact these risk factors. However, this review suggests that low-dose, long-duration zinc intake from supplements, and potentially biofortification, can benefit risk factors for T2D and CVD.
Income variability, evolving diets, and elasticity estimation of demand for processed foods in Nigeria
de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan. Article in press
We present evidence on evolving dietary patterns in Nigeria using six rounds of household consumption data from the Nigerian General Household Survey panel between 2011 and 2016. First, following conventional definitions in the literature, we show that Nigeria has not shown any aggregate increase in consumption of highly processed foods over this period, contrary to patterns observed elsewhere in the region. In fact, consumption of highly processed foods at home has declined, while food consumed away from home, often assumed to be highly processed, has risen substantially. We then show that estimates of food expenditure elasticities of different food types are highly sensitive to different estimation approaches and raise concerns about some frequently used methods in the literature. In the absence of credible exogenous variation, we argue for the importance of panel methods and household fixed effects to control for time invariant factors likely to confound cross‐sectional estimates. Finally, we examine semiparametric Engel curves for different food groups and find that apparent curvature in the relationships between food budget shares and overall food expenditure levels in the raw data become nearly linear when removing variation explained by time‐invariant household factors.
Conflict of interest in nutrition: Where's the power? Comment on "Towards preventing and managing conflict of interest in nutrition policy? An analysis of submissions to a consultation on a draft WHO tool"
Harris, Jody; Nisbett, Nicholas; Gillespie, Stuart. Article in press
Actual or perceived conflict of interests (COIs) among public and private actors in the field of nutrition must be managed. Ralston et al expose sharply contrasting views on the new World Health Organization (WHO) COI management tool, highlighting the contested nature of global debates. Both the WHO COI tool and the Ralston et al paper are largely quiet on aspects of power among different actors, however, which we argue is integral to these conflicts. We suggest that power needs to be acknowledged as a factor in COI; that it needs to be systematically assessed in COI tools using approaches we outline here; and that it needs to be explicitly addressed through COI mechanisms. We would recommend that all actors in the nutrition space (not only private companies) are held to the same COI standards, and we would welcome further studies such as Ralston et al to further build accountability.
Assessing statistical similarity in dietary intakes of women of reproductive age in Bangladesh
Wable, Gargi; Dickin, Katherine; Kanbur, Ravi; Menon, Purnima; Rasmussen, Kathleen M.; Hoddinott, John F.. Article in press
Women of reproductive age (WRA) need adequate nutrient intakes to sustain a healthy pregnancy, support fetal growth, and breastfeed after childbirth. However, data on women's dietary intake in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are limited, and assessment of differences between dietary intakes of pregnant or lactating women compared with that of nonpregnant, nonlactating (NPNL) women is untested. Using single, multiple‐pass 24‐h dietary recall data from a sample of WRA residing in rural Bangladesh, we examined women's dietary intakes for energy, protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, and dietary diversity for three groups: NPNL (n = 2,903), pregnant (n = 197), and lactating women (n = 944). We used equivalence testing to examine similarity in adjusted intakes for pregnant versus NPNL women and lactating versus NPNL women with a predetermined equivalence threshold based on recommendations specific for each reproductive stage. On average, both pregnant and lactating women had insufficient intakes for all dietary measures. Although statistically significant differences were observed between pregnant and NPNL women for energy intake and dietary diversity and between lactating and NPNL women for energy and protein intake, the magnitudes of these differences were too small to reject equivalence. Statistical similarity was also evident in all micronutrients and dietary diversity for both two‐group comparisons. Understanding statistical differences and similarities between dietary measures of women in distinct reproductive stages has important implications for the relevance, appropriateness, and evaluation of maternal diet‐enhancing interventions in LMICs, especially during pregnancy and lactation, when demand for macronutrients and micronutrients is elevated.
Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India
Raghunathan, Kalyani; Headey, Derek D.; Herforth, Anna. Article in press
In 2015–16 some 38% of preschool children in India were stunted, 21% wasted, and more than half of Indian mothers and young children were anemic. Though widely studied, surprisingly little research on malnutrition in India explores the role of diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diets given low wages and the significant structural problems facing India's agricultural sector. To explore this we used nationally representative rural price and wage data to estimate the least cost means of satisfying India's national dietary guidelines, referred to as the Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD), and assessed the affordability of this diet relative to male and female wages for unskilled laborers. Although we find that dietary costs have increased substantially for both men and women, rural wage rates increased more rapidly, implying that nutritious diets became substantially more affordable over time. However, in absolute terms nutritious diets in 2011 were still expensive relative to unskilled wages, constituting approximately 80–90% of female and 50–60% of male daily wages. Overall, we estimate that 63–76% of the rural poor could not afford a recommended diet in 2011. Achieving nutritional security in India requires a much more holistic focus on improving the affordability of the full range of nutritious food groups (not just cereals), a reappraisal of social protection schemes in light of the cost of more complete nutrition, ensuring that economic growth results in sustained income growth for the poor, and more timely and transparent monitoring of food prices, incomes and dietary costs.
Effect of fish-oil supplementation on breastmilk long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid concentration: A randomized controlled trial in rural Ethiopia
Argaw, Alemayehu; Bouckaert, Kimberley P.; Wondafrash, Mekitie; Kolsteren, Patrick W.; Lachat, Carl; De Meulenaer, Bruno; Hanley-Cook, Giles; Huybregts, Lieven. Article in press
Covid‐19 and global food security
Swinnen, Johan; McDermott, John. Article in press
Covid‐19 has major implications for global food security. The virus itself and the policy reactions have triggered a massive recession and major disruptions in food value chains. The combination of both has been dramatic for the food and nutrition security of billions of poor people around the world. The impacts are heterogeneous, depending on the nature of the commodity, the resource‐intensity of the food systems, and the level of economic development. Covid‐19 affects the food security and nutrition of poor people more strongly than that of richer people. Women, children and migrants are particularly affected. It is important to balance movement control and other social distancing measures with policy initiatives to improve the food and nutrition security and livelihoods of vulnerable groups. A crucial issue moving forward is to make food supply chains, and food systems generally, more resilient for the future. While many food systems have been significantly disrupted, others have been more resilient, with food supplies relatively unaffected. Innovations are helping to overcome obstacles and make food supply chains more resilient for the future. Overall, the insights and lessons from Covid‐19 should help to design better policies and build more resilient and inclusive food systems for the future.
Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices: Evidence from 177 countries
Bai, Yan; Alemu, Robel; Block, Steven A.; Headey, Derek D.; Masters, William A.. Article in press
Many policies and programs aim to bring nutritious diets within reach of the poor. This paper uses retail prices and nutrient composition for 671 foods and beverages to compute the daily cost of essential nutrients required for an active and healthy life in 177 countries around the world. We compare this minimum cost of nutrient adequacy with the subsistence cost of dietary energy and per-capita spending on all goods and services, to identify stylized facts about how diet cost and affordability relate to economic development and nutrition outcomes. On average, the most affordable nutrient adequate diet exceeds the cost of adequate energy by a factor of 2.66, costing US$1.35 per day to meet median requirements of healthy adult women in 2011. Affordability is lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa. The sensitivity of diet costs to each requirement reveals the high cost of staying within acceptable macronutrient ranges, particularly the upper limit for carbohydrates. Among micronutrients, total diet costs are most sensitive to requirements for calcium as well as vitamins A, C, E, B12, folate and riboflavin. On average, about 5% of dietary energy in the least-cost nutrient adequate diets is derived from animal source foods, with small quantities of meat and fish. Over 70% of all animal products in least-cost diets is eggs and dairy, but only in upper-middle and high-income countries. In lower income countries where egg and dairy prices are significantly higher, they are replaced by larger volumes of vegetal foods. When controlling for national income, diet costs are most significantly correlated with rural travel times and rural electrification. These data suggest opportunities for targeted policies and programs that reduce market prices and the cost of nutritious diets, while improving affordability through nutrition assistance, safety nets and higher earnings among low-income households.
Early marriage and early childbearing in South Asia: Trends, inequalities, and drivers from 2005 to 2018
Scott, Samuel; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Neupane, Sumanta; Pramanik, Priyanjana; Nanda, Priya; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.; Afsana, Kaosar; Menon, Purnima. Article in press
Early marriage (EM) and early childbearing (ECB) have far‐reaching consequences. This study describes the prevalence, trends, inequalities, and drivers of EM and ECB in South Asia using eight rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data across 13 years. We report the percentage of ever‐married women aged 20–24 years (n = 105,150) married before 18 years (EM) and with a live birth before 20 years (ECB). Relative trends were examined using average annual rate of reduction (AARR). Inequalities were examined by geography, marital household wealth, residence, and education. Sociodemographic drivers of changes for EM were assessed using regression decomposition analyses. We find that EM/ECB are still common in Bangladesh (69%/69%), Nepal (52%/51%), India (41%/39%), and Pakistan (37%/38%), with large subnational variation in most countries. EM has declined fastest in India (AARR of –3.8%/year), Pakistan (–2.8%/year), and Bangladesh (–1.5%/year), but EM elimination by 2030 will not occur at these rates. Equity analyses show that poor, uneducated women in rural areas are disproportionately burdened. Regression decomposition analysis shows that improvements in wealth and education explained 44% (India) to 96% (Nepal) of the actual EM reduction. Investments across multiple sectors are required to understand and address EM and ECB, which are pervasive social determinants of maternal and child wellbeing.
Factors influencing obesogenic behaviours of adolescent girls and women in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A qualitative evidence synthesis
Trübswasser, Ursula; Verstraeten, Roosmarijn; Salm, Leah; Holdsworth, Michelle; Baye, Kaleab; Booth, Andrew; Feskens, Edith J. M.; Gillespie, Stuart; Talsma, Elise F.. Article in press
This systematic review synthesized the qualitative evidence on factors influencing obesogenic behaviours in adolescent girls and women of reproductive age in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). This qualitative evidence synthesis followed the framework synthesis approach to extract, analyse and synthesize data. Electronic searches were conducted in the Web of Science, SCOPUS, CABI Abstracts, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Studies were eligible if they were conducted in LMICs, of qualitative nature, and reported obesogenic behaviours of female adolescents (10–19 years of age) or women of reproductive age (15–49 years of age). The review resulted in 71 included studies from 27 different countries. Thirty‐two studies focused on dietary behaviours, 17 on physical activity and 22 on both behaviours. Gender norms and failures to recognize the importance of healthy behaviours across the life cycle were important factors. The abundance and promotion of affordable but unhealthy food, food safety concerns, taste preferences and social desirability of foods drive consumption of unhealthy foods. Busy lives and limited exercise spaces keep girls and women from being physically active. Obesogenic behaviours of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age are influenced by factors at individual, social, physical and environmental levels and require diverse solutions to address these factors in LMICs.
The role of health in education and human capital: Why an integrated approach to school health could make a difference in the futures of schoolchildren in low-income countries
Cohee, Lauren M.; Halliday, Katherine E.; Gelli, Aulo; Mwenyango, Irene; Lavadenz, Fernando. Article in press
Do tradeoffs among dimensions of women's empowerment and nutrition outcomes exist? Evidence from six countries in Africa and Asia
Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Sproule, Kathryn; Martinez, Elena M.; Malapit, Hazel Jean L.. Article in press
Although women's empowerment and gender equality are often linked with better maternal and child nutrition outcomes, recent systematic reviews find inconclusive evidence. This paper applies a comparable methodology to data on the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), an internationally-validated measure based on interviews of women and men within the same household, from six countries in Africa and Asia to identify which dimensions of women's empowerment are related to household-, woman-, and child-level dietary and nutrition outcomes. We examine relationships between women's empowerment and household-level dietary diversity; women's dietary diversity and BMI; and child-related outcomes, controlling for woman, child, and household characteristics. We also test for differential associations of women's empowerment with nutrition outcomes for boys and girls. We find few significant associations between the aggregate empowerment scores and nutritional outcomes. The women's empowerment score is positively associated only with child HAZ, while lower intrahousehold inequality is associated with a higher likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding and higher HAZ but with lower BMI. However, analysis of the subdomain indicators finds more significant associations, suggesting that tradeoffs exist among different dimensions of empowerment. Women's empowerment accounts for a small share of the variance in nutritional outcomes, with household wealth and country-level factors accounting for the largest share of the variation in household and women's dietary diversity. In contrast, most of the variation in child outcomes comes from child age. Improving nutritional outcomes requires addressing the underlying determinants of poor nutrition in addition to empowering women and improving gender equality.
How climate change interacts with inequity to affect nutrition
Salm, Leah; Nisbett, Nicholas; Cramer, Laura; Gillespie, Stuart; Thornton, Philip. Article in press
Climate change poses a growing threat to the achievement of optimal nutritional status, both directly through affecting food production and indirectly through altering social and economic influences in people's lives. These adverse nutrition outcomes are not evenly distributed across the world, and vulnerable populations are the most impacted. Understanding how different forms of inequity interact with climate change and adverse nutritional outcomes is a novel area of research in today's challenging environment of increased climate change pressures. This article presents the results of a systematic literature search undertaken to identify the connections, trends and pathways between climate change, inequity and nutrition outcomes. Forty‐six peer‐reviewed studies are identified that explore these complex interactions with a specific focus on the extent to which equity is a fundamental component of climate change and nutrition research. The pathways captured in this body of evidence are mapped to current framework thinking to identify trends and gaps. While there is a trend for studies to acknowledge an unfair distribution of vulnerability to adverse nutrition outcomes, there is less attention given to the (lack of) recognition of the social situations which increase these groups' vulnerability and the absence of representation or inclusion of these groups as vital decision‐makers. Studies that do incorporate these core dimensions of equity take mixed‐method and qualitative approaches. This highlights an inherent value in stepping outside the usual scope of empirical climate change research, one that incorporates the voices of those most affected.
Standard minimum dietary diversity indicators for women or infants and young children are good predictors of adequate micronutrient intakes in 24–59-month-old children and their nonpregnant nonbreastfeeding mothers in rural Burkina Faso
Diop, Loty; Becquey, Elodie; Turowska, Zuzanna; Huybregts, Lieven; Ruel, Marie T.; Gelli, Aulo. Article in press
Background: Simple proxy indicators are needed to assess and monitor micronutrient intake adequacy of vulnerable populations. Standard dichotomous indicators exist for nonpregnant women of reproductive age and 6–23-mo-old children in low-income countries, but not for 24–59-mo-old children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of 2 standard food group scores (FGSs) and related dichotomous indicators to predict micronutrient adequacy of the diet of rural Burkinabe 24–59-mo-old children and women of reproductive age by physiological status.
Methods: A 24-h recall survey was conducted at dry season among 1066 pairs of children and caregivers. Micronutrient adequacy was evaluated by the mean probability of adequacy (MPA) of intake over 11 micronutrients. Proxy indicators were FGS-10 [10 food groups based on the FAO/FHI360 minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) guidelines] and related MDD-W (FGS-10 ≥5); and FGS-7 [7 groups based on the WHO infant and young child (IYC) feeding MDD guidelines] and related MDD-IYC (FGS-7 ≥4).
Results: FGS-10 and FGS-7 were similar across children and women (∼3 groups). FGS-10 performed better than FGS-7 to predict MPA in children (Spearman rank correlation = 0.59 compared with 0.50) and women of all 3 physiological statuses (Spearman rank correlation = 0.53–0.55 compared with 0.42–0.52). MDD-W and MDD-IYC performed well in predicting MPA >0.75 in children and MPA >0.6 in nonpregnant nonbreastfeeding (NPNB) women, but a 4-group cutoff for FGS-10 allowed a better balance between sensitivity, specificity, and proportion of correct classification. MPA levels for pregnant and breastfeeding women were too low to assess best cutoff points.
Conclusions: MDD-IYC or an adapted MDD-W (FGS-10 ≥4 instead of FGS-10 ≥5) can be extended to 24–59-mo-old children and NPNB women in similar-diet settings. The inadequacy of micronutrient intakes in pregnant and breastfeeding women warrants urgent action. Micronutrient adequacy predictors should be validated in populations where a higher proportion of these women do meet dietary requirements.
Nutrition‐sensitive agriculture programme impacts on time use and associations with nutrition outcomes
van den Bold, Mara; Bliznashka, Lilia; Ramani, Gayathri V.; Olney, Deanna K.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Ouédraogo, Marcellin. Article in press
Success of nutrition‐sensitive agriculture programmes targeted to women may be influenced by increased demands on women's and other household members' time and by time‐related trade‐offs to accommodate programme participation. However, evidence of how such programmes impact time use and whether changes in time‐related demands negatively influence maternal or child health and nutrition outcomes is limited. This paper examines the impact of Helen Keller International's Enhanced Homestead Food Production programme in Burkina Faso (2010–2012) on women's and men's time use and associations between changes in women's time use and maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes. We used quantitative data from a cluster‐randomized controlled trial (baseline 2010, endline 2012) and qualitative data from two rounds of process evaluation (2011, 2012). Two‐stage analyses were used to first assess programme impacts on women's and men's time use using difference‐in‐difference impact estimates and second to evaluate whether programme impacts on women's time use were associated with changes in women's and children's health and nutrition outcomes. Programme impacts were considered significant if corrected P < 0.01, and associations were considered significant if p < 0.05 and p < 0.01. Qualitative data were analysed through manual coding and by calculating the means and standard deviations for the time spent by women and men on activities in intervention and control groups. Findings show that the programme significantly increased the amount of time women spent on agriculture in the intervention compared to the control group, but this was not associated with changes in maternal or child health or nutrition outcomes. Process evaluation data supported these findings.
Food for thought? Experimental evidence on the learning impacts of a large-scale school feeding program
Aurino, Elisabetta; Gelli, Aulo; Adamba, Clement; Osei-Akoto, Isaac; Alderman, Harold. Madison, WI Article in press
There is limited experimental evidence on the effects of large-scale, government-led interventions on human capital in resource-constrained settings. We report results from a randomized trial of the government of Ghana's school feeding. After two years, the program led to moderate average increases in math and literacy standardized scores among pupils in treatment communities, and to larger achievement gains for girls and disadvantaged children and regions. Improvements in child schooling, cognition, and nutrition constituted suggestive impact mechanisms, especially for educationally-disadvantaged groups. The program combined equitable human capital accumulation with social protection, contributing to the "learning for all" sustainable development agenda.
Assessing the performance of the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) in rural India
Alderman, Harold; Friedman, Jed; Ganga, Paula; Kak, Mohini; Rubio‐Codina, Marta. Article in press
Although many education and health programs aim to improve early childhood development, it is challenging to assess developmental levels of infants and small children through large household surveys. The Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) has been proposed as an adaptable, practical, and low‐cost instrument for measuring the developmental status of children under 3 years of age at scale, as it is relatively short and collected by caregiver report. This study employed the CREDI to measure the development of a sample of 994 children ages 22–35 months in rural India and compared the results to those obtained using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley‐III), a reliable and widely used instrument, albeit one not always suited to large‐scale data collection efforts given its length, cost, and complexity of administration. The CREDI validation exercise showed that caregivers can provide assessments in keeping with the more interactive (hence more time‐consuming and training‐intensive) Bayley‐III instrument. Noteworthy, there was no indication that concordance of the instruments differed by education of the caregiver. This is important as it points to alternate feasible tools to measure child development outcomes through large‐scale surveys.
Evaluating parliamentary advocacy for nutrition in Tanzania
te Lintelo, D. J. H.; Pittore, K.. Article in press
The global nutrition community is currently putting significant efforts into supporting parliamentary advocacy, aiming to bring nutrition higher up on political agendas in low-income countries with high burdens of malnutrition. Evaluating the effects of parliamentary advocacy is fraught with methodological challenges and case studies are scarce. This article adopts a contribution analysis and process tracing procedure to evaluate whether parliamentary advocacy influenced political party manifestos in Tanzania in the run up to the 2015 general election. We present a rare and empirically rich application of this systematic qualitative evaluative method. We find that configurations of activities, actors and outputs can be plausibly understood to have had a contributory role in achieving increased attention to nutrition in the party manifesto of the election winner. We further identify key risks and assumptions that mediated parliamentary advocacy and development evaluators' ability to evaluate its outcomes, including: targeting; timing; circulation; intelligibility; power; elites; resources; and political space.
Assessing factors influencing adolescents' dietary behaviours in urban Ethiopia using participatory photography
Trübswasser, Ursula; Baye, Kaleab; Holdsworth, Michelle; Loeffen, Megan; Feskens, Edith J. M.; Talsma, Elise F.. Article in press
Objective: To assess factors influencing dietary behaviours of adolescents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Design: Using the qualitative participatory method Photovoice, participants received training on the basics of Photovoice and took photographs related to (un)healthy eating in their environment. Transcripts of individual interviews, focus group discussions and photographs were coded for thematic analysis. Setting: One private and one public school located in the same, central neighbourhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to explore how school populations of different socio-economic status experience the same neighbourhood environment. Participants: Twenty-six adolescents aged 14–19 years old, of which there were seventeen girls and nine boys. Results: Findings from the current study indicate that food safety concerns appear to be the major influencing factors for adolescents' dietary choices. Unhealthy and unsafe foods appear to be widely available and/or affordable in adolescents' neighbourhoods and almost half of the photographs taken by adolescents depicted poor hygiene conditions related to food vendors. Participants considered foods available in their environments as generally unsafe, calling for more packaged food. Conclusions: Concerns for food safety, hygiene and affordability are the dominating factors for adolescents' food choices. These concerns, together with limited nutrition knowledge and preference for packaged foods, could make cheap, ultra-processed packaged foods more desirable.
Consumer nutrition knowledge and dietary behavior in urban Ethiopia: A comprehensive study
Melesse, Mequanint B.; Van den berg, Marrit. Article in press
Widespread heterogeneity in staple crop mineral concentration in Uganda partially driven by soil characteristics
Bevis, Leah Em; Hestrin, Rachel. Article in press
Socio‐ecological drivers of vertebrate biodiversity and human‐animal interfaces across an urban landscape
Hassell, James M.; Bettridge, Judy M.; Ward, Melissa J.; Ogendo, Allan; Imboma, Titus. Article in press
Urbanization can have profound impacts on the distributional ecology of wildlife and livestock, with implications for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human health. A wealth of studies have assessed biotic responses to urbanization in North America and Europe, but there is little empirical evidence that directly links human activities to urban biodiversity in the tropics. Results from a large‐scale field study conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, are used to explore the impact of human activities on the biodiversity of wildlife and livestock with which humans co‐exist across the city. The structure of sympatric wildlife, livestock and human populations are characterized using unsupervised machine learning, and statistical modelling is used to relate compositional variation in these communities to socio‐ecological drivers occurring across the city. By characterizing landscape‐scale drivers acting on these interfaces, we demonstrate that socioeconomics, elevation and subsequent changes in habitat have measurable impacts upon the diversity, density and species assemblage of wildlife, livestock and humans. Restructuring of wildlife and livestock assemblages (both in terms of species diversity and composition) has important implications for the emergence of novel diseases at urban interfaces, and we therefore use our results to generate a set of testable hypotheses that explore the influence of urban change on microbial communities. These results provide novel insight into the impact of urbanization on biodiversity in the tropics. An understanding of associations between urban processes and the structure of human and animal populations is required to link urban development to conservation efforts and risks posed by disease emergence to human health, ultimately informing sustainable urban development policy.
The ambivalent links between internal migration and food security in Uganda
Mekonnen, Daniel A.; Soma, Katrine; Ruben, Ruerd. Article in press
This study examines the drivers for and consequences of internal migration to household food security in Uganda. Based on the Ugandan National Panel Surveys conducted between 2010/11 and 2015/16, we estimate differences in food energy adequacy of households receiving internal migrants from elsewhere. Besides food energy consumption, this study applies household food consumption score (FCS) and looks at vulnerability in terms of household's expenditures on food. This enables to explore (a) the extent to which food insecurity is driving internal migration, and (b) whether remittances can reduce food security of the remitter. We find that households are usually worse-off when migrants join the receiving family. This seems a departure from previous studies that tend to find welfare gains to internal migration, mostly due to changes in expenditures or dietary consumption without considering any thresholds for achieving food security. Based on these findings and responding to rising youth employment challenges associated with rapidly growing urban slums in Uganda, policies that simultaneously support employment creation in both urban and rural areas are urgently needed to enable better steering of the flow of voluntary migration and to help ensuring food security.
Agriculture and undernutrition
Headey, Derek D.; Masters, William A.. Washington, DC 2021
First, we typically use the term agriculture to mean the farm production of crop and livestock commodities; agribusiness to mean commercial suppliers of farm inputs and wholesale purchasers of farm commodities; food markets to mean storage, shipment, and transformation of food into final products including packaged foods and meals away from home; and policy as a shorthand for any public sector or philanthropic intervention or program that aims to alter these activities. These are all interrelated influences on what we will call livelihoods, meaning all of a household's activities, including both agriculture and nonfarm work. Putting these pieces together, the chapter will focus on agricultural and food systems, meaning the aggregate outcome of interactions between these components at the scale of an entire village, region, country, or the world as a whole. Second, this chapter focuses on undernutrition-defined as insufficient intake of nutrients and healthy foods relative to biological needs, and the resulting deficiencies such as anemia and failure to achieve a child's genetic potential such as linear growth-rather than problems linked to excessive intake of total energy, salt, and harmful foods that lead to obesity and diet-related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. The two types of malnutrition are connected, as many people who suffer from dietary insufficiencies in some dimensions also have excesses in others (for example, stunting in childhood followed by obesity in later life, or ongoing micronutrient deficiencies during weight gain), but excessive intake of harmful foods is less likely than dietary insufficiency to be caused by agricultural production and supply constraints. As this chapter will show, agricultural change can raise food intake where deficiencies are most widespread, while excesses that lead to obesity and diet-related disease are more closely tied to nonfarm activity, market conditions, and food demand. Excessive intake clearly links back to agriculture through demand for ingredients in unhealthy foods such as sugar and other carbohydrates, but we would hypothesize a fundamental asymmetry in agriculture-nutrition linkages: improving agricultural production can help poor people fill deficiencies, especially for children in poor rural households, but after intake has risen, attempting to use agriculture against obesity can be like pushing on a string.
Demand for aflatoxin‐safe maize in Kenya: Dynamic response to price and advertising
Hoffmann, Vivian; Moser, Christine; Herrman, Timothy J.. 2021
In countries where regulatory enforcement is weak, voluntary third‐party verification of firms' food safety processes can allow concerned consumers to select safer products. However, due in part to their legal ambiguity, and the potential to attract additional regulatory scrutiny, food safety claims are rarely made by firms. As a result, the impact of such claims on consumer demand is not well understood. We examine how labeling maize as tested for aflatoxin, a carcinogen also associated with stunting in children, affects sales. By randomly varying the timing and intensity of a marketing campaign to promote the first maize flour brand in Kenya labeled as tested for aflatoxin, we characterize dynamic consumer response to information about food safety. We find an immediate response in sales to marketing alone, which disappears as soon as marketing ceases. Sales remain elevated in the weeks after a temporary discount is offered, but this effect also fades over time and is not associated with greater awareness of the firm's food safety claims. These results suggest that it is unrealistic to expect for‐profit firms serving mass markets in low‐ and middle‐income countries to invest heavily in marketing based on food safety claims.
Daily consumption of pro-vitamin A biofortified (yellow) cassava improves serum retinol concentrations in preschool children in Nigeria: A randomized controlled trial
Afolami, Ibukun; Mwangi, Martin N.; Samuel, Folake; Boy, Erick; Ilona, Paul; Talsma, Elise F.; Feskens, Edith J.; Melse-Boonstra, Alida. 2021
Background: Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Pro-vitamin A biofortified (yellow) cassava has the potential to contribute significantly to improve vitamin A status, especially in populations that are difficult to reach with other strategies.
Objectives: The study aimed at determining the efficacy of biofortified cassava to improve vitamin A status of Nigerian preschool children.
Methods: An open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted in southwestern Nigeria. In total, 176 preschool children (aged 3–5 y) were randomized into 2 parallel arms comprising an experimental group (n = 88), fed foods prepared from biofortified (yellow) cassava, and a control group (n = 88), fed foods prepared from white cassava, twice a day, 6 d a week for 93 d.
Results: A total of 159 children completed the trial (yellow cassava group, n = 80; white cassava group, n = 79). Children consumed 221 and 74 µg/d retinol activity equivalents from intervention foods in the yellow and white cassava groups, respectively. The treatment effect on serum retinol concentrations at the end of the feeding trial was 0.06 µmol/L (95% CI: 0.004, 0.124 µmol/L), after adjustment for baseline retinol concentrations, inflammation, and asymptomatic malaria status. No significant treatment effects were detected for serum β-carotene (adjusted effect: 3.9%; 95% CI: −0.6%, 8.6%) and gut permeability (adjusted effect: 0.002; 95% CI: −0.089, 0.092), but a significant effect was detected for hemoglobin concentrations (adjusted effect: 3.08 g/L; 95% CI: 0.38, 5.78 g/L).
Conclusions: Daily consumption of β-carotene from biofortified cassava improved serum retinol and hemoglobin concentrations modestly in Nigerian preschool children. This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02627222.
Tubaramure, a food-assisted integrated health and nutrition program, reduces child wasting in Burundi: A cluster-randomized controlled intervention trial
Leroy, Jef L.; Olney, Deanna K.; Nduwabike, Noé; Ruel, Marie T.. 2021
Little is known about the impact of food-assisted maternal and child health programs (FA-MCHN) on child wasting. We assessed the impact of Tubaramure, a FA-MCHN program in Burundi, on child (0 to 24 months) wasting and the differential impacts by socio-economic characteristics and age. The program targeted women and their children during the first 1000 days and included 1) food rations, 2) strengthening and promotion of use of health services, and 3) behavior change communication (BCC).
Contract farming and farm performance: Evidence from brinjal cultivation in Bangladesh
Kumar, Anjani; Tripathi, Gaurav; Roy, Devesh; Islam, Abu Hayat Md. Saiful. Abingdon, Oxford, UK 2021
Potential of biofortified wheat to alleviate hidden hunger
Virk, Parminder; Anderson, Meike; Arcos, Jairo; Cherian, Binu; Velu, Govindan; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang H.. 2021
Breast milk–derived retinol is a potential surrogate for serum in the 13C-retinol isotope dilution test in Zambian lactating women with vitamin A deficient and adequate status
Kaliwile, Chisela; Michelo, Charles; Sheftel, Jesse; Davis, Christopher R.; Grahn, Michael. 2021
IFPRI at a glance
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Washington, DC 2020
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) believes that by working together, the global community can sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI provides cutting-edge research and policy options on food and nutrition security to support these goals. For more than 40 years, IFPRI has collaborated with stakeholders and partners to contribute needed evidence for country- and region-led policies that help ensure that all people have access to safe, sufficient, nutritious, and sustainably grown food.
IFPRI at a glance [in Chinese]
国际食物政策研究所(IFPRI) 坚信通过国际社会共同的努力,可以实现可持续 减贫及消除饥饿和营养不良的目标。为实现这些目标,IFPRI 致力于提供食物和营养安全方 面的前沿研究和政策方案。40多年来,IFPRI 与各利益相关者以及合作伙伴同心协力为国家 和区域主导的政策提供必要的证据,为确保所有人获得安全、充足、营养且可持续生产的食物贡献力量。
IFPRI en bref
L'INSTITUT INTERNATIONAL DE RECHERCHE SUR LES POLITIQUES ALIMENTAIRES (IFPRI) est convaincu qu'en rassemblant ses forces, la communauté internationale peut réduire durablement la pauvreté et éradiquer la faim et la malnutrition. L'IFPRI élabore des solutions politiques et de recherche de pointe sur la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle à l'appui de ces objectifs. Pendant plus de 40 ans, l'IFPRI a collaboré avec les parties prenantes et ses partenaires pour fournir les données probantes nécessaires à des politiques nationales ou régionales qui aident à faire en sorte que toutes les populations aient accès à des aliments sains, suffisants, nutritifs et produits de façon durable.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) and the adoption of modern agricultural technologies in Uttar Pradesh, India
Varshney, Deepak; Joshi, Pramod Kumar; Roy, Devesh; Kumar, Anjani. Washington, DC 2020
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme aims to provide income support to farmers to facilitate timely access to inputs by easing their liquidity needs. This study, based on 1,406 farmers of Uttar Pradesh and using a binary choice model, examines the scheme's targeting accuracy and the correlates of farmers' spending patterns. Triple difference with matching estimators are used to identify the differential impact of PM-KISAN on Krishi Vigyan Kendras (farm science centers, or KVKs) beneficiaries. Results show that PM-KISAN reached to one-third of all the farmers in the first three months of its implementation. Moreover, the study finds no selection bias based on social, economic and agricultural characteristics. The scheme has significantly helped those who are relatively more dependent on agriculture and have poor access to credit. Moreover, scheme has significantly stimulated the KVK 's impact on the adoption of modern cultivars.
Poultry production in Burkina Faso: Potential for poverty reduction and women's empowerment
Hoffmann, Vivian; Awonon, Josue; Gelli, Aulo. Washington, DC 2020
Poultry rearing is widespread in rural Burkina Faso, and contributes to both the food security and cash income of smallholders farmers. The landlocked status of the country, coupled with increasing demand for poultry in urban areas implies an opportunity for significant, pro-poor growth through this sector. We use data from a survey of 1800 poultry producers to characterize smallholder poultry producers and their practices. We find that 88% of households in program areas raised poultry. While access to vaccination services and veterinary medicines at the village level is high, uptake of these services is limited, especially among smaller producers. Fewer women than men own poultry, but most women report that they control the proceeds from sales of their own birds, indicating the potential for development of the poultry sector to generate relatively equitable gains in terms of gender. Access to credit appears to increase women's poultry ownership, but remains limited, as does women's access to poultry output markets.
What does empowerment mean to women in northern Ghana? Insights from research around a small-scale irrigation intervention
Bryan, Elizabeth; Garner, Elisabeth. Washington, DC 2020
Women's empowerment is important to improve the status of women and achieve greater gender equity. It is also an important vehicle for achieving other development goals related to food security, nutrition, health, and economic growth. Increasingly, researchers seek ways to measure women's empowerment, trace the pathways through which women's empowerment is achieved, and provide guidance for policymakers and practitioners aiming to facilitate women's empowerment through their interventions. This paper explores local perceptions of empowerment in the Upper East Region of Ghana in the context of a small-scale irrigation intervention targeted to men and women farmers. Using data collected through qualitative interviews and focus groups, the paper traces the linkages between small-scale irrigation and aspects of women's empowerment, identified as important to men and women farmers themselves. The relationship between the components of empowerment and small-scale irrigation are placed within a larger context of social change underlying these relationships. Finally, this paper explores the ways that the introduction of modern technologies for small-scale irrigation may contribute to women's empowerment.
Food systems resource center
CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). Washington, DC 2020
Food systems in low- and middle-income countries are changing rapidly, with serious consequences for the nutritional health and wellbeing of billions of people. A4NH's Research Flagship on Food Systems for Healthier Diets provides research and support to countries working to ensure their food systems develop in a way that ensures people have equitable access to nutritious and sustainable diets.
The Food Systems Resource Center provides access to research, tools, ideas, and people conducting work in this important area.
Regressing forward: Agriculture mechanization subsidy modalities in Bihar and Odisha
Saini, Smriti; Kishore, Avinash; Alvi, Muzna. 2020
Farm mechanization is indispensable for enhancing agricultural productivity across the country. Over the years, the Indian government has instituted several schemes and programs to promote agricultural mechanization in the country. Until recently, state and central government schemes took the form of price subsidies, especially targeting critical farm equipment. More recently, the government has shifted to direct benefit transfers (DBT) for all agricultural inputs, including farm implements. While the central government instituted the broader schemes and programs, the specifics concerning subsidy disbursement have been left to state governments, with flexibility on which implements to promote and how much and when to disburse subsidy payments. These broad guidelines have been enshrined in several programs, chief among which is the National Mission on Agriculture Extension and Technology (NMAET).
POSHAN's abstract digest on maternal and child nutrition research - Issue 32
Avula, Rasmi, ed.. New Delhi, India 2020
We are delighted to present the first issue of Abstract Digest for this year. It has a collection of articles on various outcomes, determinants and interventions related to maternal and child nutrition, from around the world and India, in particular. In this issue, we feature a special series on the double burden of malnutrition from The Lancet journals and three systematic reviews – 1. Micronutrient supplementation and fortification interventions and health and developmental outcomes; 2. Effectiveness of interventions for managing acute malnutrition among children below five years; and 3. Preventive interventions among adolescents. In addition, there are two unique global articles relevant for multiple contexts – the first one generates lessons about nutrition behaviour change from cluster-randomized evaluations in three countries, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia; and the second is based on research to improve nutrition in the context of an at-scale social protection program in Mexico, which has learnings for many developing countries. Given below is the list of articles included in this issue. Please click on the title if you wish to go straight to the article or scroll down to explore the abstract in the pages that follow.
Delivering data and evidence to improve nutrition in India
Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthenand Harmonize Actions for Nutrition in India (POSHAN). New Delhi, India 2020
Despite encouraging progress on nutrition outcomes in the last decade, malnutrition continues to be a major challenge in India. People across the country are affected by different forms of malnutrition, ranging from undernutrition (child stunting, wasting, anemia, and low birthweight) to overweight and obesity. Recognizing this, India has made several important policy decisions related to nutrition over the years, including the recently launched National Nutrition Mission, with high-level political commitment. Many nutrition programs include evidence-based nutrition interventions in their design, but there is still progress to be made on the reach, quality, and uptake of interventions. In addition, emerging nutrition challenges, such as overweight among children and adults, demand new areas of action and evidence to inform those actions.
Using social audits to improve delivery of state nutrition-related services: Lessons from the CAN Program
Gordon, Jessica; Nisbett, Nick; Tranchant, Jean-Pierre. Washington, DC 2020
The overall goal of the three-year CAN program (2016–2019) was "Reducing malnutrition among children and women by facilitating efficient implementation of food and nutrition programmes, ensuring transparency, downward accountability and community participation." The main intervention was a social audit process designed to sensitize communities to their rights and entitlements under the four primary schemes under the NFSA. The program aimed to increase knowledge and uptake of NFSA services, improve participation in community-level governance activities, especially by women, and improve institutional delivery of nutrition services and entitlements, as well as to reduce malnutrition, especially among women and children. Combining quantitative, qualitative, and process methodologies, the IDS-led evaluation looked at immediate impacts on strengthening local governance and improving service in the ICDS, Mamata, and TPDS programs, and explored contextual, design, and implementation-related factors that may have affected the effectiveness of the social audits. Communities (GPs) selected
by the SPREAD program were randomly split into an Early and a Late group, which went through the audit process at different times. The quantitative analysis used differences in outcomes between groups to try to understand how change happened, how it accumulated, and whether it might be short-lived—important considerations for complex village-level governance.
A4NH 2019 annual report highlights
A4NH 2019 annual report
Food systems are changing rapidly in low- and middle-income countries. These countries seek food-based solutions for better nutrition and health of all people while addressing challenges of sustainability, inequity, and malnutrition. The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) works to develop evidence to support policies and actions for healthier food systems. A4NH is a consortium of seven managing partners, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This report summarizes 2019 research results from A4NH, across five research flagships, and highlights the partnerships through which research has led to outcomes in five focus and more than two dozen other partner countries.
Raghunathan, Kalyani; Headey, Derek D.; Herforth, Anna. Washington, DC 2020
Malnutrition is endemic in India. In 2015-16 some 38% of preschool children were stunted and 21% were wasted, while more than half of Indian mothers and children were anemic. There are many posited explanations for the high rates of malnutrition in India, but surprisingly few discuss the role of Indian diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diets given low wages and the significant structural problems facing India's agricultural sector. This study was undertaken to address knowledge gaps around the affordability of nutritious diets in rural India. To do so we used nationally representative rural price and wage data to estimate the least cost means of satisfying India-specific dietary recommendations, referred to as the Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD), and assess the affordability of this diet relative to male and female wages for unskilled laborers. Although we find that dietary costs increased substantially over 2001-2011 for both men and women, rural wage rates increased more rapidly, implying that nutritious diets became substantially more affordable over time. However, in absolute terms nutritious diets in 2011 were still expensive relative to unskilled wages, constituting approximately 50-60% of male and about 70-80% of female daily wages, and were often even higher relative to minimum wages earned from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Since many poor households have significant numbers of dependents and substantial non-food expenditure requirements, it follows that nutritious diets are often highly unaffordable for the rural poor; we estimate that 45-64% of the rural poor cannot afford a nutritious diet that meets India's national food-based dietary guidelines. Our results point to the need to more closely monitor food prices through a nutritional lens, and to shift India's existing food policies away from their heavy bias towards cereals. Achieving nutritional security in India requires a much more holistic focus on improving the affordability of the full range of nutritious food groups and ensuring that economic growth results in sustained income growth for the poor.
National food systems: Inclusive transformation for healthier diets
McDermott, John; de Brauw, Alan. Washington, DC 2020
Policymakers need to know what policies, investments, and actions they can take to ensure food systems transform in a healthy, sustainable, and equitable way.
- The rapid transformation of national food systems offers new opportunities for inclusion of poor and marginalized people, potentially improving dietary diversity, food safety, and quality.
- As food systems transform across the spectrum from traditional to modern, government policy goals need to shift from a focus on food security to healthy, balanced diets.
- National food system frameworks are useful tools for looking at the drivers and components of these systems, identifying data gaps, and finding promising entry points for actions to increase inclusion and improve nutrition outcomes.
- Approaches to food system transformation must be country specific, as each country's food system is unique and countries face different opportunities and trade-offs for inclusiveness at different stages of transformation.
Gender dynamics, women's empowerment, and diets: Qualitative findings from an impact evaluation of a nutrition-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in Burkina Faso
Eissler, Sarah; Sanou, Armande; Heckert, Jessica; Myers, Emily; Nignan, Safiatou; Thio, Elisabeth; Pitropia, Lucienne Amélie; Ganaba, Rasmané; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Gelli, Aulo. Washington, DC 2020
The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of a poultry value chain intervention on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. This report qualitatively examines the SELEVER program's impact on women's empowerment and intra-household gender dynamics in relation to food production and allocation, as well as control and use over poultry resources in the study areas. Six villages across five provinces were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods. In each village, we conducted four sex-disaggregated focus group discussions, and semi-structured individual interviews were held with a man and a woman from two different households. Sex-disaggregated seasonal calendars were created for half of the villages. Interviews were also conducted with project service providers in each community, including group leaders (n=13), voluntary vaccinators (n=10), and poultry traders (n=6). A mix of inductive and deductive thematic coding guided the analysis of the data. Men and women participants described an empowered woman in terms of her confidence, how she spent her time, financial capacity, and freedom of movement. SELEVER beneficiaries illuminated how gender norms were shifting related to household activities and women's empowerment, such that young boys are now washing dishes and women earn additional incomes from raising her own poultry. Yet results suggest that women's empowerment may threaten men and their masculinity, an important tension of which SELEVER and other projects should be cognizant. Participants perceived that while SELEVER has increased women's access to the necessary resources and capacity to raise quality poultry, and their incomes, women still lack full latitude to make decisions around when to sell or kill their bird. Instead they must rely on their husbands' permission. Beneficiaries are more aware of the benefits of consuming poultry products, yet barriers persist for actual consumption. This report further details the intersectional nature of these findings, which will be important to consider. The differences in women's role in monogamous versus polygynous households is especially important to consider in interpreting the program impacts and further strengthening the program delivery activities. The SELEVER program has improved outcomes for women across the village sites in terms of empowerment, awareness raising, and behavior change. Yet barriers and challenges, often rooted in social norms, persist for women's involvement in poultry production, their empowerment, and the potential for the SELEVER program to improve diets of household members.
Household food consumption patterns in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Wolle, Abdulazize; Hirvonen, Kalle; de Brauw, Alan; Baye, Kaleab; Abate, Gashaw T.. Washington, DC 2020
Overweight and obesity are rising rapidly in Ethiopia's urban areas, constituting a major public health concern. Dietary choices can be one of the key drivers of adult body-weight. Using data collected from a large household survey in Addis Ababa, we provide a snapshot of dietary patterns in Ethiopia's largest urban area. We find that starchy staples (cereals, roots, and tubers) are prominent in household food baskets, taking up 25 percent of the food budget and providing more than 50 percent of consumed calories, on average. In contrast, the consumption of all kinds of fruits and vitamin A-rich vegetables is very low. For the average household, meat products account for nearly 18 percent of the food budget but provide only 2 percent of total calories. Richer households consume relatively less starchy staples than poorer households, but more animal-source foods and vegetables. However, the importance of fruits in household diets rises very slowly with household incomes. Together, these findings suggest that further income growth will result in drastic changes in the composition of food demand in Addis Ababa. Considering projections for increasing incomes, especially in urban areas, this will have major implications for agricultural production in rural areas connected to Ethiopia's cities. There is also an urgent need to design cost-effective public health campaigns to reduce the emerging overweight and obesity crisis in urban Ethiopia.
ASEAN, SAARC, and the indomitable China in food trade: A gravity model analysis of trade patterns
Ajmani, Manmeet; Choudhary, Vishruta; Kishore, Avinash; Roy, Devesh. Washington, DC 2020
We assess food trade among and across two Asian trading blocs, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and China. Using most recent innovations in the empirical trade model, we find subpar trade for several countries but some over-trading as well, likely driven by weak economic fundamentals determining trade. Further, we find that Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam under-export to China, and to nearly all ASEAN and SAARC countries, with the magnitude varying between 40 and 100 percent below the predicted trade levels. While checking for competing explanations, we identify trading pair time variant factors such as tariffs reducing the magnitude of under-exporting of ASEAN and SAARC countries by 1 and 3 percent, respectively. We also highlight unobserved variables such as trust between countries as factors important for strong agricultural trade.
Maintaining food and nutrition security in Myanmar during the COVID-19 crisis: Lessons from India's lockdown
Researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Michigan State University. Washington, DC 2020
The recent sudden imposition of a stringent 21-day lockdown in India in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the food security of many vulnerable Indians. These impacts highlight the many challenges that this kind of anti-COVID intervention can pose in other settings where the labor force is mostly informally employed with poor job security and low wages, and where the agri-food systems is similarly informal with widespread use of open-air markets. Myanmar is such a setting.
India's chastening experience with food security during its lockdown suggests the following actions would be imperative for maintaining food security in Myanmar:
• Allow the free movement of all goods. A stable and reliable agri-food system requires free movements of a wide range of food products (including micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and animal-sourced foods) as well as essential non-food goods.
• Monitor food markets and agricultural value chains as closely as possible to address problems when they do arise.
• Reduce risk of COVID-19 contagion by improving hygiene in Myanmar's food markets.
• Issue clear directives to police, military, and local authorities not to impede the movement of goods.
The Government of Myanmar should learn from the mistakes made in India and other developing countries. We must recognize that basic food and nutrition security must be maintained at all times through this complex health and socioeconomic crisis.
Inclusive food system transformations for healthy diets: National experiences with a global challenge
The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) is dedicated to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3, as coordinated by the United Nations and agreed to by member countries. These goals include objectives to: end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture, ensure healthy lives, and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Maintaining food and nutrition security in Myanmar during the COVID-19 crisis: Lessons from India's lockdown [in Burmese]
COVID-19ကမ ာကပ်ေရာဂါကာလအတွင်း မ ကာေသးမီက အိ ိယ ိုင်ငံတွင် ၂၁ရက် ကာ တင်း ကပ်ေသာ ပိတ်ဆို ့ ကန ့ ်သတ်မ ့ (lockdown)ကို ုတ်တရက်ချမှတ်ခဲ့ ြခင်းသည် ထိခိုက်လွယ်သည့် များစွာေသာ အိ ိယ ိုင်ငံသားများ၏ အစားအစာဖူလံုမ ကို ဆိုးကျိုးများ ြဖစ်ေပါ်ေစခဲ့ ပါသည်။ လုပ်သားအများစုသည် မေရရာေသာ လုပ်ခနည်းသည့် ကျပမ်းအလုပ်လုပ်ကိုင်သူများြဖစ် ပီး လဟာြပင်ေစျး များကိုသာ ကျယ်ကျယ်ြပန်ြပန့ ် အသံုးြပုလျ ့ က် ှိသည့် စနစ်ြဖင့ ်ချုပ်ကိုင်ထားမ နည်းေသာ(informal) အစားအစာစိုက်ပျိုးထုတ်လုပ်ေရး စနစ် ှိသည့် ေနာက်ခံဝန်းကျင်များတွင် အစိုးရ၏ ထိုသိုေသာ ့ COVID-19ကာကွယ်ေရးလုပ်ငန်းများသည် စိန်ေခါ်မ များစွာ ြဖစ်ေစ ိုင်ေ ကာင်း အိ ိယမှြဖစ်ရပ်များက မီးေမာင်းထိုးြပေနပါသည်။ ြမန်မာ ိုင်ငံ သည် ထိုသိုေသာေနာက်ခံဝန်းကျင် ှိသည့် ့ ိုင်ငံတစ် ိုင်ငံ ြဖစ်ပါသည်။ အိ ိယ၏lockdownကာလအတွင်း စားနပ်ရိက ာဖူလံုေရး ှင့ ်ပတ်သတ်သည့် ချို ယွင်းချက်များစွာ ှိခဲ့ ေသာ အေတွ အ ကံုက ြမန်မာ ိုင်ငံ၏ အစားအစာဖူလံုမ ကိုထိန်းသိမ်းရန်အတွက် ေအာက်ပါလုပ်ငန်းများသည်အ လွန်အ ေရး ကီးေ ကာင်း အ ကံုြပုေနပါသည်။
ကုန်စည်အမျိုးအစားအားလံုးအား လွပ်လပ်စွာ စီးဆင်းခွင့ ်ေပးြခင်း- တည် ငိမ်ေသာ အစားအစာစိုက်ပျိုးထုတ်လုပ် ေရးစနစ်သည် အစားအစာအမျိုးအမည်အစံု (အနည်းလိုအာဟာရများ ကယ်ဝသည့် သစ်သီးဝလံများ၊ ဟင်းသီး ဟင်းရွက်များ၊ တိရစ ာန်များမှရေသာ အစားအစာများ အပါအဝင်) ှင့ ်အတူ မ ှိမြဖစ်လိုအပ်ေသာ စားစရာမဟုတ်သည့်ကုန်စည်များပါ လွပ်လပ်စွာ စီးဆင်းမ ှိေစရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။
ြပဿနာများေပါ်ေပါက်လာပါက ၎င်းတိုကိုေြဖ ှင်း ိုင်ရန် အစားအစာေစျးကွက်များ ှင ့ ့ ် တန်ဖိုးကွင်းဆက်များကို ြဖစ် ိုင်သမ နီးကပ်စွာ ေစာင့ ် ကည့်ြခင်း
ြမန်မာ ိုင်ငံအတွင်း ှိ အစားအစာေရာင်းချသည့်ေစျးများတွင် သန် ှင်းမ ကိုြမ ့ င့ ်တင်ြခင်းြဖင့ ် COVID-19ပျံ ှံ ိုင်မ အ ရာယ်ကို ့ ေလ ာချ ့ ြခင်း
ကုန်စည်စီးဆင်းမ ကို မတားဆီးေစရန် ရဲ၊စစ်တပ် ှင့ ်အြခားေဒသအာဏာပိုင်များသို ှင်းလင်းေသာ န် ကားချက်များ ထု ့ တ်ြပန် ထားြခင်း
ြမန်မာအစိုးရသည် ဤ ပ်ေထွးေသာ ကျန်းမာေရး ှင့ ်လူမ စီးပွားေရးအကျပ်အတည်းကာလတေလ ာက် အချိန်တိုင်းတွင် အေြခခံအစားအစာ ှင့ ်အာဟာရဖူလံုမ ကို ထိန်းသိမ်းရမည်ြဖစ်ေ ကာင်း အိ ိယ ှင့ ်အြခားဖွံ ဖိုးဆဲ ိုင်ငံများ၏ အမှားအယွင်းများမှ သင်ခန်းစာရယူသင့ ်ပါသည်။
The impact of an integrated value chain intervention on household poultry production in Burkina Faso: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial
Leight, Jessica; Awonon, Josue; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Ganaba, Rasmané; Martinez, Elena M.; Heckert, Jessica; Gelli, Aulo. Washington, DC 2020
This article reports on a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in 120 villages in rural Burkina Faso evaluating a multifaceted intervention (SELEVER) that seeks to increase poultry production by delivering training in conjunction with the strengthening of village-level institutions providing veterinary and credit services to poultry farmers. The intervention is evaluated in a sample of 1,080 households surveyed following two years of program implementation. Households exposed to the intervention significantly increase their use of poultry inputs (veterinary services, enhanced feeds, and deworming), and report more poultry sold and higher revenue; however, there is no evidence of an increase in profits. This evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the return to inputs in the poultry market may not be sufficient to counterbalance the market costs of these inputs.
Strengthening smallholder agriculture is essential to defend food and nutrition security and rural livelihoods in Myanmar against the COVID-19 threat: Elements for a proactive response
Boughton, Duncan; Goeb, Joey; Lambrecht, Isabel; Mather, David; Headey, Derek D.. Washington, DC 2020
There is an urgent need to anticipate and mitigate the threat posed by COVID-19 to Myanmar's agricultural sector and to rural households that depend on farming for income and for food and nutrition security. We evaluate options to address the threat and to support farmers to prepare their land and plant their crops on time in the short window before the start of the 2020 monsoon cropping season. Recognizing that no single intervention can address the full range of vulnerabilities faced by rural households, we recommend a combination:
• Expansion of access to seasonal farm credit with extended loan repayment schedules;
• Limited agricultural input subsidies targeting certified seed; and
• Implementation of a cash transfer program to smallholder farmers.
Despite the high cost of a cash transfer program, there are good reasons to expect that the benefits of such support to farm households will outweigh program costs in monetary terms – even more so if the economic benefits from the consequent lower incidence of malnutrition to which the program would contribute can be measured.
IFPRI's 2019 Annual Report presents highlights from our research work around the world. Cutting-edge research on climate resilience and sustainability, healthy diets and nutrition, inclusive and efficient food systems, institutions and governance, and rural transformation, as well as cross-cutting work on gender, is helping to inform policies and programs to end hunger and malnutrition.
Agrifood market participation, household economies of specialization and diversification: Evidence from Vietnam
Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Ajmani, Manmeet; Roy, Devesh; Fadhillah, Aniq; Liu, Yanyan. Washington, DC 2020
Despite the growth of agrifood markets, and gradual structural transformation, smallholders persist in Asia. Such patterns are at odds with the views that market growth should encourage more specialization whereby smallholders' transition to either larger farmers or specialized non-farm households. Using the panel household data in Vietnam, this study investigates how participation in agrifood markets affect smallholder households' economies of scope (EOS) in diversifying into agriculture and non-agricultural income-earning activities. We find that, greater agrifood market participation proxied by the increased food purchase generally increases EOS between agriculture and non-agricultural activities at the household level. Moreover, it leads to greater labor productivity in agriculture, and also increases female household members' diversifications into both agriculture and non-agricultural income-earning activities. These effects are relatively stronger and more consistent than conventional indicators of agrifood product sales or proximity to the market. The results shed more light on how exactly smallholders in Vietnam persist in the face of agrifood market growth, and what kind of their relations with such a growing market can be promoted in ways that enhance their livelihoods in the short- to medium- terms.
POSHAN's abstract digest on maternal and child nutrition research - Issue 33
This issue of Abstract Digest comes to you at an unprecedented time of COVID-19 pandemic. We hope all of you are healthy and safe. In the current circumstances, Naja and Hamadeh present a framework for action at multiple levels to maintain optimal nutrition during COVID-19, at the individual, community, national and global levels. Along with it, this issue has a collection of articles on various outcomes, determinants and interventions related to maternal and child nutrition.
Getting biofortified food on everyone's plate: HarvestPlus 2019 annual report
HarvestPlus. Washington, DC 2020
HarvestPlus is committed to making food systems healthier and more inclusive to benefit the world's most vulnerable people—particularly smallholder farming families in low- and middle-income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to contain it bring into clear focus the urgency of helping these people become more resilient in the face of health and other threats to their well-being. Our 2019 Annual Report, "Getting Biofortified Food on Everyone's Plate," shows how we engage an expanding range of partners to broaden the reach and impact of micronutrient-rich biofortified crops and foods that contribute to better health outcomes, improved livelihoods, and better lives. Our goal is to make biofortification available to all who can benefit from it.
Gendered participation in poultry value chains: Qualitative findings from an impact evaluation of nutrition-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in Burkina Faso
The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of a poultry value chain intervention on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. This report uses qualitative methods to examine gendered participation in poultry value chains, the gendered opportunities and barriers experienced in poultry value chains, and the SELEVER program's impact on these factors. A previous report (Eissler et al., 2020) based on the same fieldwork covered questions relating to local understandings of empowerment and dynamics of household food production and allocation. Six villages across five provinces were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods. In each village, we conducted four sex-disaggregated focus group discussions and semi-structured individual interviews with a man and a woman from two different households. Sex-disaggregated seasonal calendars were created for half of the villages. Interviews were also conducted with project service providers in each community, including group leaders (n=13), voluntary vaccinators (n=10), and poultry traders (n=6). A mix of inductive and deductive coding guided the thematic analysis of the data.
The results indicate that while women in the study areas do engage in agricultural labor and various income-generating activities, they must prioritize their domestic responsibilities. Men are primarily responsible for providing staple food ingredients (e.g. grains or meat) for household consumption and earning the primary income, which often requires them to engage in seasonal migration. Men are increasingly aware of women's time and unpaid labor burdens, and have started sharing in these tasks, a shift in which participants attribute to SELEVER. Additionally, we find that SELEVER has increased women's capacity and opportunity to engage in poultry value chain activities while reducing barriers to their participation. SELEVER has trained selected women to practice as Village Volunteer Vaccinators (VVVs), which has enabled them to earn additional income. Notably, SELEVER has been effective in challenging and facilitating changing perceptions on traditional gender norms, such that men are increasingly supportive of their wives to engage in income-generating activities or activities outside of the household. Results highlight the importance of SELEVER's engagement with men, as women's ability to participate in activities outside of traditional gendered boundaries relies on their husbands' permission. Without it, a woman cannot raise poultry, cultivate her own crops, practice as a VVV, or participate in women's associations or income-generating activities. Despite evidence of success, barriers to women's full participation persist. A lack of sufficient financial capital and autonomy in decision making limit women's ability to improve upon and manage their poultry endeavors. A lack of financial capacity and time, limited freedom of movement, and restricting social norms further limit women's ability to practice as service providers in the value chain. SELEVER can continue to address challenging social norms and focus on these more nuanced barriers women face in increasing their capacity for participation
Food and nutrition security in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during COVID-19 pandemic: May 2020 report
Hirvonen, Kalle; Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan. Washington, DC 2020
We called by telephone a representative sample of 600 households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to assess household food and nutrition security status during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half the households indicated that their incomes were lower than expected and more than one-third reported that they are extremely stressed about the situation. Using a pre-pandemic wealth index, we find that less-wealthy households were considerably more likely to report income losses and high stress levels than were wealthier households. Compared to a period just before the pandemic (January and February 2020), indicators measuring food security have significantly worsened. In April, households were less frequently consuming relatively more expensive but nutritionally richer foods, such as fruit and dairy products. However, overall food security status in Addis Ababa is not yet alarming, possibly because most households have used their savings to buffer food consumption. It is likely that these savings will not last for much longer, calling for a rapid scale-up of existing support programs.
Women's empowerment in agriculture and nutritional outcomes: Evidence from six countries in Africa and Asia
Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Sproule, Kathryn; Martinez, Elena M.; Malapit, Hazel J.. Washington, DC 2020
Although women's empowerment and gender equality are associated with better maternal and child nutrition outcomes, recent systematic reviews find inconclusive evidence. This paper applies a comparable methodology to data on the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), a recent internationally-validated measure based on interviews of women and men within the same household, from six countries in Africa and Asia to identify which dimensions of women's empowerment are related to household-, women-, and child-level dietary and nutrition outcomes. We examine the relationship between women's empowerment and household-level food security and dietary diversity; women's dietary diversity and BMI; and child-related outcomes, controlling for woman, child, and household characteristics. We also test whether women's empowerment has differential associations for boys and girls. We do not find consistent associations between dimensions of empowerment and food security and nutrition outcomes across countries, but some patterns emerge. Overall empowerment scores are more strongly associated with nutritional outcomes in the South Asian countries in our sample compared to the African ones. Where significant, greater intrahousehold gender equality is associated with better nutritional outcomes. However, different domains have different associations with nutritional outcomes, suggesting that tradeoffs exist: higher workloads are associated with more diverse diets but lower women's BMI and child anthropometric outcomes. Identifying the overlap between the top contributors to disempowerment and those most strongly related to nutrition outcomes can inform the design and implementation of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs.
Poor dietary quality is Nigeria's key nutrition problem
Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew; Babatunde, Raphael O.; Andam, Kwaw S.. East Lansing, MI 2020
Nigeria faces a growing triple burden of malnutrition. First, chronic childhood undernutrition remains stubbornly high. Nationwide, 36.8% of children under five years were estimated to be stunted in 2018—only slightly down from 40.8% in 2008. This corresponds to an annual average decline of less than 0.4 percentage points over the last decade and was almost exclusively due to a reduction in the prevalence of child stunting in urban areas (Table 1). Second, micronutrient malnutrition, including iron deficiency anemia, is extremely widespread among young children and women of reproductive age. While the prevalence rate of anemia among children under five years slightly declined in rural areas between 2010 and 2018, it substantially increased in urban areas. Third, overweight and obesity among adults has been rising rapidly in both urban and rural areas. Over the last decade, the national prevalence rates of overweight and obesity (the extreme form of overnutrition) among nonpregnant women 15 to 49 years of age increased faster than the rate of child stunting decreased, driving the growth of the triple burden. Obesity significantly increases the risk of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (like heart attack and stroke), and hypertension. The root cause of all forms of malnutrition is poor dietary quality, while poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) conditions aggravate malnutrition.
Implementation in nutrition: A tools map
The Knowledge for Implementation and Impact Initiative (KI3) set out to strengthen the availability, access to, and utilization of implementation knowledge to accelerate progress in scaling up implementation and impact on nutrition. It was recognized that implementers need practical, curated, and hands-on implementation knowledge that is country specific and accounts for different social, political, and economic realities. In response to this need, KI3 systematically mapped the organizations and initiatives that already provide knowledge and tools on implementation for nutrition actions. The result was a database of entities that provide knowledge within the implementation science field. It includes 50 implementation knowledge providers, very few of which are physically based in low- and middle-income countries. To test the usefulness of the resources identified, we then piloted an approach to make them more accessible through the development of an online tools map. This pilot
tools map could then provide the basis for interested parties to build upon if further funding could be made available.
The effects of SPIR Interventions on nutrition and childcare: Evidence from the SPIR midline survey
Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene. Washington, DC 2020
Ethiopia has made major strides in improving nutrition in the past two decades; the prevalence of stunting decreased considerably from 58% in 2000 to 38% in 2016 and further to 37% in 2018.1 While there is no consensus on the underlying causes of this improvement—although substantial increases in income and education surely contributed—there is consensus that more must be done to maintain the momentum. In particular, a number of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices can be improved. While breastfeeding initiation is nearly universal, many children are not exclusively breastfed until they are 6 months old, which is the recommended practice. Similarly, few children age 6–23 months meet the minimum acceptable dietary standards. This brief presents evidence on the impact of the SPIR project on key IYCF practices at the time of the midline survey.
Tracking India's progress on addressing malnutrition: What will it take?
Menon, Purnima; Avula, Rasmi; Sarswat, Esha; Mani, Sneha; Jangid, Manita; Singh, Anamika; Kaur, Supreet; Dubey, Alok Kumar; Gupta, Shuchita; Nair, Divya; Agarwal, Pulkit; Agrawal, Nitya. New Delhi, India 2020
India has a robust policy framework for nutrition that covers most evidence-based interventions (Vir et al. 2013), and it has in place large-scale national program platforms – the Integrated Child Development Services and the National Rural Health Mission – with the mandate to deliver diverse nutrition interventions (Avula et al. 2013). The National Nutrition Strategy (NITI Aayog 2017) and POSHAN Abhiyaan, India's national nutrition mission launched in early 2018, provide an updated strategic framework for action to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. The mission-mode approach provides an impetus to strengthen not only the implementation but also the monitoring and measurement of progress. The mission explicitly notes that NITI Aayog has a mandate to lead on the monitoring and evaluation of POSHAN Abhiyaan. This Policy Note, developed jointly with NITI Aayog and IDinsight, aims to provide guidance to national, state, and district level government officials/stakeholders on issues to consider on the use of data to track progress on nutrition interventions, immediate and underlying determinants, and outcomes. It proposes an indicator framework for POSHAN Abhiyaan and examines availability of data on these indicators across both population-based surveys and administrative data systems. Finally, it lays out issues to be considered in strengthening efforts to improve the use of data in the context of POSHAN Abhiyaan and makes key recommendations on improving data availability and improving the use of currently available data.
Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia
Baye, Kaleab; Hirvonen, Kalle. Washington, DC 2020
Ethiopia has witnessed significant reductions in child mortality, undernutrition, and communicable diseases, but more substantial and faster progress is still needed. The rise in obesity and in noncommunicable diseases, particularly in urban areas, is alarming and requires urgent policy and programmatic attention. Unhealthy diets drive both undernutrition and obesity and are the underlying cause of significant proportion of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Maintaining the relatively high breastfeeding practices and increasing the diversity of diets will be critical to improving nutrition in Ethiopia. Implementation of effective nutrition messaging that shapes consumer behavior to adopt healthy dietary patterns, while bridging gaps in both the reach and the quality of such messaging is warranted. The health extension program, which is the cornerstone of the transformation of the health sector, may need to be redesigned in a way that improves its reach and the quality of the services it provides and minimizes the risk of burnout of frontline health workers. Interventions focusing on making healthy diets available, affordable, and accessible are urgently needed.
COVID-19 and global food security
Swinnen, Johan, ed.; McDermott, John, ed.. Washington, DC 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked not only a health crisis but also an economic crisis, which together pose a serious threat to food security, particularly in poorer countries. COVID-19 & Global Food Security brings together a groundbreaking series of IFPRI blog posts looking at the impacts of COVID-19 and the policy responses. IFPRI researchers and guest bloggers provide key insights and analysis on how the global pandemic is affecting global poverty and food security and nutrition, food trade and supply chains, gender, employment, and a variety of policy interventions, as well as reflections on how we can use these lessons to better prepare for future pandemics. These pieces draw on a combination of conceptual arguments, global and country-level simulation models, in-country surveys, case studies, and expert opinions. Together, they present a comprehensive picture of the current and potential impact of COVID-19 and the world's policy responses on global food and nutrition security.
Building resilience and adaptation to climate change in Malawi: Quantitative baseline report
Duchoslav, Jan; Kenamu, Edwin; Gilbert, Rachel; Baulch, Bob; Palloni, Giordano; Gilligan, Daniel O.. Washington, DC 2020
Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change (BRACC) is a five year program whose main objective is to strengthen the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to withstand current and future weather and climate-related shocks and stresses in four districts in Southern Malawi: Balaka, Chikwawa, Mangochi and Phalombe. Resilience is operationalized as the ability of households to smooth consumption in response to shocks and stresses. This baseline report introduces the evaluation context and describes the BRACC program, details the evaluation design, summarizes main findings from the baseline household survey, and tests whether the randomizations successfully balanced baseline observable characteristics across the treatment arms.
Synopsis: Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has witnessed significant reductions in child mortality, undernutrition and communicable diseases, but more substantial and faster progress is still needed. The rise in overweight and obesity and in non-communicable diseases, particularly in urban areas, is alarming and requires urgent policy and programmatic attention. Unhealthy diets are the drivers of both forms of malnutrition and are the underlying cause of significant proportion of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Maintaining the relatively high breastfeeding practices and increasing the diversity of diets will be critical. Implementation of effective nutrition messaging that shapes consumer behavior to adopt healthy dietary patterns, while bridging gaps in reach and quality of nutrition messaging is warranted. The health extension program that is the cornerstone of the health sector transformation may need to be redesigned in a way that improves reach, quality, and minimize the risk of burnout of frontline health workers. Interventions focusing on making healthy diets affordable, accessible and available are urgently needed.
Food and nutrition security in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during COVID-19 pandemic: June 2020 report
Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle. Washington, DC 2020
In early June 2020, we called by telephone a representative sample of nearly 600 households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to assess income changes and household food and nutrition security status during the COVID-19 pandemic (survey period covering May). This was the second administration of a COVID-19 related survey to these households, following an initial survey conducted in early May 2020 covering the situation of the survey households in April. More than two-third of the households indicated in the second survey that their incomes were lower than expected (up from 58 percent in April) and 45 percent reported that they are extremely stressed about the situation (up from 35 percent in April). Using a pre-pandemic wealth index, we find that less-wealthy households were considerably more likely to report income losses and high stress levels than were wealthier households. Compared to a period just before the pandemic (January and February 2020), indicators measuring food security have significantly worsened but have remained the same since April. During the pandemic, households are less and less frequently consuming relatively more expensive but nutritionally richer foods, such as fruit and dairy products. However, overall food security status in Addis Ababa is not yet alarming, possibly because many households have been able to use their savings to buffer food consumption. As the pandemic is still in an early stage in Ethiopia, it is likely that these savings will not last throughout the pandemic, calling for a rapid scale-up of existing support programs.
Learning together: Experimental evidence on the impact of group-based nutrition interventions in rural Bihar
Raghunathan, Kalyani; Kumar, Neha; Gupta, Shivani; Chauhan, Tarana; Kathuria, Ashi Kohli; Menon, Purnima. Washington, DC 2020
Despite improvements over the last decade or more, India still accounts for a large proportion of the global prevalence of maternal and child undernutrition. We use a cluster-randomized controlled design and two waves of panel data on more than 2000 households from Bihar to analyse the impact on diet quality and anthropometry of a health and nutrition intervention delivered through an at-scale women's self-help group (SHGs) platform. We find that the intervention had small but significant impacts on women and children's dietary diversity, with the main impacts coming from an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables and dairy, however, it had no impact on women's body mass index. We identify several potential pathways to impact. To the extent that SHGs can effect broad-based social change, their current reach to millions of women makes them a powerful platform for accelerating improvements in maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes.
Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods: Evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
Nguyen, Trang; de Brauw, Alan; van den Berg, Marrit; Phuong Ha, Do Thi. Washington, DC 2020
Schools are an attractive entry point to improve children's diets, as their eating habits can be shaped during childhood and the information disseminated from school can reach adults through children. We implemented a cluster-randomized trial in 12 schools in peri-urban Viet Nam to assess if two school-based interventions increased knowledge of healthy diets among children and their parents, as well as children's consumption of healthy foods. First, children were given lessons about food before school lunch and encouraged to share the lessons with their parents. Second, children were provided with healthy snacks for five weeks to reinforce messages about healthy eating. We found that in the short term, the nutrition lessons raised the knowledge index score of the children by 0.35 standard deviation. After six months, this intervention retained its effectiveness only for the children who also received free access to fruit, emphasizing the linkage between knowledge and practice. By itself, free access to fruit at school increased the children's daily fruit consumption by half a portion, but not at the expense of home fruit consumption. Access to healthy foods at school can therefore be an effective measure to raise children's healthy consumption. Child-parent communication was not a reliable channel for knowledge dissemination in our setting.
Economic shocks and child wasting
Headey, Derek D.; Ruel, Marie T.. Washington, DC 2020
In developing countries macroeconomic volatility is common, and severe negative economic shocks can substantially increase poverty and food insecurity. Less well understood are the implications of these contractions for child acute malnutrition (wasting), a major risk factor for under-5 mortality. This study explores the nutritional impacts of growth shocks over 1990-2018 by linking wasting outcomes collected for 1.256 million children from 52 countries to lagged annual changes in national income. Difference-in-difference estimates suggest that a 10% annual decline in national income increases moderate/severe (WHZ<-2) and severe wasting (WHZ<-3) by 14 and 22 percent. An exploration of possible mechanisms suggests negative economic shocks increase risks of diarrhea, fever, and maternal underweight prevalence, and reduce child dietary diversity. Applying these results to the predicted economic impacts of COVID-19 suggests that millions of pre-school children are at increased risk of wasting and wasting-related morbidity and mortality unless urgent preventative action is taken.
Cooperation and the management of local common resources in remote rural communities: Evidence from Odisha, India
Ward, Patrick S.; Alvi, Muzna Fatima; Makhija, Simrin; Spielman, David J.. Washington, DC 2020
It is widely recognized that local management of common pool resources can be more efficient and more effective than private markets or top-down government management, especially in remote rural communities in which the institutions necessary for the enforcement of centrally-imposed regulations may be weak or prone to elite capture. In this paper, we explore the propensity for cooperation in the management of local common resources by introducing a variant of a public goods game among remote rural communities in the state of Odisha, in eastern India. We explore various patterns of cooperation, including free riding behavior, unconditional cooperation (altruism), and conditional cooperation, in which individuals' propensity toward cooperation is tied to their beliefs about the level of cooperation among their peers. We find that a significant portion of our sample fall into this latter category, but also that their expectations about the level of contributions among their peers is somewhat malleable, and beneficial activities from external actors such as NGOs can foster increased social cohesion which increases both the level of these expectations and the manner in which these expectations are translated into subsequent cooperative behavior. We also find that cooperation is somewhat fragile, with group heterogeneity and risk in the returns to cooperative behavior posing a threat to the stability of the cooperative system.
This issue of Abstract Digest comes to you at a time when the global nutrition research community is actively looking for ways to address malnutrition in the changing context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The articles in this issue include a modelling study by Roberton and colleagues on early estimates of the indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries, and comments on it.
Vietnam country brief
Harris, Jody; Huynh, Phuong; Nguyen, Hoa T.; Hoang, Nga; Mai, Lan Tran; Tuyen, Le Danh; Nguyen, Phuong Hong. Brighton, UK 2020
Vietnam has achieved significant progress in reducing undernutrition over the past several decades, but ethnic minority groups are being systematically left behind and this is limiting progress on national reductions. The Vietnam Story of Change in Nutrition study aims to understand the history, contemporary treatment, and future of nutrition in Vietnam, including policy and practice in relation to undernutrition with a focus on equity for Vietnam's 53 ethnic minority groups. This brief aims to highlight the main findings and give recommendations on how to tackle the remaining pockets of high malnutrition in Vietnam.
The impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on maternal and child malnutrition in Myanmar: What to expect, and how to protect
Headey, Derek D.; Cho, Ame; Goudet, Sophie; Oketch, Jecinter Akinyi; Oo, Than Zaw. Washington, DC 2020
The COVID-19 crisis in Myanmar poses a very serious risk to the nutritional status of vulnerable populations, notably women and children, as well as poor urban populations and internally displaced persons. The COVID-19 crisis will hit vulnerable groups through multiple mechanisms.
Survey suggests rising risk of food and nutrition insecurity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as COVID-19 restrictions continue
To cast light on how households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, are reacting to the crisis, IFPRI's Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP), with the support of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), has begun a series of monthly phone surveys. Initial data demonstrate that poorer households are taking a greater economic hit than those with higher incomes, and that dietary diversity has declined. The results suggest the food security situation in Addis Ababa could sharply deteriorate in the coming weeks if disease transmission and social distancing measures continue.
How India's food-based safety net is responding to the COVID-19 lockdown
Roy, Devesh; Boss, Ruchira; Pradhan, Mamata. Washington, DC 2020
The food relief program can also be used as a medium to communicate key messages about the epidemic, including on social distancing and other public health and safety measures. COVID-19 may be with us for a year or more; India's relief package is only the beginning. Going forward, the government needs a contingency plan focusing on how much, and for what length of time, the food system can continue to supply the social safety net in its current configuration. The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions depend on it.
Bett, Bernard; Randolph, Delia; McDermott, John. Washington, DC 2020
Three-quarters of emerging human infectious disease outbreaks are "zoonotic," meaning they originate from viruses and other pathogens infecting animals that then "jump" species to infect people. This "species jump" by pathogens is not new — it has occurred throughout pre- and recorded history. But in the last half of the last century, with the widespread use of antibiotics and vaccines, many had begun to believe that the era of infectious disease was ending. The story of epidemics, however, is always evolving. As we see clearly now with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have originated from virus-infected meat or live animals sold in a traditional "wet" food market in Wuhan, China, our hopes for the end of infectious disease were badly misplaced. Over the last 100 years, in fact, there has been growing evidence of not less but more frequent emergence and greater spread of zoonotic pathogens in humans and animals. In recent decades, most of these zoonotic pathogens wer
The COVID-19 nutrition crisis: What to expect and how to protect
The COVID-19 pandemic has all the makings of a perfect storm for global malnutrition. The crisis will damage the nutritional status of vulnerable groups through multiple mechanisms. We can expect a dangerous decline in dietary quality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) stemming from the income losses related to government-mandated shutdowns and de-globalization, as well as from the freezing of food transfer schemes such as school feeding programs and the breakdown of food markets due to both demand shocks and supply constraints. But malnutrition will also increase due to healthcare failures, as already strained healthcare systems are forced to divert resources from a range of nutritionally important functions — including antenatal care, immunization, micronutrient supplementation, and prevention and treatment of childhood diarrhea, infections, and acute malnutrition — toward combating COVID-19.
COVID-19: Assessing impacts and policy responses for food and nutrition security
Swinnen, Johan; McDermott, John. Washington, DC 2020
COVID-19 has severely disrupted our lives, jeopardized the well-being of billions of people, and raised the specter of a global food crisis, all in just a few months. The huge impact expected on the world's economy and on global food security has been described in dramatic terms. The World Bank forecasts that the global economy will shrink by more than 5%, which would be the deepest recession since the Second World War. IFPRI researchers estimate that, in the absence of strong interventions in developing countries, the number of people in extreme poverty could increase by up to 150 million. The World Food Programme's executive director, David Beasley, has warned that the world is "not only facing a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe," and that, without action, COVID-19 could lead to "multiple famines of biblical proportions." Lawrence Haddad, executive director of GAIN, lamented that the coming food and nutrition crisis is not only biblical but "on steroids, and across generations."
Food and nutrition security in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during COVID-19 pandemic: July 2020 report
de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; Abate, Gashaw T.. Washington, DC 2020
In early July 2020, we called by telephone a representative sample of nearly 600 households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to assess income changes and household food and nutrition security status during the COVID-19 pandemic (recall period covering June). This was the third administration of a COVID-19 related survey to these households, following surveys in early May 2020 and early June. About 64 percent of the households indicated in the third survey that their incomes were lower than expected (down from 67 percent reporting lower incomes than expected in previous month) and 42 percent reported that they are extremely stressed about the situation (down from 45 percent in previous month). Using a pre-pandemic wealth index, we find that less-wealthy households were considerably more likely to report income losses and high stress levels than were wealthier households. Compared to the period just before the pandemic (January and February 2020), indicators measuring food security have significantly worsened but during the pandemic they have remained relatively stable. Households now are less frequently consuming relatively more expensive but nutritionally richer foods, such as fruit and dairy products. However, overall food security status in Addis Ababa is not yet alarming and we see small signs of improvements in this July phone survey relative to previous months. However, many households have drawn down their savings over past months to buffer their food consumption. As the daily COVID-19 infection rates are still rising in Ethiopia, the food security situation in Addis Ababa may deteriorate over coming months, especially as the savings levels among the poorest households are now low. This calls for a further scale-up and strengthening of existing support programs.
The impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on maternal and child malnutrition in Myanmar: What to expect, and how to protect [in Burmese]
Ghana country brief: Understanding the differences between child stunting and anemia reduction and identifying outstanding challenges
Aryeetey, Richmond; Atuobi-Yeboah, Afua; van den Bold, Mara; Nisbett, Nick. Brighton, UK 2020
In the past decade, Ghana has seen a significant reduction in stunting among children under five years of age. However, anemia only declined marginally over the same period, with the result that the rate of child anemia continues to be a severe public health emergency. These changes occurred within a socioeconomic context considered favorable for nutrition outcomes, marked by expansion and diversification of the economy, and investments in key infrastructure, healthcare, education, and water and sanitation. The Stories of Change in Nutrition study in Ghana aimed to better understand the changes in stunting and anemia between 2009 and 2018, as well as the potential drivers of these changes. Such findings can be used to inform agendasetting, implementation of existing policies, and future planning at national and subnational levels in Ghana. This study's findings are important because both stunting and anemia are linked to significant adverse health and well-being impacts, particularly in low-income settings [1], and are listed among the global targets for nutrition for 2025 agreed by national ministers of health (including Ghana's) at the World Health Assembly.
Designing for empowerment impact in agricultural development projects: Experimental evidence from the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) project in Bangladesh
Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John F.; Pereira, Audrey; Roy, Shalini. Washington, DC 2020
The importance of women's roles for nutrition-sensitive agricultural projects is increasingly recognized, yet little is known about whether such projects improve women's empowerment and gender equality. We study the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) pilot project, which was implemented as a cluster-randomized controlled trial by the Government of Bangladesh. The project's treatment arms included agricultural training, nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), and gender sensitization trainings to husbands and wives together – with these components combined additively, such that the impact of gender sensitization could be distinguished from that of agriculture and nutrition trainings. Empowerment was measured using the internationally-validated project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), and attitudes regarding gender roles were elicited from both men and women, to explore potentially gender-transformative impacts. Our study finds that ANGeL increased both women's and men's empowerment, raised the prevalence of households achieving gender parity, and led to small improvements in the gender attitudes of both women and men. We find significant increases in women's empowerment scores and empowerment status from all treatment arms but with no significant differences across these. We find no evidence of unintended impacts on workloads and we note inconclusive evidence of possible increases in intimate partner violence (IPV). Our results also suggest some potential benefits of bundling nutrition and gender components with an agricultural development intervention; however, many of these benefits seem to be driven by bundling nutrition with agriculture. While we cannot assess the extent to which including men and women within the same treatment arms contributed to our results, it is plausible that the positive impacts of all treatment arms on women's empowerment outcomes may have arisen from implementation modalities that provided information to both husbands and wives when they were together. The role of engaging men and women jointly in interventions is a promising area for future research.
Financing nutrition in India: Cost implications of the nutrition policy landscape 2019-20
Kapur, Avani; Shukla, Ritwik; Thakkar, Manan; Menon, Purnima. New Delhi, India; Washington, DC 2020
India should have spent at least ₹38,571 crore in 2019-20, across Union government ministries and State government departments to fully finance a set of core direct nutrition interventions (DNIs), at scale. In this study, you will find information on nutrition costing. It carries forward critical studies that costed for nutrition interventions.
Migration, labor, and women's empowerment: Evidence from an agricultural value chain in Bangladesh
de Brauw, Alan; Kramer, Berber; Murphy, Mike. Washington, DC 2020
As a substantial portion of the rural labor force migrates to urban areas, it is commonly assumed that women could take over traditionally male tasks in agricultural production, with potentially empowering outcomes for women. We study how changes in the supply of labor may influence female labor participation and empowerment outcomes. Using a detailed panel dataset on jute producers in Bangladesh, we test whether out-migration of household members and perceived labor shortages are associated with the share of household and hired labor performed by women, and women's empowerment. When a household experiences reduced household or hired labor supply, we observe a relatively larger use of female household labor but not of female hired labor. We find that reduced male household labor supply is associated with improved wages mainly for male laborers, whereas reduced female household labor is associated with improved wages for male laborers and enhanced empowerment of other women in the household. These findings suggest that given existing gender norms, male and female labor are not perfect substitutes for one another, and as a result, male outmigration is not associated with improved outcomes for women in cash crop production. Our results demonstrate a need for better understanding of the role of gender in rural labor markets, particularly in contexts of rapid urbanization.
Annual report 2019: CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). Washington, DC 2020
In 2019, research conducted under the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) informed policies and investments of governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations and private companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. PIM contributed to investment plans and policies in Afghanistan, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Rwanda; scaling up of digital advisory services in Ethiopia and of payments for agrobiodiversity conservation in Peru; biotechnology advances in Nigeria; renewal of community forest concessions in Guatemala; and improved rangeland governance in Ethiopia and Tanzania. At the global level, PIM research was used to shape the European Union biofuel policy as well as strategic decisions of several organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CGIAR, UK's Department for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, USAID and the World Health Organization. An external review of the outcomes of PIMsupported foresight modeling work was completed.
Economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A review of phone survey evidence
Hirvonen, Kalle. Washington, DC 2020
As in most low and middle-income countries, the paucity of timely economic data in Ethiopia makes it difficult to understand the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. To mitigate this, several organizations have launched phone surveys to gather more information about the crisis. This research report reviews the available phone survey evidence as of mid-August 2020 and identifies knowledge gaps. First, the available evidence suggest that the pandemic has not led to unusually large increases in food prices. However, a case study in the vegetable sector suggests that price dynamics are highly context and crop specific, calling for more comprehensive price monitoring to identify food value chains and areas where food price increases may have been unusually rapid. Second, employment losses have concentrated on informal sector workers while redundancies in the formal sector have been less significant. Third, there is considerable uncertainty about the income, poverty, and food security implications of this crisis. While most households report income losses, the qualitative and subjective nature of these questions mean that the magnitudes of these losses are unknown. In Addis Ababa, less subjective food security measures indicate only small negative changes in household food and nutrition security. Finally, due to limited access to mobile phones in rural areas, we have imperfect and incomplete information on how this crisis is affecting rural households.
Mitigating health risks in sustainable agricultural intensification
Lines, Jo; Bett, Bernard; Fèvre, Eric; Moodley, Arshnee; Waage, Jeff. Washington, DC 2020
Human health is a fundamental feature of sustainable agricultural intensification. Agricultural intensification that increases the burden of human disease, however environmentally benign, is not sustainable. Conversely, sustainable agricultural methods provide specific opportunities for improving human health. The intensification of food systems in low- and middle income countries (LMIC), as they transition from subsistence to market-oriented production, is typically associated with human health risks. Some health risks are associated with the initial stages of intensification, for example, concentration of livestock production and animal waste in peri-urban areas. Inputs associated with this intensification, including fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics, can have negative effects on farmers' health, clean water, and resistance in pathogens and vectors. In rapidly intensifying agricultural systems, regulatory processes that limit the use of harmful products and their residues in water and food may not be in place. Therefore, LMIC face a particular challenge to "de-risk" agricultural intensification, through technical and policy-related interventions that reduce health risks in transitioning agricultural systems.
Measuring the impact of agriculture programs on diets and nutrition
Leroy, Jef L.; Ruel, Marie T.; Olney, Deanna K.. Washington, DC 2020
Agriculture holds tremendous potential to improve nutrition. Traditionally, agriculture investments focused on producing enough food to allow people to meet their caloric needs and on generating employment and income. In the last decade, the understanding of how agriculture can contribute to nutrition has shifted from the implicit assumption that increased productivity and income would automatically improve nutrition to the acknowledgement that explicit nutrition goals and actions are needed to improve nutritional outcomes (1–4). This has led to increased commitments and investments in nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs and accompanying research to study these programs' impact on nutrition outcomes. Guidance on how to make agriculture more nutrition-sensitive was also developed and included recommendations to target the first 1,000 days of a child's life (from conception to 2 years of age) and to focus on reducing stunting (5–7). These developments coincided with the global commitment to achieve the World Health Assembly target of reducing child stunting by 40 percent by 2025 (8).
Supporting consumer choices toward healthy, safe, and sustainable diets in low- and middle-income countries
Ruben, Ruerd; Grace, Delia; Lundy, Mark. Washington, DC 2020
Food systems and diets are transforming rapidly in many parts of the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Changes in income, employment, taste, and location have direct implications for food choices and shopping patterns, which in turn have impacts on consumers' nutrition and health, as well as environmental sustainability and resilience of the food system.
Lessons learned on scaling Aflasafe® through commercialization in Sub-Saharan Africa
Konlambigue, Matieyedou; Ortega-Beltran, Alejandro; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit; Shanks, Tracy; Landreth, Edward; Jacob, Oscar. Washington, DC 2020
Aflatoxin contamination of several crops is common in tropical and subtropical regions. Maize and groundnut, staples for billions of people, are among the most susceptible to contamination, primarily caused by the fungus Aspergillus flavus. Globally, an estimated 25 percent of aflatoxin-prone crops are contaminated with aflatoxins and/or other mycotoxins. Depending on the dose and exposure period, these toxins can cause severe health detriments in humans and animals. Farmers producing contaminated crops cannot sell to premium markets, including export markets.
Catalyzing the scale-up of crop biofortification
Baral, Arun; Birol, Ekin. Washington, DC 2020
Globally, an estimated two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies that contribute to weakened immune systems, disease, disability, and even death.1 One of the main causes of micronutrient deficiencies – also known as hidden hunger – is low-quality diets that rely on calorie-rich but micronutrient-poor staple crops, and include very little nutrientdense foods such as animal-sourced foods and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Food systems research to support sustainable impact
Béné, Christophe; Lundy, Mark; de Brauw, Alan; Brouwer, Inge D.. Washington, DC 2020
Food systems, which are essential sources of food, but also of income and employment, especially for resource-poor populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), are undergoing dramatic transformations. Driven by changes in diets, urbanization, longer supply chains, and new ways of purchasing and consuming foods, these transformations pose serious challenges to achieving healthy, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive food systems for all. Rates of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are still stubbornly high, while overweight, obesity, and accompanying noncommunicable diseases are rising — with these multiple forms of malnutrition increasingly found within the same communities, households, or even individuals.
This issue of Abstract Digest brings to you a set of interesting articles on stunting burden, drivers, and learnings from countries that have been successful in reducing stunting, including a case study on Chhattisgarh. In addition, there are studies on anthropometric data quality assessment, and a study describing the health system components required for the delivery of nutrition-specific interventions. This issue also includes studies on COVID-19 and its implications for child nutrition. In this edition, we have included a Call for Action issued by leaders of four UN agencies to protect children's right to nutrition in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In India, a diverse group of nutrition stakeholders have pledged their renewed Commitment to Action for supporting efforts by the government and all of society.
Food consumption and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Addis Ababa
Hirvonen, Kalle; de Brauw, Alan; Abate, Gashaw T.. Washington, DC 2020
International humanitarian organizations have expressed substantial concern about the potential for increases in food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we use a unique panel survey of a representative distribution of households in Addis Ababa to study both food security and food consumption. In contrast to some other countries in the region, Ethiopia never went into a full lockdown severely restricting movement. Despite subjective income measures suggesting a large proportion of households have been exposed to job loss or reduced incomes, we find that relative to a survey conducted in August and September of 2019, food consumption and household dietary diversity are largely unchanged or slightly increased by August 2020. We find some changes in the composition of food consumption, but they are not related to shocks found in previous phone surveys conducted with the same households. The results therefore suggest the types of subjective questions about income typically being asked in COVID-19 phone surveys may not appropriately reflect the magnitude of such shocks. They also imply, at least indirectly, that in the aggregate food value chains have been resilient to the shock associated with the pandemic.
Urban food environments through the lens of adolescents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Trübswasser, Ursula; Baye, Kaleab; Holdsworth, Michelle; Loeffen, Megan; Feskens, Edith J. M.; Talsma, Elise F.. Washington, DC 2020
In a recent study, adolescents living in Addis Ababa reported that food safety and affordability were their top concerns when making food purchases. Nutrition was a secondary concern: the students reported that even if the food sold were healthy, they would not purchase it if the vendor or outlet did not appear clean. Packaged foods were often perceived as healthy choices among the adolescents because they have labels featuring information such as expiry dates and the packaging is perceived to protect these foods from germs. Involving adolescents and their families in future research, programming, and interventions can help convey messages about the importance of nutrition. Providing clean, affordable, and healthy food options in and around schools can help ensure adolescents are able to choose and consume foods that meet all these important criteria. Ensuring that the food-based dietary guidelines under development in Ethiopia are used to provide nutrition education could help adolescents apply the guidelines in their daily life.
What lies at the root of child undernutrition in India? Understanding trends and patterns in underlying determinants between 2006 and 2016
Ashok, Sattvika; Avula, Rasmi; Mathews, Pratima; Sarswat, Esha; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Menon, Purnima. New Delhi, India 2020
This Data Note describes the key trends and patterns in some of these underlying determinants in India. It summarizes state and district data from the third and fourth rounds of India's National Family Health Surveys. While this is pre-COVID-19 era data, it provides a snap shot of the trends and patterns of the underlying determinants and is indicative of the situation to expect during and beyond the pandemic.
Poverty and food insecurity during COVID-19: Telephone survey evidence from mothers in rural and urban Myanmar
Headey, Derek D.; Goudet, Sophie; Lambrecht, Isabel; Oo, Than Zaw; Maffioli, Elisa Maria; Toth, Russell. Washington, DC 2020
Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar's Dry Zone.
Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 – median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences.
These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.
Adolescent nutrition in West Africa: A rapid review of the research evidence
Verstraeten, Roosmarijn; Salm, Leah; Diop, Loty; Diatta, Ampa; Touré, Mariama. Dakar, Senegal 2020
Adolescence is an important period of physical and cognitive development during which optimal nutrition is crucial. It is an essential time for forming preferences and habits and a key window of opportunity for influencing adult health. In West Africa, while undernutrition rates remains high, there has also been a steady rise in overweight and obesity, and an increasing share of mortality and morbidity due to diet-related noncommunicable diseases (DR-NCDs) among adolescents. f concern is that adolescents are experiencing these diseases earlier in life than previous generations. It is crucial to address adolescents' nutrition to prevent them from carrying malnutrition into adulthood and to protect their overall health later in life.
Developing survey-based measures of gendered freedom of movement for use in studies of agricultural value chains
Heckert, Jessica; Myers, Emily; Malapit, Hazel J.. Washington, DC 2020
Freedom of movement is an important aspect of women's empowerment, especially in the context of rural transformation as women attempt to transition from subsistence agriculture into more remunerative roles, such as involvement in higher nodes of the agricultural value chain, which often involves marketing activities and traveling away from the home. Nevertheless, there is no agreement on how to measure freedom of movement in large-scale surveys. First, we develop a conceptual framework for studying gendered freedom of movement that considers individual and household characteristics, along with the broader social environment. We then synthesize the existing literature on factors that affect freedom of movement. Next, we review approaches for measuring freedom of movement that have been used in previous surveys. In comparing existing survey-based approaches to the conceptual framework and existing literature, we conclude that existing approaches are limited in several ways. Foremost, they primarily focus on family- and household-based barriers to freedom of movement, and do not consider the barriers present in the broader social environment. Additionally, they lack consideration for how freedom of movement may affect women's economic participation. To address the need for survey-based modules for studies that examine how freedom of movement is related to economic participation, we propose two new approaches. The first approach is an experience-based module that asks about frequency of visiting specific places, whether they were ever prevented from going to each of these places, and various limiting factors. The second approach uses vignettes designed to understand the relative strength of different social norms limiting women's freedom of movement and the strength of sanctions that would be imposed for violating these norms. Data collected with these modules have the potential to better understand limitations on women's freedom of movement and their consequences.
As India continues its dual battle – one against coronavirus pandemic and the second against malnutrition, this issue of Abstract Digest brings to you a collection of articles that are primarily India-focused and a few of them discuss measurement of outcomes and implications. Given below is the list of peer-reviewed articles in this issue on the outcomes, determinants and interventions pertaining to maternal and child nutrition. Please click on the title if you wish to go straight to the article or scroll down to explore the abstract in the pages that follow.
Intersectionality and addressing equity in agriculture, nutrition, and health
Malapit, Hazel J.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Hodur, Janet. Washington, DC 2020
The UN Sustainable Development Goals were established to build a better and more sustainable future for all. Progress toward development objectives has been uneven over time, and the disadvantaged tend to suffer disproportionately, particularly in times of severe shocks or crises like the COVID-19 global pandemic. The inclusion of the phrase "for all" is a good reminder that meeting our global goals will require paying particular attention to equity and ensuring no one is left behind. To consider equity, one must acknowledge that not everyone starts from the same set of circumstances, and assess how unfair, unjust, and exclusionary social and political processes have created that situation. Addressing inequity involves being mindful of those processes and removing barriers that prevent people from participating fully in decisions that determine how goods, opportunities, or resources are distributed. It is subtly, yet importantly, different from equality, which involves ensuring those goods, opportunities, or resources are divided equally among a group. In order to work toward equality, one must ensure equity has been achieved.
Yielding profits? Low adoption of an improved mung bean seed variety in Southern Bangladesh
Agricultural technology adoption is an important driver of rural poverty reduction. We study take-up of a specific technology: BARI-Mung 6 (BM6), an improved mung bean seed variety, among smallholder farmers in the southern region of Bangladesh. In contrast to agronomic studies on BM6 performance under highly controlled conditions, we focus on performance of this variety for farmers who are growing outside of the context of an agronomic field trial. We find no evidence of higher performance in this uncontrolled environment: we do not observe statistically significant differences in output or yields between farmers planting BM6 and those planting local varieties. We do, however, observe a significant positive association between BM6 use and yields among farmers who report applying seeds within recommended guidelines. Using a simple model, we illustrate that modest uncertainty around the required quantity of seed per unit area of land can substantively impact the profitability of BM6 seeds for smallholders in our study context. Our findings highlight the importance of providing adequate extension information along with improved technologies to encourage adoption and ultimately improve farmer welfare.
Telescoping causes overstatement in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia
Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Gibson, John; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize. Washington, DC 2020
Telescoping errors occur if survey respondents misdate consumption or expenditure episodes by including events from outside the reference period in their recall. Concern about telescoping influenced the design of early Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys, which used a two-visit interview format to allow a bounded recall. This design fell out of favor although not for evidence-based reasons. Recent guidelines to harmonize food data collection in low- and middle-income countries by using one-week recall increase the relevance of telescoping because errors spread over a shorter period will loom larger. To provide evidence on telescoping, we conducted a survey experiment in Ethiopia, randomly assigning a balanced sample – either a two-visit bounded recall or a single visit unbounded recall. The average value of reported food consumption is 16 percent higher in the unbounded single visit recall relative to the two-visit bounded recall. Put differently, in this experiment, telescoping errors amount, on average, to an entire extra day worth of consumption being included in the report for the last seven days. Most of the error is explained by difference in reporting of spending on less frequently consumed, protein-rich foods, so apparent diet diversity and dietary quality indicators are likely to be overstated when using unbounded recall.
Issue 37 of the Abstract Digest brings to you a set of global, regional, and India-focused articles on issues pertaining to undernutrition and its solutions. Global studies include the Optima Nutrition modelling assessing the likelihood of 129 countries reaching the global nutrition targets by 2030, a systematic review of economic evaluation of interventions to address undernutrition by scaling up proven interventions and identifying priority interventions, a study that identifies research priorities for social, behavioral and community engagement interventions for maternal and child health, and a review of literature on social accountability approaches. India-specific studies examine inequality in child undernutrition among urban populations, the economic feasibility of nutritionally adequate diets, and two studies focusing on frontline workers time use and factors influencing their performance. In this edition we have also included implementation research focused articles relevant for maternal and child health programs.
Drivers of food safety adoption among food processing firms: A nationally representative survey in Ghana
Asante, Seth B.; Ragasa, Catherine; Andam, Kwaw S.. Washington, DC 2020
Globally, food system transformation is characterized by the increasing importance of food safety and quality standards for consumers. This trend is challenging for the food processing sector in Ghana, which is dominated by micro and small firms. This study investigates the factors influencing the adoption of food safety practices and the effect of such adoption on the profitability of nationally representative food processing firms in Ghana using instrumental variable approach and matching techniques. The study uses nationally representative data for 511 food processing firms. The data show few food processing firms (20 percent) have adopted food safety practices. Wide diversity of firms was observed, and firm size, firm age, registrations, trainings, processing activities, types of buyers, and number of distinct products explain the differing firm adoption of food safety practices. We also find that adopters of food safety practices earn more per month than do nonadopting firms, implying the presence of economic incentive to adopt food safety practices. Support in terms of food safety awareness and training to food processing firms can help improve adoption of food safety practices.
Tackling nutrition in Odisha: Looking back, looking forward
Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Mishra, Nihar; Mitra, Devjit; Kohli, Neha; Menon, Purnima. New Delhi, India 2020
This report explores the state of nutrition in Odisha, assesses how nutrition outcomes changed in the state, and more importantly, and examines the road that lies ahead of Odisha on the journey to support better nutrition for the state. Nutrition progress in Odisha: Odisha has made more rapid progress in reducing child undernutrition than many other richer states. Particularly between 2006 and 2016, nutrition and health outcomes improved significantly in the state. The prevalence of stunting declined from 45 percent to 34.1 percent, although there was a marginal increase in wasting from 19.6 to 20.4 percent and in severe wasting from 5.2 to 6.4 percent. In 2018, a further decline was noted in the prevalence of stunting (28.9 percent) and wasting (12.9 percent). Although anemia among women of reproductive age declined by 10 percentage points between 2006 and 2016, it is still high, with over half the women in the state suffering from anemia. Exclusive breastfeeding for children under 6 months of age is an area of progress, improving from 50.8 percent in 2006 to 65.6 percent in 2016; the prevalence of low birth weight, however, remained nearly unchanged during this period (Kohli et al. 2017). Emerging nutritional challenges, such as noncommunicable diseases, are likely to create new challenges in coming years.
Gender, poverty and disability in the National Action Plan for Food and Nutrition 2017-2019 of Indonesia and ways forward
Ramani, Gayathri; Go, Ara; Olney, Deanna K.. Washington, DC 2020
Social inclusion is defined by the World Bank Group as the process of improving the terms of individuals and groups to take part in society, and the process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged based on their identity to take part in society. Groups can be excluded based on several characteristics or life circumstances. These include poverty, gender, age, religion, ethnicity and disability, among others. Within a country context, social exclusion implies that excluded groups are not able to fully participate in their country's political, economic, and social life and often are unable to fully benefit from programs and policies intended to benefit the population at large. As Indonesia's economy continues to grow, it is essential that issues of social inclusion be considered in nutrition-related policies and programs. This is especially important as often socially excluded groups are those most at risk of health and nutrition problems.
Adolescent nutrition in Indonesia: What have we learned?
Go, Ara; Olney, Deanna K.. Washington, DC 2020
Investments in adolescent health have the potential to influence the future course of global health by improving the health and nutritional status of adolescents themselves, their life trajectories in adulthood, and the lives of their future children (1,2). Despite the growing recognition of the importance of adolescent health and nutrition (1–6), very few policies and programs have been designed and imple-mented to improve adolescent nutrition especially in low- and middle-income countries. There is also little evidence on how to effectively address the health and nutrition needs of adolescents from well-designed program effectiveness studies. Having a clear understanding of the nutritional problems of adolescents, and the drivers of those problems are prerequisites to developing appropriate policies and programs to improve adolescent nutrition, health and well-being. This brief offers a concise overview of the key nutritional challenges among Indonesian adolescents and current policies and programs to address these challenges. It also highlights other programs and policies to consider based on regional and international experiences.
Gender, poverty, and disability in the National Action Plan for Food and Nutrition 2017-2019 of Indonesia and ways forward
Go, Ara; Ramani, Gayathri; Olney, Deanna K.. Washington, DC 2020
Over the past two decades Indonesia has undergone a major economic transformation including reducing the poverty rate by more than half to a current level of about 10% and becoming the 10th largest economy in the world. However, as the fourth most populous nation, this means that about 25 million Indonesians are living below the poverty line and even more are at-risk of falling into poverty. Although Indonesia's economic growth has been impressive, indices related to human development and inclusion indicate that there is room for improvement. Across several indices, Indonesia is ranked in the bottom third to the bottom half of all countries.
Burkina Faso: Impact des programmes agricoles sensibles à la nutrition sur l'utilisation du temps et effets sur la santé et la nutrition de la mère et de l'enfant au Burkina Faso
van den Bold, Mara; Bliznashka, Lilia; Ramani, Gayathri; Olney, Deanna K.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.. Washington, DC 2020
Cette étude a répondu à la préoccupation selon laquelle les programmes agricoles axés sur la nutrition et destinés aux femmes peuvent avoir un impact négatif sur leur utilisation du temps et, par conséquent, sur la santé et la nutrition des femmes et des enfants. En effet, nous avons constaté que même si le programme EHFP a augmenté le temps consacré par les femmes aux activités agricoles, il ne semble pas avoir eu d'effets néfastes sur la santé et la nutrition des femmes ou des enfants.
Agriculture, nutrition et bien-être au Burkina Faso
Olney, Deanna K.; Diatta, Ampa Dogui. Washington, DC 2020
De nombreux efforts ont été récemment mis en oeuvre pour élucider les liens entre l'agriculture, la nutrition et le bien-être (1–6) et voir dans quelle mesure les programmes d'agriculture axés sur la nutrition peuvent améliorer ces résultats (7). Toutefois, il est nécessaire de mieux comprendre les liens associés au contexte entre l'agriculture, la nutrition et le bien-être afin d'élaborer des programmes et des politiques visant à surmonter les obstacles de ce contexte pour faciliter l'utilisation de l'agriculture à cet effet. Pour le comprendre da-vantage, nous avons mené une étude qualitative avec l'évaluation de l'impact du programme dénommé « Creating Homestead Agricul-ture for Nutrition and Gender Equity (CHANGE) » (Créer une Agriculture Familiale pour la promotion de la Nutrition, l'Équité et le Genre) de Helen Keller International's (HKI) au Burkina Faso (8,9). Dans le cadre du volet qualitatif, nous avons cherché à mieux comprendre comment les membres de la communauté définissent le bien-être, comment ils classent leur communauté en termes de bien-être ac-tuellement (2015) et 5 ans auparavant (2010), comment cela était représenté dans l'agriculture, la santé et la nutrition et ce qu'il faudrait pour passer d'un niveau de bien-être à l'autre. L'objectif général est que ces résultats soient utilisés par les chargés de la mise en oeuvre des programmes et les décideurs politiques pour affiner les programmes et les politiques agricoles afin de mieux exploiter l'agriculture en améliorer les résultats en matière de nutrition et de bien-être, en particulier chez les femmes et les jeunes enfants au Burkina Faso.
Gender equity considerations in food environments of low and middle income countries: A scoping review
Twyman, Jennifer; Talsma, Elise F.; Togka, Konstantina; Ferraboschi, Chiara; Brouwer, Inge D.. Washington, DC 2020
This study presents the results of a scoping literature review of gender equity in food environments of low- and middle-income countries. We start by examining the concept of food environments; and find that dividing the concept into two parts, one related to the food supply chain, and the other related to consumer behavior is useful for categorizing literature. One key finding is that although we specifically concentrated our search on articles related to gender in the food environment, the articles found focus more on the food supply chain and/or consumer behavior rather than specifically on the food environment. Most of the articles related to the food supply chain are based on studies conducted in Africa while most of the consumer behavior articles are from studies done in Asia. While gender equity is a topic of interest and is often said to be a priority for international development, relatively few articles were found about how gender equity impacts and/or is impacted by food environments. Those that do exist suggest that a food systems approach to healthier diets consider gender roles and responsibilities (i.e. gender division of labor and time use concerns), gendered access to and control over resources, and gender in decision-making processes. Gender norms related to these issues can present barriers to achieving the desired outcomes of food system interventions; on the other hand, they may also offer opportunities or clues about how to better move forward to achieve both food and nutrition security, and gender equity and equality goals.
The cost of improving nutritional outcomes through food‐assisted maternal and child health and nutrition programs in Burundi and Guatemala
Heckert, Jessica; Leroy, Jef L.; Olney, Deanna K.; Ritcher, Susan; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Ruel, Marie T.. 2020
Evidence on the cost‐effectiveness of multisectoral maternal and child health and nutrition programmes is scarce. We conducted a prospective costing study of two food‐assisted maternal and child health and nutrition programmes targeted to pregnant women and children during the first 1,000 days (pregnancy to 2 years). Each was paired with a cluster‐randomized controlled trial to evaluate impact and compare the optimal quantity and composition of food rations (Guatemala, five treatment arms) and their optimal timing and duration (Burundi, three treatment arms). We calculated the total and per beneficiary cost, conducted cost consequence analyses, and estimated the cost savings from extending the programme for 2 years. In Guatemala, the programme model with the lowest cost per percentage point reduction in stunting provided the full‐size family ration with an individual ration of corn–soy blend or micronutrient powder. Reducing family ration size lowered costs but failed to reduce stunting. In Burundi, providing food assistance for the full 1,000 days led to the lowest cost per percentage point reduction in stunting. Reducing the duration of ration eligibility reduced per beneficiary costs but was less effective. A 2‐year extension could have saved 11% per beneficiary in Guatemala and 18% in Burundi. We found that investments in multisectoral nutrition programmes do not scale linearly. Programmes providing smaller rations or rations for shorter durations, although less expensive per beneficiary, may not provide the necessary dose to improve (biological) outcomes. Lastly, delivering effective programmes for longer periods can generate cost savings by dispersing start‐up costs and lengthening peak operating capacity.
Changes in socio-economic patterns of energy consumption and insufficient energy intake across India from 1993–94 to 2011–12
Perkins, Jessica M.; Chakrabarti, Suman; Joe, William; Lee, Hwa-Young; Heo, Jongho
Cognitive interviewing to improve women's empowerment questions in surveys: Application to the health and nutrition and intrahousehold relationships modules for the project‐level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Hannan, Anika; Heckert, Jessica; James-Hawkins, Laurie; Yount, Kathryn M.. 2020
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include fostering gender equality and women's empowerment and ending hunger and malnutrition. To monitor progress and evaluate programmes that aim to achieve these goals, survey instruments are needed that can accurately assess related indicators. The project‐level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro‐WEAI) is being developed to address the need for an instrument that is sensitive to changes in empowerment over the duration of an intervention. The pro‐WEAI includes new modules with previously untested survey questions, including a health and nutrition module (focused on women's agency in this area) and an intrahousehold relationships module. This study uses cognitive interviewing to identify how new survey questions might be misinterpreted and to understand what experiences women are referencing when they respond to these questions. This was undertaken with the goal of informing revision to the modules. The study was conducted in Bangladesh with women from nuclear, extended, and migrant‐sending households and from two regions of the country to identify difficulties with interpretation and response formulation across these groups. Findings revealed that questions were generally understood, but participants occasionally responded to the wrong part of the question, did not understand key phrases, or were uncomfortable with questions. The findings also suggested ways to revise the modules and strengthen the pro‐WEAI. The revised pro‐WEAI health and nutrition and intrahousehold relationships modules will advance the ability to measure changes in these domains and their relationship with the health and nutritional status of women and their children.
Using structural equation modelling to understand the contributors to anemia among young Burkinabe children
Bliznashka, Lilia; Arsenault, Joanne E.; Becquey, Elodie; Ruel, Marie T.; Olney, Deanna K.. 2020
Leveraging an implementation–research partnership to improve effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive programs at the World Food Programme
Olney, Deanna K.; Marshall, Quinn; Honton, Geraldine; Ogden, Kathryn; Hambayi, Mutinta; Piccini, Sarah; Go, Ara; Gelli, Aulo; Bliznashka, Lilia. 2020
Ask me why: Patterns of intrahousehold decision-making
Bernard, Tanguy; Doss, Cheryl R.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoel, Jessica B.; Kieran, Caitlin. 2020
Households are sites of both cooperation and contestation. With more data available at the intrahousehold level, development researchers and practitioners have increasingly focused on household dynamics and decision-making and how these relate to outcomes of interest across many domains such as health and agriculture. Many researchers who wish to better understand power dynamics within households have focused on the question of who makes decisions in the household. A woman's participation in household decision-making is often used both as a proxy for empowerment, an end in its own right, and as a means to achieve better production and consumption outcomes. However, research on this topic pays less attention to why different household members may make different decisions, and whether this matters for individual or household welfare. In this paper, we use an innovative methodology to look beyond the identity of the decision-maker to explore the reasons that may drive patterns of household decision-making. We then assess whether the rationale behind who makes household decisions helps explain variation in household outcomes, above and beyond what is explained by the identity of the decision-maker. Our approach uses vignettes, which are survey instruments used to measure concepts that are more easily defined by examples.1 Vignettes have been used to measure subjective well-being (Ravallion, Himelein, & Beegle, 2016), women's agency (see Donald, Koolwal, Annan, Falb, & Goldstein, 2017 for a review), bias against women politicians (Beaman, Chattopadhyay, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2009), as well as risk aversion (Barter & Renold, 1999). However, this is the first time that they have been used to analyze the processes of household decision-making.
A community-based early childhood development center platform promoting diversified diets and food production increases the mean probability of adequacy of intake of preschoolers in Malawi: A cluster randomized trial
Gelli, Aulo; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Santacroce, Marco; Twalibu, Aisha; Margolies, Amy; Katundu, Mangani. 2020
Background: Young children in Malawi consume low-quality diets lacking micronutrients critical for their development.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of an agriculture and nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) intervention implemented through community-based childcare centers on the nutrient adequacy of diets of children living in food-insecure settings in Malawi.
A double edged sword? Improvements in economic conditions over a decade in India led to declines in undernutrition as well as increases in overweight among adolescents and women
Young, Melissa; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Tran, Lan Mai; Avula, Rasmi; Menon, Purnima. 2020
This study examined the national and state trends for BMI and identified the determinants of underweight and overweight/obesity among adolescent girls and women.
Multisectoral community development in Nepal has greater effects on child growth and diet than nutrition education alone
Miller, Laurie C.; Neupane, Sumanta; Joshi, Neena; Lohani, Mahendra; Rogers, Beatrice L.; Neupane, Shailes
Experimental evidence on post-program effects and spillovers from an agriculture-nutrition program
Dillon, Andrew; Bliznashka, Lilia; Olney, Deanna K.. 2020
Integrated agricultural-nutrition programs are often implemented under the premise that program effects are durable and spillover. This paper estimates one year post-program effects, three-year aggregate program effects and spillover effects using treated and untreated household cohorts. Two treatment interventions implemented agricultural interventions with behavior change communication strategies varying implementers using either village health committees or older female leaders. In the post-program period, program effects deteriorated relative to program period impacts documented in Olney et al. (2015), but the three-year agricultural, nutrition knowledge, health care practices and severe anemia impacts remained statistically significant. Despite the non-rival nature of nutrition education and promoted production techniques, there is little evidence of agricultural technology or health knowledge spillovers to non-treated households within treatment communities. Spillover effects measured for appropriate treatment of diarrhea (10 pp increase in giving rehydration salts rather than traditional medicine), wasting (20 pp lower probability of wasting) and children's anemia status (7 pp reduction in severe anemia) significantly improve in later cohorts. The aggregate program effects and spillovers are generally robust to multiple hypothesis testing.
Lipid-based nutrient supplements and all-cause mortality in children 6–24 months of age: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Stewart, Christine P.; Wessells, K. Ryan; Arnold, Charles D.; Huybregts, Lieven; Ashorn, Per; Becquey, Elodie. Oxford, UK 2020
Background: Undernutrition is associated with an elevated risk of mortality among children in low- and middle-income countries. Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) have been evaluated as a method to prevent undernutrition and improve infant development, but the effects on mortality are unknown.
Affordability of the EAT–Lancet reference diet: A global analysis
Hirvonen, Kalle; Bai, Yan; Headey, Derek D.; Masters, William A.. 2020
The EAT–Lancet Commission drew on all available nutritional and environmental evidence to construct the first global benchmark diet capable of sustaining health and protecting the planet, but it did not assess dietary affordability. We used food price and household income data to estimate affordability of EAT–Lancet benchmark diets, as a first step to guiding interventions to improve diets around the world.
Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond boserup and becker
Doss, Cheryl R.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.. 2020
New data and new methods have provided many new insights into rural households in the past 50 years. We analyze what we have learned from household models since Boserup and Becker, using this to frame more recent findings about household behavior from three types of studies: observational studies, experimental games, and impact evaluations. More sex‐disaggregated data as well as data that is collected at smaller units, such as agricultural plots, has allowed us to better understand agricultural productivity, risk sharing, and spousal cooperation. However, the focus on bargaining within households has often led us to ignore the cooperation that occurs within households. Many resources are owned and managed jointly by household members and many decisions are made jointly, although not all parties necessarily have equal voice in these decisions. Research demonstrating that households often do not reach efficient outcomes suggests that we still have much to learn about rural household behavior. Understanding both individual roles within households and the levels of cooperation, including joint decision‐making and ownership of resources, is essential to analysis of households, especially in rural areas where households engage in both production and consumption.
Assessing dietary diversity in pregnant women: Relative validity of the list-based and open recall methods
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Martin-Prevel, Yves; Moursi, Mourad; Tran, Lan Mai; Menon, Purnima; Ruel, Marie T.; Arimond, Mary. 2020
Background: The Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MMD-W) was validated as a proxy of micronutrient adequacy for non-pregnant women, with proposed data collection being either a list-based or a qualitative open recall method. Few studies have compared the performance of these two methods. Objectives: We compared performance in predicting micronutrient adequacy of food group indicators (FGIs) measured by the list-based and the quantitative open recall method using varying quantity cutoffs. We also examined the agreement between list-based and open recall FGIs.
Value chains to improve diets: Diagnostics to support intervention design in Malawi
Gelli, Aulo; Donovan, Jason; Margolies, Amy; Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Santacroce, Marco; Chirwa, Ephraim W.; Henson, Spencer; Hawkes, Corinna. 2020
Governments and development partners looking to accelerate progress in addressing malnutrition have been examining how to use interventions in value-chains to improve diets. However, the links between interventions in value chains and diets involve a range of direct and indirect effects that are not yet well understood. We apply a mixed-method multisectoral diagnostic to examine potential interventions in food systems to improve diets of smallholder farmers in Malawi. We examine entry points for interventions involving public and private-sectors, and explore the methodological requirements for undertaking this type of multisectoral analysis. We find that although food consumption is dominated by maize, a range of nutritious foods are also being consumed; including leafy greens, fruits, chicken, dried fish, dried beans and peas, and groundnuts. Yet important deficits in nutrient intake remain prevalent in low-income households due to inadequate quantity of consumption. While increasing consumption through own-production is one potentially important channel to increase quantity of nutritious foods available (particularly fruits and leafy green vegetables), markets also play a potentially important role. Nutritious foods are available on markets year-round, although strong seasonality impacts the availability and price of perishable products. For beans, peas and groundnuts, supply appears to be available throughout the year, with price fluctuations relatively controlled due to storage capacity and imports. The capacity of markets to supply safe and nutritious food is limited by a number of issues, including poor hygiene; lack of infrastructure for storage and selling; limited information on nutrition, and weak coordination among sellers and producers. Other bottlenecks include: on-farm constraints for expanded production, consumers with limited purchasing capacity, intense competition among sellers and few services for sellers to increase volume of product sold during peak demand. The diagnostics identify the role of information-related interventions to optimize decisions related to food choices, involving a range of different foods and value-chains, that could potentially lead to short- and medium-term improvements in diets. Longer-term and more resource-intensive interventions are also identified, such as improving capacity for product differentiation, processing, storage, and market infrastructure across a different range of food chains, so as to maximise coherence between short- and long-term planning. The findings highlight the benefits of applying a strategic, food systems-based approach of identifying specific and complementary actions for both the public and private sectors that can improve the diets of low-income populations.
Impact of the eKutir ICT-enabled social enterprise and its distributed micro-entrepreneur strategy on fruit and vegetable consumption: A quasi-experimental study in rural and urban communities in Odisha, India
Dube, Laurette; McRae, Cameron; Wu, Yun-Hsuan; Ghosh, Samik; Allen, Summer; Joshi, Pramod Kumar; McDermott, John. 2020
Double-duty actions: Seizing programme and policy opportunities to address malnutrition in all its forms
Hawkes, Corinna; Ruel, Marie T.; Salm, Leah; Sinclair, Bryony; Branca, Francesco. 2020
Different combination of behavior change interventions and frequency of interpersonal contacts are associated with infant and young child feeding practices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam
Kim, Sunny S.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Tran, Lan Mai; Alayon, Silvia; Menon, Purnima; Frongillo, Edward A.. 2020
Social and behavior change communication interventions are integral to improving dietary and care practices, but evidence on the impact of the combination and intensity of these interventions in different contexts is scarce.
We examined the extent of and factors associated with intervention exposure: interpersonal communication (IPC) alone or with other interventions (i.e., mass media, community mobilization, or nutrition-sensitive agricultural activities); number of and factors associated with IPC contacts; and combinations of intervention components and number of contacts associated with infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices.
Randomized controlled trials of multi-sectoral programs: Lessons from development research
Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Ahmed, Akhter; Gilligan, Daniel; Hoddinott, John F.; Kumar, Neha; Leroy, Jef L.; Menon, Purnima; Olney, Deanna K.; Roy, Shalini; Ruel, Marie T.. 2020
Tubaramure, a food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition program in Burundi, increased household food security and energy and micronutrient consumption, and maternal and child dietary diversity: A cluster-randomized controlled trial
Leroy, Jef L.; Olney, Deanna K.; Bliznashka, Lilia; Ruel, Marie T.. 2020
Aflatoxin proficiency testing and control in Kenya
Herrman, Timothy J.; Hoffmann, Vivian; Muiruri, Anne; McCormick, Cindy. 2020
Texas A&M AgriLife Research (hereafter AgriLife) introduced a quality systems approach to accurately measure and manage aflatoxin that resulted in improved food safety for approximately 10 million Kenyans. A quality systems approach contains elements that ensure laboratory testing competence. In this study, quality system elements included analyst training and qualification, proficiency testing, use of reference material to support analytical traceability and define analytical uncertainty, development and implementation of a food safety plan by commercial maize (Zea mays) millers, and verification of testing accuracy at the AgriLife laboratory accredited by the Kenya Accreditation Service under the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 17025:2005 standard. In 2014 and 2015, five proficiency rounds were performed, ranging in aflatoxin concentrations of 5 to 40 μg/kg. Five laboratories had a z-score of >3, and all of these were for the fifth proficiency round with an aflatoxin content of 5 μg/kg. In 2015, 31 analysts qualified to participate in the program at 15 maize mills. The analysts' qualification for seven test samples, which ranged from 3.1 to 28 μg/kg total aflatoxin, resulted in an average relative standard deviation of 19.2% across all participants and test methods. Independent testing of participating mill verification results before and after analyst implementation of the quality systems approach revealed an improvement in measure accuracy.
The double burden of malnutrition: Need for urgent policy action
Swaminathan, Soumya; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Last year was a remarkable one for nutrition in India. After years of slow and somewhat tentative action to acknowledge, understand and act on the challenge of undernutrition, India's National Nutrition Mission brought focus and ambition and a range of actions followed. National and State governments were mobilised, district administrators engaged, the private sector mobilised in its own way, while civil society continued to push for accountability and action.
As researchers committed to evidence-informed policies and programmes, we welcome India's nutrition efforts. We call for even stronger systems to support the use of data and science to inform India's efforts, to track progress and to learn from both successes and failures.
Group-based programs to improve health outcomes in India: An accumulating body of evidence but questions remain
Menon, Purnima; Kumar, Neha. 2020
There is a strong global movement to scale-up various types of programs based on women's groups, both to empower women economically and to use the potential of women's groups to deliver other interventions. In India the movement has taken a strong hold, with the launch and scale-up of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and several other associated programs. Many of these programs operate in poor states, or are focused on the poor even in richer states.
The prominent role of informal medicine vendors despite health insurance: A weekly diaries study in rural Nigeria
Nelissen, Heleen E.; Brals, Daniëlla; Ameen, Hafsat A.; van der List, Marijn; Kramer, Berber; Akande, Tanimola M.; Janssens, Wendy; van't Hoog, Anja H.. Oxford 2020
In sub-Saharan Africa, accessibility to affordable quality care is often poor and health expenditures are mostly paid out of pocket. Health insurance, protecting individuals from out-of-pocket health expenses, has been put forward as a means of enhancing universal health coverage. We explored the utilization of different types of healthcare providers and the factors associated with provider choice by insurance status in rural Nigeria. We analysed year-long weekly health diaries on illnesses and injuries (health episodes) for a sample of 920 individuals with access to a private subsidized health insurance programme. The weekly diaries capture not only catastrophic events but also less severe events that are likely underreported in surveys with longer recall periods. Individuals had insurance coverage during 34% of the 1761 reported health episodes, and they consulted a healthcare provider in 90% of the episodes. Multivariable multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that insurance coverage was associated with significantly higher utilization of formal health care: individuals consulted upgraded insurance programme facilities in 20% of insured episodes compared with 3% of uninsured episodes. Nonetheless, regardless of insurance status, most consultations involved an informal provider visit, with informal providers encompassing 73 and 78% of all consultations among insured and uninsured episodes, respectively, and individuals spending 54% of total annual out-of-pocket health expenditures at such providers. Given the high frequency at which individuals consult informal providers, their position within both the primary healthcare system and health insurance schemes should be reconsidered to reach universal health coverage.
Leaving RCEP: A missed opportunity?
Ajmani, Manmeet; Choudhary, Vishruta; Roy, Devesh. 2020
Nutrition intervention using behavioral change communication without additional material inputs increased expenditures on key food groups in Bangladesh
Warren, Andrea M.; Frongillo, Edward A.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Behavioral change communication (BCC) promotes skills and knowledge to improve infant and young child feeding, but without additional material inputs, recipients must develop strategies to translate knowledge into action. Using data from the Alive & Thrive initiative in Bangladesh (2010–2014), we aimed to test whether households receiving the intensive intervention (opposed to the nonintensive intervention) increased expenditures on key foods for mothers and children (e.g., foods that were promoted by the intervention and also changed in maternal and child diets).
The intensive intervention provided interpersonal counseling, community mobilization, and mass media campaigns to promote breastfeeding and complementary feeding. A cluster-randomized design compared 20 subdistricts randomly assigned to the intensive (4281 households) or nonintensive (4284 households) intervention. Measures included food and nonfood expenditures, dietary diversity, and women's economic resources. Linear and logistic regression tested difference-in-differences (DD) in expenditures and dietary diversity, accounting for subdistricts as clusters, and the association between maternal and child consumption of specific food groups and corresponding food expenditures.
Food access and nutritional status of rural adolescents in India: Pune maternal nutrition study
Ganpule-Pao, Anjani V.; Roy, Devesh; Karandikar, Bhushana; Yajnik, Chittaranjan S.; Rush, Elaine C.. 2020
How can we realise the full potential of health systems for nutrition?
Heidkamp, Rebecca A.; Wilson, Emily; Menon, Purnima; Kuo, Helen; Walton, Shelley. 2020
Poor nutrition contributes substantially to global disease, diminishing the wellbeing of women and children in low and middle income countries, and better nutrition must be part of the universal health coverage agenda, say Rebecca Heidkamp and colleagues.
Sitharaman's 16-point plan for agri may not work if she does not do this
Saroj, Sunil; Roy, Devesh; Pradhan, Mamata. 2020
Unless the government builds in right incentives for its agriculture action plan, things will not work. As has been the case with e-NAM and banana trains.
Increased iron status during a feeding trial of iron-biofortified beans increases physical work efficiency in Rwandan women
Luna, Sarah V.; Pompano, Laura M.; Lung'aho, Mercy; Gahutu, Jean Bosco; Haas, Jere D.. 2020
Iron-biofortified staple foods can improve iron status and resolve iron deficiency. However, whether improved iron status from iron biofortification can improve physical performance remains unclear.
This study aimed to examine whether changes in iron status from an iron-biofortified bean intervention affect work efficiency.
A total of 125 iron-depleted (ferritin <20 μg/L) female Rwandan university students (18–26 y) were selected from a larger sample randomly assigned to consume iron-biofortified beans (Fe-Bean; 86.1 mg Fe/kg) or conventional beans (control: 50.6 mg Fe/kg) twice daily for 18 wk (average of 314 g beans consumed/d). Blood biomarkers of iron status (primary outcome) and physical work efficiency (secondary outcome) were measured before and after the intervention. Work performed was assessed during 5-min steady-state periods at 0-, 25-, and 40-W workloads using a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. Work efficiency was calculated at 25 W and 40 W as the work accomplished divided by the energy expended at that workload above that expended at 0 W. General linear models were used to evaluate the relation between changes in iron status biomarkers and work efficiency. Results The Fe-Bean intervention had significant positive effects on hemoglobin, serum ferritin, and body iron stores but did not affect work efficiency. However, 18-wk change in hemoglobin was positively related to work efficiency at 40 W in the full sample (n = 119; estimate: 0.24 g/L; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.48 g/L; P = 0.044) and among women who were anemic (hemoglobin <120 g/L) at baseline (n = 43; estimate: 0.64 g/L; 95% CI: 0.05, 1.23 g/L; P = 0.036). Among women who were nonanemic at baseline, change in serum ferritin was positively related to change in work efficiency at 40 W (n = 60; estimate: 0.50 μg/L; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.95 μg/L; P = 0.027). Conclusions Increasing iron status during an iron-biofortified bean feeding trial improves work efficiency in iron-depleted, sedentary women. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01594359.
Giving PM-KISAN the multiplier effect
Varshney, Deepak; Kumar, Anjani; Joshi, Pramod Kumar; Roy, Devesh. India 2020
An IFPRI-ICAR study in UP reveals that the scheme, along with agricultural advisory services, can pull farmers out of poverty. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, popularly known as PM-KISAN, announced in December 2018 was a tectonic shift in the nature of government support to farmers in India. This scheme was aimed at addressing the liquidity constraints of farmers for meeting their expenses for acquisition of agricultural inputs and services.
Diet quality over time is associated with better development in rural Nepali children
Miller, Laurie C.; Neupane, Sumanta; Joshi, Neena; Shrestha, Merina; Neupane, Shailes; Lohani, Mahendra; Thorne‐Lyman, Andrew L.. Oxford, UK 2020
Developmental delays affect between 150 and 200 million children <5 years of age worldwide. Outside of diet supplement studies, relatively little is known about the relationships between diet quality and developmental status in resource‐poor settings. We examined associations between different aspects of dietary quality (dietary diversity score [DDS] and animal‐source food [ASF] consumption) and child development (assessed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire‐3 [ASQ‐3]) among children whose families were enrolled in a community development intervention trial (implemented by Heifer Nepal) in western Nepal. Two sets of analyses were performed: (a) cross‐sectional Sample (N = 629) seen at the endline survey and (b) longitudinal sample (N = 269) with complete dietary records (six surveys over 48 months). In both samples, child development was significantly related to household wealth, maternal education, and especially home environmental quality. In the cross‐sectional sample, greater consumption of eggs (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.80, p = .04) or dairy products (aOR 0.95, p = .05) over the previous 7 days significantly reduced odds of low total ASQ score, by logistic regression analysis. In the longitudinal sample, only egg consumption and cumulative DDS and ASF scores were associated with significantly reduced odds of low total ASQ score (aORs 0.59–0.89). In adjusted linear regression analysis, both cumulative DDS (β [CI]: 1.92 [0.4, 3.5]) and ASF scores (2.46 [0.3, 4.7]) were significantly associated with greater continuous total child development. Programmes targeting child development must address home environmental quality as well as long‐term diet quality.
Nutrition and SDG 11: Healthy diets, nutrition and urban settlements
Garrett, James L.; Ruel, Marie T.. Rome, Italy 2020
Good nutrition is integral to human well-being and to humanity's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nutrition permeates almost all the SDGs, both as an outcome as well as an important input into their achievement, especially in terms of strengthening human capital. This paper focuses on the specific relationship of nutrition with SDG11, "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable."
Iron, zinc and phytic acid retention of biofortified, low phytic acid, and conventional bean varieties when preparing common household recipes
Hummel, Marijke; Talsma, Elise F.; Taleon, Victor; Londono, Luis; Brychkova, Galina; Gallego, Sonia; Raatz, Bodo; Spillane, Charles. 2020
Biofortification is an effective method to improve the nutritional content of crops and nutritional intake. Breeding for higher micronutrient mineral content in beans is correlated with an increase in phytic acid, a main inhibitor of mineral absorption in humans. Low phytic acid (lpa) beans have a 90% lower phytic acid content compared to conventional beans. This is the first study to investigate mineral and total phytic acid retention after preparing common household recipes from conventional, biofortified and lpa beans. Mineral retention was determined for two conventional, three biofortified and two lpa bean genotypes. Treatments included soaking, boiling (boiled beans) and refrying (bean paste). The average true retention of iron after boiling was 77.2–91.3%; for zinc 41.2–84.0%; and for phytic acid 49.9–85.9%. Soaking led to a significant decrease in zinc and total phytic acid after boiling and refrying, whereas for iron no significant differences were found. lpa beans did not exhibit a consistent pattern of difference in iron and phytic acid retention compared to the other groups of beans. However, lpa beans had a significantly lower retention of zinc compared to conventional and biofortified varieties (p < 0.05). More research is needed to understand the underlying factors responsible for the differences in retention between the groups of beans, especially the low retention of zinc. Combining the lpa and biofortification traits could further improve the nutritional benefits of biofortified beans, by decreasing the phytic acid:iron and zinc ratio in beans.
Training and low-cost tech cut aflatoxin by 53 per cent
Hoffmann, Vivian. 2020
Aflatoxin is a common fungal toxin that poses a significant threat to health and economic growth in many developing countries. It is a challenge in Africa, especially in maize and groundnut, which are grown for sale and home consumption by millions of farmers.
Stunting and wasting among Indian preschoolers have moderate but significant associations with the vegetarian status of their mothers
Headey, Derek D.; Palloni, Giordano. 2020
Background: India has high rates of child undernutrition and widespread lactovegetarianism. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine how nutrition outcomes varied among Indian preschool children in relation to the vegetarian status of their parents. Methods: The 2015–2016 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the 2011–2012 National Sample Survey (NSS) were used to explore associations between parental vegetarian status and child stunting and wasting at ages 0–59 mo and anemia at ages 6–59 mo. In the NFHS, self-reports on usual consumption of foods were used to classify maternal diets, whereas in the NSS lactovegetarianism was defined at the household level. Results: Compared with children of nonvegetarian mothers, children aged 24–59 mo of lactovegetarian mothers were 2.9 percentage points (95% CI: −4.0, −1.9) less likely to be stunted and children aged 6–23 mo were 1.6 points less likely to be wasted (95% CI: −3.0, −0.03), whereas children aged 6–23 mo with vegan mothers were 5.2 points more likely to be stunted (95% CI: 0.1, 9.4). When compared with nonvegetarian households, lactovegetarian households had better socioeconomic status and were more likely to consume dairy frequently. Children in nonvegetarian households consumed nondairy animal-sourced foods (ASFs) with relatively low frequency. The frequency of maternal dairy consumption was significantly associated with lower risks of child stunting and wasting. Conclusions: Anthropometric outcomes differed by maternal vegetarian status, which is itself strongly associated with socioeconomic position, location, religion, and caste.
Lessons from using cluster-randomized evaluations to build evidence on large-scale nutrition behavior change interventions
Menon, Purnima; Ruel, Marie T.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kim, Sunny S.; Lapping, Karin; Frongillo, Edward A.; Alayon, Silvia. 2020
What is the role of civil society in multisectoral nutrition governance systems? A multicountry review
Busse, Heidi; Covic, Namukolo; Aakesson, Ashley; Jogo, Wellington. 2020
Associations of maternal resources with care behaviours differ by resource and behaviour
Basnet, Sulochana; Frongillo, Edward A.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Moore, Spencer; Arabi, Mandana. 2020
Care is important for children's growth and development, but lack or inadequacy of resources for care can constrain appropriate caregiving. The objectives of this study were to examine whether maternal resources for care are associated with care behaviours specifically infant and young child feeding, hygiene, health‐seeking, and family care behaviours. The study also examined if some resources for care are more important than others. This study used baseline Alive & Thrive household surveys from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Measures of resources for care were maternal education, knowledge, height, nourishment, mental well‐being, decision‐making autonomy, employment, support in chores, and perceived instrumental support. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of resources for care with child‐feeding practices (exclusive breastfeeding, minimum meal frequency, dietary and diversity), hygiene practices (improved drinking water source, improved sanitation, and cleanliness), health‐seeking (full immunization), and family care (psychosocial stimulation and availability of adequate caregiver). The models were adjusted for covariates at child, parents, and household levels and accounted for geographic clustering. All measures of resources for care had positive associations with care behaviours; in a few instances, however, the associations between the resources for care and care behaviours were in the negative direction. Improving education, knowledge, nutritional status, mental well‐being, autonomy, and social support among mothers would facilitate provision of optimal care for children.
Covid-19: Functioning food markets key to corona welfare package
Pradhan, Mamata; Roy, Devesh. 2020
In a rush to provide for the emergency, maintaining quality is needed. Hence, the effect could be counterproductive.
Agriculture–nutrition linkages with heterogeneous, unobserved returns and costs: Insights from Tajikistan
Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Park, Allen; Ilyasov, Jarilkasin; Liu, Yanyan; Ergasheva, Tanzila. 2020
Agriculture‐nutrition linkages (ANLs) have been increasingly investigated in the literature. However, nutritional returns and costs of household agricultural production practices (APPs) in semi‐subsistence settings are poorly understood. We fill these knowledge gaps using pooled cross‐section datasets in Tajikistan, where semi‐subsistence farming and undernutrition coexist despite relatively good agricultural infrastructure and education systems. Agricultural diversification, yield enhancement, production expansion are positively associated with various nutritional outcomes, particularly in areas with poor food market access. Decomposition exercises suggest that nutritional returns and costs of these APPs vary across households, and the adoption of APPs is driven by the expected nutritional returns. In Tajikistan, improving nutrition through household ANLs requires growing the smallholder agricultural sector in multiple dimensions, including diversification, intensification, and expansion, while also understanding better the pathways of ANLs and addressing bottlenecks at appropriate stages of such pathways.
Market access, price policy and diversification in Indian agriculture
Negi, Digvijay S.; Birthal, Pratap S.; Roy, Devesh; Hazrana, Jaweriah. Mumbai, India 2020
This paper provides empirical evidence of a causal relationship between the access to markets and the crop partial policies on the pattern of specialization or diversification in Indian agriculture. We uniquely combine highly spatially disaggregated data on cropping patterns, amenities, and market size at a granular level, and construct a measure of market access using indicators from both the supply and the demand side of trade. We employ the heteroscedasticity based two-stage Lewbel (2012) estimator to address the possible endogeneity of market access and also test for non-linearity between market access and crop diversification. Our results show that locations connected with bigger markets are more diversified into vegetables, and cash crops like oilseeds and cotton. However, the effect of market access moderates after a threshold level of diversification probably because of the non-market constraints. Nonetheless, the policy-induced distortions in agri-food markets, the nucleus of policies in the form of procurement of cereals mainly rice and wheat at the government-determined pre-announced minimum support prices, significantly attenuates the effect of market access on crop diversification.
India's food system in the time of COVID-19
Abhishek; Bhamoriya, Vaibhav; Gupta, Puneet; Kaushik, Manu; Kishore, Avinash; Kumar, Ritesh; Sharma, Abhishek; Verma, Shilp. 2020
Measuring coverage of infant and young child feeding counselling interventions: A framework and empirical considerations for survey question design
Choufani, Jowel; Kim, Sunny S.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Heidkamp, Rebecca A.; Grummer-Strawn, Laurence M.; Saha, Kuntal K.; Hayashi, Chika; Mehra, Vrinda; Alayon, Silvia; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Most countries implement nutrition counselling interventions as part of programmes to support breastfeeding and complementary feeding. However, data to track coverage of counselling interventions are rarely available. As a result, little is known about the coverage of counselling on infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Survey‐based data collection systems generally collect data on IYCF practices but do not collect data on coverage of interventions to support IYCF, and those surveys that do collect this information do not do so consistently. We present a framework to guide the design of survey questions to measure IYCF counselling coverage. We provide examples of how large‐scale surveys for programme evaluation and national monitoring have included survey questions to address these data gaps. Our review suggests that elements relevant to designing survey questions to capture coverage of counselling interventions include timing of contact, target behaviour and message content, place of contact, type of service provider, frequency of contact and mode of intervention. Application of this framework may help strengthen harmonized measurement of IYCF counselling coverage to enable better tracking of programme investments, document progress in scaling up nutrition services and allow for cross‐country comparisons. Thus, improving measurement of counselling coverage may lead to improved reach of programmes to support optimal IYCF practices.
Malnutrition and epidemics are intertwined: That makes fixing food systems crucial
Gillespie, Stuart. 2020
Malnutrition is by far the biggest driver of ill-health and premature mortality in every region of the world. A slow-burn attritional problem, it does enormous damage. The COVID-19 epidemic that's sweeping the world, meanwhile, brings a series of massive short-wave shocks. Both the epidemic and malnutrition will generate long-wave impacts, for years to come. They are also likely to interact with each other – badly. This will be particularly true in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Many of these countries' governments, health and food systems, communities and households have limited capacity to respond to nutritional challenges or to an epidemic. This means that the potential exists for malnutrition to exacerbate the health consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic, and vice versa.
Bett, Bernard; Randolph, Delia; McDermott, John. 2020
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a rude awakening to many who believed the era of infectious disease was over. In this post, Bernard Bett, Delia Randolph and John McDermott argue that not only are pandemics not over, they may be increasing in frequency; and while most originated in Asia in the past, Africa may be poised to become an important source of so-called "zoonotic pathogens"—with its population growth, rapid urbanisation, and rising global integration offering promising vectors for outbreaks.
Early breastfeeding practices contribute to exclusive breastfeeding in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kim, Sunny S.; Tran, Lan Mai; Menon, Purnima; Frongillo, Edward A.. 2020
Limited evidence exists on the complex relationship among interventions, early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF), prelacteal feeding and exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). We examined whether early breastfeeding practices are associated with EBF and how much improving EIBF and non‐prelacteal feeding contributes to increased prevalence of EBF. Survey data were collected in 2010 and 2014 as part of impact evaluations of Alive & Thrive (A&T) interventions to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine effects of interventions and early breastfeeding practices on EBF. Structural equation modelling quantified the direct and indirect effects of interventions (via improving EIBF and non‐prelacteal feeding) on EBF. Although breastfeeding is nearly universal in all three countries (≥98%), delayed initiation of breastfeeding is prevalent (>60%) and prelacteal feeding is common. EIBF alone was not associated with EBF, whereas non‐prelacteal feeding was associated with 1.6–3.5 higher odds of EBF. Intervention exposure affected breastfeeding practices in all three countries; these impacts were amplified among those who practiced EIBF or non‐prelacteal feeding [odds ratio (OR) = 11 and 27.5 in Bangladesh and 6.5 and 11.5 in Vietnam, respectively]. The paths through EIBF and non‐prelacteal feeding explained 13%–18% of the effect of the interventions on EBF. Early breastfeeding practices influence EBF, but interventions aimed only at the initiation and early days of breastfeeding will be inadequate to promote EBF. Social and behaviour change interventions should simultaneously target EIBF, non‐prelacteal feeding and EBF to support optimal breastfeeding practices.
Leveraging on agri-food sector for revival of Lankan economy in post-COVID-19 era
Weerahewa, Jeevika; Roy, Devesh. 2020
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of Sri Lanka like anywhere else in the world will be complex to predict in terms of magnitude, but directions are predictable. Being a trade dependent island nation, Sri Lanka will likely suffer from the expected recession in addition to the disruptions in global and domestic supply chains. Notwithstanding these effects, our research shows that the overall impacts on agri-food supply chains in Sri Lanka may not be the slayer that one would expect it to be, barring the prolonged disruptions and adverse policy stances in other countries. Every crisis invariably nests an opportunity. As the rebuilding and revival of the economy eventuates, this article proposes three pivotal heads of interventions to make capital of the agri-food chains to shepherd the revival of the Sri Lankan economy post COVID-19 i.e. after the storm.
Validation of 24‐h dietary recall for estimating nutrient intakes and adequacy in adolescents in Burkina Faso
Arsenault, Joanne E.; Moursi, Mourad; Olney, Deanna K.; Becquey, Elodie; Ganaba, Rasmane. 2020
Data on dietary nutrient intakes of adolescents in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC) is lacking partly due to the absence of validation studies of the 24‐h recall method in adolescents. We conducted a validation study of 24‐h recall (24HR) compared with observed weighed records (OWR) in adolescents (n = 132, 10–11 years; n = 105, 12–14 years). Dietary data were collected for the same day by both methods by conducting the 24HR the day after the OWR. For OWR, all foods consumed by adolescents from the first to last meal of the day were weighed; for 24HR adolescents reported foods consumed using portion aids. Food intakes were converted to nutrients. Nutrient intakes by both methods were tested for equivalence by comparing the ratios (24HR/OWR) with equivalence margins of within ±10%, 15% and 20% of the ratio. Prevalences of inadequacy (POIs) were obtained using the NCI method. Mean ratios for energy were 0.88 and 0.92, for younger and older adolescents, respectively, and other nutrients ranged between 0.84 and 1.02. Energy intakes were equivalent within the 15% bound, and most nutrients fell within the 20% bound. POI was overestimated by 24HR, but differences were less than 25 percentage points for most nutrients. Half of adolescents omitted foods in recalls, mainly sweet or savoury snacks, fruits and beverages. Our study showed that adolescents underestimated intakes by 24HR; however, the degree of underestimation was generally acceptable for 12–14‐year‐olds within a bound of 15%. Errors could possibly be reduced with further training and targeted probing.
Post COVID-19 Era: Leveraging on agri-food sector for SL's economic revival
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of Sri Lanka like anywhere else in the world will be complex to predict in terms of magnitude, but directions are predictable. Being a trade dependent island nation, Sri Lanka would likely suffer from the expected recession in addition to the disruptions in global and domestic supply chains. Notwithstanding these effects, our research shows that the overall impacts on agri-food supply chains in Sri Lanka may not be the slayer that one would expect it to be, barring the prolonged disruptions and adverse policy stances in other countries. Every crisis invariably nests an opportunity. As the rebuilding and revival of the economy eventuates, this article proposes three pivotal heads of interventions to make capital of the agri-food chains to shepherd the revival of the Sri Lankan economy post COVID-19 i.e. after the storm.
Food transfers, electronic food vouchers and child nutritional status among Rohingya children living in Bangladesh
Hoddinott, John F.; Dorosh, Paul A.; Filipski, Mateusz J.; Rosenbach, Gracie; Tiburcio, Ernesto. 2020
Objective: To examine associations between receipt of an electronic food voucher (e-voucher) compared to food rations on the nutritional status of Rohingya children living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Methods: This is an associational study using cross-sectional data. We measured heights and weights of 523 children aged between 6 and 23 months in households receiving either a food ration consisting of rice, pulses, vegetable oil (362 children) or an e-voucher (161 children) that could be used to purchase 19 different foods. Data were also collected on the characteristics of their mothers and the households in which they lived, including household demographics, consumption and expenditure, coping strategies, livelihoods and income profiles, and access to assistance. Associations between measures of anthropometric status (height-for-age z scores, stunting, weight-for-height z scores, wasting, weight-for-age z scores and mid-upper arm circumference) and household receipt of the e-voucher were estimated using ordinary least squares regressions. Control variables included child, maternal, household and locality characteristics. The study received ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC. Results: Household receipt of an e-voucher was associated with improved linear growth in children. This association is robust to the inclusion of maternal, household and location characteristics. The magnitude of the association is 0.38 SD (CI: 0.01, 0.74), and statistically significant at the five percent level. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that these associations differ by child sex. Receipt of an e-voucher is not associated with stunting when a full set of control variables are included. There is no association between receipt of e-vouchers and weight-for-length, weight-for-age or mid-upper arm circumference. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that these associations differ by child sex. Conclusions: In a humanitarian assistance setting, Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, household receipt of an electronic food voucher instead of a food ration is associated with improvements in the linear growth of children between 6 and 23 months but not in measures of acute undernutrition or other anthropometric outcomes. Our associational evidence indicates that transitioning from food rations to electronic food vouchers does not adversely affect child nutritional status.
Empowerment in agricultural value chains: Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines
Malapit, Hazel J.; Ragasa, Catherine; Martinez, Elena M.; Rubin, Deborah; Seymour, Greg; Quisumbing, Agnes. 2020
Women's participation and empowerment in value chains are goals of many development organizations, but there has been limited systematic, rigorous research to track these goals between and within value chains (VCs). We adapt the survey-based project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) to measure women's and men's empowerment in the abaca, coconut, seaweed, and swine VCs in the Philippines and to investigate the correlates of empowerment. Results show that most women and men in all four VCs are disempowered, but unlike in many other countries, Filipino women in this sample are generally as empowered as men. Pro-WEAI results suggest that respect within the household and attitudes about gender-based violence (GBV) are the largest sources of disempowerment for both women and men, followed by control over use of income and autonomy in income-related decisions. Excessive workload and lack of group membership are other important sources of disempowerment, with some variation across VCs and nodes along VCs. Across all four VCs, access to community programs is associated with higher women's empowerment, and access to extension services and education are associated with higher men's empowerment. Our results show that, despite the relatively small gender gaps in the Philippines, persistent gender stereotypes influence men's and women's empowerment and VC participation.
Lessons learned brief for Ghana and Tanzania: External evaluation of mobile phone technology-based nutrition and agriculture advisory services
Barnett, Inka; Batchelor, Simon; Billings, Lucy; Faith, Becky; Gilligan, Daniel; Gordon, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; Palloni, Giordano; Scott, Nigel. Brighton, UK 2020
mNutrition was a five-year global initiative supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) between 2013 and 2018, organised by GSMA and implemented by in-country mobile network operators (MNOs) and other providers. The evaluation was carried out by a consortium of researchers from Gamos, the Institute of Development Studies, and the International Food Policy Research Institute. This briefing summarises key evaluation findings and presents lessons learned on three key topics: 1. The design and implementation of mobile phone-based information services to promote behaviour change; 2. Building a commercially viable business model for mobile phone-based information services; and 3. Evaluating mobile phone-based information services.
Cuidar el buen alimento
La malnutrición es un problema de desarrollo lento que mata a millones de personas cada año. La pandemia de la covid-19 ha creado una onda expansiva con enormes ramificaciones para los sistemas sanitarios y alimentarios, y para la economía en general. Ambos desafíos tienen carácter mundial e interactúan en un círculo vicioso. La malnutrición (incluida la obesidad) está asociada a un mayor riesgo de morir de covid-19. A su vez, el virus amenaza los sistemas alimentarios y sanitarios y aumenta el riesgo de hambre de millones de personas. Como siempre, los que más van a sufrir son los que tienen menos capacidad de hacerle frente; es decir, los más pobres y vulnerables.
Why "home garden" projects don't always work: Insights from Ethiopia
Hirvonen, Kalle; Headey, Derek D.. 2020
In Ethiopia, the average person eats just 42kg of fruit and vegetables per year. This is far below the WHO recommendation of 146kg per year. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, vital for our body. Deficiencies can seriously affect our physical health, increasing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancers, which in turn increase the risk of premature death. In Ethiopia, poor quality diets are now considered as one of the main underlying causes in the rise of non-communicable diseases in the country.
The problem is fruits and vegetables are often too expensive and unaffordable for most. In Ethiopia, the average household would have to spend more than 10% of their income to meet the international recommendation of two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per person per day.
Modeling and simulation of recurrent phenotypic and genomic selections in plant breeding under the presence of epistasis
Ali, Mohsin; Zhang, Luyan; DeLacy, Ian; Arief, Vivi; Dieters, Mark; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang H.; Wang, Jiankang; Li, Huihui. 2020
Recurrent selection is an important breeding method for population improvement and selecting elite inbreds or fixed lines from the improved germplasm. Recently, a computer simulation tool called QuMARS has been developed, which allows the simulation and optimization of various recurrent selection strategies. Our major objective in this study was to use the QuMARS tool to compare phenotypic recurrent, marker-assisted recurrent, and genomic selections (abbreviated respectively as PS, MARS and GS) for both short- and long- term breeding procedures. For MARS, two marker selection models were considered, i.e., stepwise (Rstep) and forward regressions (Forward). For GS, three prediction models were considered, i.e., genomic best linear unbiased predictors (GBLUP), ridge regression (Ridge), and regression by Moore-Penrose general inverse (InverseMP). To generate genotypes and phenotypes for a given individual during simulation, one additive and two epistasis genetic models were considered with three levels of heritability. Results demonstrated that selection responses from GBLUP-based GS and MARS (Forward) were consistently greater than those from PS under the additive model, particularly in early selection cycles. In contrast, selection response from PS was consistently superior over MARS and GS under epistatic models. For the two epistasis models, total genetic variance and the additive variance component were increased in some cases after selection. Through simulation, we concluded that GS and PS were effective recurrent selection methods for improved breeding of targeted traits controlled by additive and epistatic quantitative trait loci (QTL). QuMARS provides an opportunity for breeders to compare, optimize and integrate new technology into their conventional breeding programs.
COVID-19 highlights need to boost resilience of Africa's rural poor
Baral, Arun; Das, Aparna; Rustrick, Bill. 2020
The current COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to contain it are significantly impacting countries around the world, regardless of their level of income or economic development. Apart from the novel coronavirus' tragic toll in terms of human health and lives lost, government-imposed rules and restrictions on movement and assembly have upended work and livelihood activities for billions of people, causing serious strain on budgets and household resources, seriously impacting people's ability to care for and nourish themselves and their families. These negative effects can be immediate and often catastrophic for people who have few resources to fall back on in hard times — such as Africa's estimated 33 million smallholder farming families.
Food safety consciousness and consumers' milk purchasing behavior: Evidence from a developing country
Thapa, Ganesh; Kumar, Anjani; Roy, Devesh; Joshi, Pramod Kumar. 2020
We study the effects of food safety awareness on consumers' milk purchasing behavior in Nepal. We conducted consumer survey and employed an instrumental variable regression. We find education, income, and social network to influence food safety consciousness (FSC). Our results indicate the positive impact of FSC on weekly milk expenditure and probability of purchasing milk from milk cooperatives. Any policy that helps to improve the FSC levels will likely increase the purchase of safe milk from the modern market outlet, and lack of such awareness raising policies has prevented the market for safe food from evolving and expanding.
Effect of differences in month and location of measurement in estimating prevalence and trend of wasting and stunting in India in 2005-2006 and 2015-2016
Madan, Emily M.; Frongillo, Edward A.; Unisa, Sayeed; Dwivedi, Laxmikant; Johnston, Robert; Menon, Purnima; Nguyen, Phuong Hong. 2020
Child undernutrition in India remains widespread. Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3 and NFHS-4) suggest that wasting prevalence has increased while stunting prevalence has declined. The objectives of this study were to 1) describe wasting and stunting by month of measurement in India in children < 5 years of age in NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 surveys, and 2) test whether differences in the timing of anthropometric data collection and in states between survey years introduced bias in the comparison of estimates of wasting and stunting between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4. Data on wasting and stunting for 42,608 and 232,744 children under five years in the NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 survey rounds were analysed. Differences in the prevalence of wasting and stunting by month of year and by state were examined descriptively. Regression analyses were conducted to test the sensitivity of the estimate of differences in wasting and stunting prevalence across survey years to both state differences and seasonality. Examination of the patterns of wasting and stunting by month of measurement and by state across survey years reveal marked variability. When both state and month were adjusted, regardless of the method used to account for sample size, there was a small negative difference from 2005–06 to 2015–16 in the prevalence of wasting (-0.8 ± 0.6 percentage points; p = 0.2) and a negative difference in stunting prevalence (-8.3 ± 0.7 percentage points; p < 0.001), indicating a small bias for wasting but not for stunting in unadjusted analyses. State and seasonal differences may have introduced bias to the estimated difference in prevalence of wasting between the survey years but did not do so for stunting. Future data collection should be designed to maximize consistency in coverage of both time and place.
A comparison of the Indian diet with the EAT-Lancet reference diet
Sharma, Manika; Kishore, Avinash; Roy, Devesh; Joshi, Kuhu. 2020
The 2019 EAT-Lancet Commission report recommends healthy diets that can feed 10 billion people by 2050 from environmentally sustainable food systems. This study compares food consumption patterns in India, from different income groups, regions and sectors (rural/urban), with the EAT-Lancet reference diet and highlights the deviations. The analysis was done using data from the Consumption Expenditure Survey (CES) of a nationally representative sample of 0.102 million households from 7469 villages and 5268 urban blocks of India conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) in 2011–12. This is the most recent nationally representative data on household consumption in India. Calorie consumption (kcal/capita/day) of each food group was calculated using the quantity of consumption from the data and nutritional values of food items provided by NSSO. Diets for rural and urban, poor and rich households across different regions were compared with EAT-Lancet reference diet. The average daily calorie consumption in India is below the recommended 2503 kcal/capita/day across all groups compared, except for the richest 5% of the population. Calorie share of whole grains is significantly higher than the EAT-Lancet recommendations while those of fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat, fish and eggs are significantly lower. The share of calories from protein sources is only 6–8% in India compared to 29% in the reference diet. The imbalance is highest for the households in the lowest decile of consumption expenditure, but even the richest households in India do not consume adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables and non-cereal proteins in their diets. An average Indian household consumes more calories from processed foods than fruits. Indian diets, across states and income groups, are unhealthy. Indians also consume excess amounts of cereals and not enough proteins, fruits, and vegetables. Importantly, unlike many countries, excess consumption of animal protein is not a problem in India. Indian policymakers need to accelerate food-system-wide efforts to make healthier and sustainable diets more affordable, accessible and acceptable.
How has early marriage, a critical social determinant of child stunting and wasting, changed over a decade in South Asia? Trends, inequities and drivers, 2005 to 2018
Scott, Samuel; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Neupane, Sumanta; Pramanik, Priyanjana; Nanda, Priya; Menon, Purnima; Bhutta, Zulfiqar; Afsana, Kaosar. 2020
In South Asia, many women are married before their 18th birthday and give birth soon after. Delaying marriage is an attractive nutrition policy target as previous research shows that early marriage (EM) is associated with poor child growth outcomes, operating through many pathways. We sought to describe the prevalence, trends, inequities and predictors of EM in South Asia.
Anemia in Indian men predicts fewer work hours and lower earnings: Evidence from nationally representative health and labor surveys
Scott, Samuel; Pant, Anjali; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Alderman, Harold; Yadav, Kapil; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Anemia is globally recognized as an important public health problem in women and children, thus the consequences of anemia have predominantly been described in these two groups. India's large population, high anemia prevalence and male-dominated workforce imply that productivity consequences of anemia in men could have large implications. We sought to explore the association between local anemia rates and productivity outcomes in Indian men.
Are data available to measure progress in the coverage of essential nutrition actions in South Asia? A review of demographic and health surveys in seven countries, 2005–2018
Jangid, Manita; Neupane, Sumanta; Scott, Samuel; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kim, Sunny S.; Menon, Purnima; Torlesse, Harriet; Murira, Zivai; Heidkamp, Rebecca A.. 2020
South Asian countries carry the largest burden of undernutrition globally. The World Health Organization has recommended a set of Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) to tackle all forms of malnutrition. Limited evidence exists on the availability of data in nationally representative surveys to analyse coverage patterns and to track progress on these actions.
Combined interventions targeting agriculture, gender and nutrition improve agriculture production and diet diversity more than individual interventions in Bangladesh
Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Menon, Purnima; Ghostlaw, Julie; Pereira, Audrey; Parvin, Aklima; Roy, Shalini. 2020
Secondary data analysis in Bangladesh has found associations across agricultural production, women's empowerment, and nutrition outcomes. Less is known, though, about whether combining interventions across these areas is more effective than isolated interventions to improve agricultural diversity, diet diversity, and women's empowerment in Bangladesh.
Can health systems platforms do more for nutrition in India? Insights on missed opportunities from India's National Family Health Survey, 2015–2016
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Menon, Purnima; Avula, Rasmi; Tran, Lan Mai; Kumar, Alok; Baswal, Dinesh; Sethi, Vani; Hajeebhoy, Nemat; Ranjan, Alok. 2020
Most nutrition interventions can be delivered through health systems. However, the progress to scale up effective nutrition interventions and achieve universal health coverage has not been uniform. We aimed to 1) examine the opportunity gaps (OGs) between delivery platforms and corresponding nutrition interventions through the continuum of care (from pregnancy up to early childhood) in India between 2006 and 2016; and 2) assess inequalities in these OGs.
South Asia is far from achieving universal coverage of essential nutrition interventions: Examining coverage, trends, and inequities, 2005 to 2018
Singh, Nishmeet; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Scott, Samuel; Kim, Sunny S.; Neupane, Sumanta; Murira, Zivai; Heidkamp, Rebecca A.; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.; Menon, Purnima; Torlesse, Harriet. 2020
South Asia carries the largest burden of malnutrition globally. Tracking coverage of nutrition interventions is a critical step in designing effective nutrition policies and monitoring progress in the region. This paper examines coverage, trends, and inequities in nutrition interventions in South Asia.
If only I knew: Nutrition behavior change delivered by women's groups has impacts on diet quality that are mediated by knowledge in rural Bihar, India
Raghunathan, Kalyani; Menon, Purnima; Kumar, Neha; Gupta, Shivani; Chauhan, Tarana; Pandey, Shinjini; Kathuria, Ashi. 2020
Poor diets are a major challenge in India. Barriers to improving diets include limited knowledge, access to resources and availability of affordable nutritious foods. Bihar, a poor state in India, has scaled up women's savings and credit self-help group (SHG) programs state-wide to improve livelihoods and access to resources. SHGs are now being leveraged to integrate health and nutrition discussions into their activities but rigorous evidence on the impact of integration is limited.
Routine growth monitoring processes in nutrition programs in India have multiple falter points with implications for quality of care
Bajaj, Sumati; Avula, Rasmi; Pant, Anjali; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Ruel, Marie T.; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Growth monitoring (GM) and promotion is a routine part of primary healthcare for children in >80% of countries. In India, 57.5 million children are measured every month by frontline workers to assess their growth and to trigger preventive or curative services. Standard guidance for anthropometry suggests that quality can be compromised by the choice of measurement equipment, placement of equipment, and positioning of children during measurement. Little is known about the quality of measurement processes during GM. We compared child height and weight measurement processes with standards for anthropometry to assess GM quality.
Anemia affects one in four Indian men and has not decreased in the last decade: Trends, geographic variability and predictors from nationally representative data, 2005 to 2016
Pant, Anjali; Scott, Samuel; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Yadav, Kapil; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Men have largely been ignored in anemia-focused research and policies. We sought to examine trends, geographic variability, and predictors of anemia in Indian men between 2005 and 2016.
Home food availability, food insecurity and nutrition knowledge are key factors influencing dietary diversity among adolescent girls in Southern Ethiopia
Kim, Sunny S.; Sununtnasuk, Celeste; Tadesse, Amare W.; Oumer, Abdulaziz; Walissa, Tamirrat; Sanghvi, Tina; Menon, Purnima. 2020
In Ethiopia, where 40% of the population is under 15 years, evidence on adolescent nutrition is limited. We examined the dietary diversity and its determinants among in-school adolescent girls in 2 regions in southern Ethiopia.
Why are adolescent mothers more likely to have stunted and underweight children than adult mothers? A path analysis using data from 30,000 Bangladeshi mothers, 1996–2014
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Scott, Samuel; Khuong, Long; Pramanik, Priyanjana; Ahmed, Akhter; Afsana, Kaosar; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Adolescent pregnancy is a major global concern due to its adverse effects on maternal and child health and wellbeing. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy globally. We sought to examine trends in adolescent pregnancy and associated factors in Bangladesh in the last two decades, and to understand why children of adolescent mothers are at high risk of poor growth.
An analysis of nutrition-relevant national policies in South Asia reveals a gap in addressing the essential nutrition actions recommended by World Health Organization (WHO)
Neupane, Sumanta; Jangid, Manita; Scott, Samuel; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kim, Sunny S.; Menon, Purnima; Murira, Zivai; Torlesse, Harriet. 2020
The WHO recommends Essential Nutrition Actions (ENAs) throughout the life course to tackle malnutrition in all its forms. However, limited evidence exists on the availability of policies to support the implementation of ENAs in South Asia, a region with the highest burden of malnutrition globally. We conducted a policy analysis to assess the extent to which current policies address ENAs for adolescent girls, women, and children in South Asia.
Missed opportunities for maternal nutrition interventions during antenatal care visits persist in Burkina Faso
Ouédraogo, Césaire T.; Kim, Sunny S.; Zagre, Rock; Ganaba, Rasmané; Zafimanjaka, Maurice; Sawadogo, Ramatou; Combassere, Roland; Menon, Purmina. 2020
High coverage of any antenatal care (ANC) and near-universal coverage of iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation is reported by nationally representative surveys in Burkina Faso. We examined the coverage of maternal nutrition interventions during ANC to assess gaps and missed opportunities in achieving global and national recommendations.
Efficiency and status in polygynous pastoralist households
Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoel, Jessica B.; Wilson, Katie. 2020
Decision-making structures may be different across polygynous and monogamous households, leading to different economic outcomes and requiring different targeting of anti-poverty programmes. We study efficiency in semi-nomadic pastoralist households in Northern Senegal with lab-in-the-field games. We find that monogamous and polygynous families are equally productively inefficient overall. However, average contributions at the household level mask differences across dyads. Junior wives receive less but give more to their husbands than senior wives, leaving junior wives worse off than other household members.
M-Health intervention has the potential to alleviate constraints in using administrative data systems for improving service delivery in India
Avula, Rasmi; Menon, Purnima; Bajaj, Sumati; Saxena, Malvika; Deshpande, Shilpa. 2020
Administrative Data (AD) are a key component of nutrition data systems, but little is known about how AD are used or can be reshaped for accountability and action. We studied factors influencing AD use in India's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), in two Indian states; and assessed how an m-Health intervention (Common Application Software (CAS)) changes it. ICDS-AD system consolidates data from 11-recording registers updated every month by ∼1.3 million frontline workers (FLW). CAS digitizes these records and creates dashboards for real-time monitoring.
No magic bullets: Insights on drivers of stunting decline from an analysis of subnational success cases in India
Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kohli, Neha; Kanani, Shubhada; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Global attention to reducing childhood stunting has increased the demand for guidance on translating policies into impact. Evidence from national-level success cases is emerging but little is known about how subnational entities can accelerate change. In India, despite a common national framework of programs/policies targeting many determinants of child growth, stunting reduction has varied across states. We aimed to understand drivers of change in stunting at state-level and to identify programmatic, social and political factors that contributed to these changes.
Health systems strengthening efforts help to improve the delivery of maternal nutrition interventions in antenatal care in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India but gaps remain
Kachwaha, Shivani; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Tran, Lan Mai; Avula, Rasmi; Young, Melissa; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Frontline workers (FLWs) deliver essential nutrition services to reduce maternal undernutrition in India, but coverage and quality remain sub-optimal. Alive & Thrive aimed to strengthen delivery of interpersonal counselling, community mobilization and micronutrient supplements through the government antenatal care (ANC) platform in UP. We studied pathways through which the nutrition-intensified ANC (I-ANC) was intended to impact FLWs capacity, knowledge, and service delivery, compared to standard ANC (S-ANC).
Using novel scenario-based assessments to examine feasibility of integrating preventive nutrition services through the primary healthcare system in Bangladesh
Pramanik, Priyanjana; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Avula, Rasmi; Billah, Sk Masum; Ferdous, Tarana; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Bangladesh's National Nutrition Services aims to deliver nutrition services to pregnant women and children through the primary health care system. Previous research highlighted gaps in coverage of preventive nutrition intervention delivery through this system but little is known about feasibility of reshaping service delivery to close the gaps. Prior to designing new approaches, we used a novel scenario-based feasibility testing approach to assess potential to strengthen service delivery.
Strengthening nutrition interventions in antenatal care services had modest impacts on diet diversity, micronutrient intake, and breastfeeding in Uttar Pradesh, India
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Kachwaha, Shivani; Tran, Lan Mai; Avula, Rasmi; Young, Melissa; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Interventions to improve maternal nutrition are poorly integrated into antenatal care (ANC) services in India. Alive & Thrive aimed to strengthen delivery of micronutrient supplements and intensify interpersonal counseling and community mobilization implemented through government ANC services. We evaluated the impact of nutrition-intensified ANC (I-ANC) compared to standard ANC (S-ANC) on diet diversity, consumption of iron-folic acid (IFA) and calcium supplements, and early breastfeeding practices.
Assessing the coverage of biofortified foods: Development and testing of methods and indicators in Musanze, Rwanda
Petry, Nicolai; Wirth, James; Friesen, Valerie; Rohner, Fabian; Nkundineza, Arcade; Boy, Erick; Birol, Ekin; Mudyahoto, Bho. 2020
Biofortification is a promising approach to increase micronutrient intakes, especially among populations that are hard to reach with other interventions. Information on the coverage of biofortified foods is needed to ascertain potential for impact, understand program performance, and identify bottlenecks. In this study, we aimed to develop and test methods and indicators for assessing household coverage of biofortified foods.
Integrating nutrition and physical activity promotion: A scoping review
Casu, Laura; Gillespie, Stuart; Nisbett, Nicholas. 2020
Background: This paper investigates actions that combine nutrition and physical activity which hold potential for 'double duty action' to tackle multiple forms of malnutrition simultaneously. Expanding on previous research on single component actions, we assessed the state of the literature to map integrated interventions across the life course to analyse potential double duty effects, and identify knowledge gaps and needs for future design, implementation, evaluation and research for effective double duty action. Methods: A scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted to explore the pathways that extend from combined physical activity and nutrition promotion interventions, with potential synergistic effects on outcomes other than obesity. Electronic databases were searched for studies published between 1 January 2010 and 31 January 2020. Out of 359 articles retrieved, 31 peer-reviewed and 5 grey literature sources met inclusion criteria. Findings from 36 papers reporting on 34 interventions/initiatives were organised into 6 categories, based on implementation across multiple stages of the life course. Double-duty potential was assessed through a further stage of analysis. Findings: This review has identified actions that hold potential for tackling not only obesity, but healthy diets, sedentary behaviour and quality of life more generally, as well as actions that explicitly tackle multiple forms of malnutrition. Importantly, it has identified crucial gaps in current methods and praxis that call for further practice-oriented research, in order to better understand and exploit the synergistic effects of integrated interventions on outcomes other than obesity. Conclusions: Findings from across implementation settings suggest that even in situations where interventions are aimed at, or framed in terms of, obesity prevention and control, there are unexploited pathways for broader outcomes of relevance to nutrition and health and wellbeing more generally. Future design and evaluation of multisectoral approaches will benefit from an explicit framing of interventions as double-duty oriented.
Effects of modern food retailers on adult and child diets and nutrition
Khonje, Makaiko G.; Ecker, Olivier; Qaim, Matin. Basel, Switzerland 2020
In many developing countries, food environments are changing rapidly, with modern retailers—such as supermarkets—gaining in importance. Previous studies have suggested that the rise of modern retailers contributes to overweight and obesity. Effects of modern retailers on dietary quality have not been analyzed previously due to the unavailability of individual-level dietary data. Here, we address this research gap with data from randomly selected households in Lusaka, Zambia. Anthropometric and food-intake data from 930 adults and 499 children were analyzed to estimate effects of purchasing food in modern retailers on body weight, height, and dietary quality while controlling for income and other confounding factors. The food expenditure share spent in modern retailers was found to be positively associated with overweight in adults, but not in children. For children, a positive association between expenditures in modern retailers and height was identified. Modern retailers contribute to higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and calories. But they also increase protein and micronutrient intakes among adults and children, mainly through higher consumption of meat and dairy. The findings underline that modern retailers can influence diets and nutrition in positive and negative ways. Differentiated regulatory policies are needed to shape food environments for healthy food choices and nutrition.
Bargaining power, decision making, and biofortification: The role of gender in adoption of orange sweet potato in Uganda
Gilligan, Daniel O.; Kumar, Neha; McNiven, Scott; Meenakshi, J. V.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.. 2020
We examine the role of gender dimensions of intrahousehold bargaining power and decision making in the adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato (OSP), a biofortified crop being promoted to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A in Uganda. We use patterns of ownership and control of land and other assets by married men and women to create gender-disaggregated indicators of bargaining power, allowing for joint and sole ownership and control of land and assets. Using data from an experimental evaluation of a project promoting OSP adoption, we find that the probability of adopting OSP is not affected by the exclusive or joint control of assets by women at the household level. However, within households, parcels of land under joint control, in which the woman has primary control over decision making, are significantly more likely to contain OSP. Women who control a higher share of household nonland resources are more likely to share OPS vines, showing that women use greater bargaining power to facilitate diffusion of this health-promoting technology. We do not find any impact of women's bargaining power on children's dietary intakes of Vitamin A, possibly because husbands and wives have the same preferences regarding their children's nutritional status. These results contribute to reshaping our understanding of household decision making to inform the design and implementation of agriculture-nutrition interventions.
Micronutrient intake and prevalence of micronutrient inadequacy among women (15-49 y) and children (6-59 mo) in South Kivu and Kongo Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Moumin, Najma A.; Angel, Moira Donahue; Karakochuk, Crystal D.; Michaux, Kristina D.; Moursi, Mourad; Foley, Jennifer; Boy, Erick. 2020
Iron biofortified beans and carotenoid enriched cassava are proposed as a solution to combat iron and vitamin A deficiencies, respectively, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). To inform the need for biofortified foods, we conducted a survey in 2014 in two provinces of the DRC, South Kivu and Kongo Central. Unexpectedly, women of reproductive age (WRA; 15–49 y) and their children (6–59 m) had a low prevalence of biochemical iron and vitamin A deficiency, based on ferritin and retinol binding protein, respectively. To better understand the lack of biochemical deficiency of these nutrients, we examined the prevalence of inadequate intake for these and other select nutrients. Dietary intake was assessed using 24-hour recalls among 744 mother-child dyads. Repeat recalls on a non-consecutive day were conducted with a subsample of the study population to account for intra-individual variation and estimate usual intake. In WRA, the prevalence of inadequate iron intakes were 33% and 29% in South Kivu and Kongo Central, respecitvely. The prevalence of inadequate vitamin A intakes among WRA was low in South Kivu (18%) and negligible in Kongo Central (1%). Iron inadequacy was highest in infants (6–11 m) at 82% and 64% in South Kivu and Kongo Central, respectively. Among older children (12–59 m) in both provinces, the prevalence of iron inadequacy was similar at ~20%. There was a high prevalence of inadequate zinc intake in women and children (i.e. 79–86% among WRA and 56–91% among children 6–59 m) consistent with our findings of a high prevalence of low serum zinc in the same sample. Dietary data here corroborate the low prevalence of biochemical vitamin A deficiency but not iron. However, any change to the supply of red palm oil (primary source of vitamin A) would dramatically reduce population vitamin A intakes, thus a carotenoid enriched cassava program may be beneficial as a safety net measure. Crops biofortified with zinc also appear warranted. We caution that our findings cannot be extrapolated to the entire Congo where diverse agro-ecological landscape exist or when political and environmental shocks occur which challenge food production.
Variation in the factors associated with diet quality of children aged 6 to 23 months in low and high agroecological zones of Rongai subcounty, Kenya
Kemboi, Sharon; Mungiria-Mituki, Dorothy; Ramkat, Rose; Termote, Celine; Covic, Namukolo; Cheserek, Maureen Jepkorir. 2020
Post-harvest management and farm outcomes: Storage facilities matter
Boss, Ruchira; Pradhan, Mamata. 2020
PM-KISAN and the adoption of modern agricultural technologies
Varshney, Deepak; Joshi, Pramod Kumar; Roy, Devesh; Kumar, Anjani. 2020
Can children catch up from the consequences of undernourishment? Evidence from child linear growth, developmental epigenetics, and brain and neurocognitive development
Leroy, Jef L.; Frongillo, Edward A.; Dewan, Pragya; Black, Maureen M.; Waterland, Robert A.. 2020
Recovery from nutritionally induced height deficits continues to garner attention. The current literature on catch-up growth, however, has 2 important limitations: wide-ranging definitions of catch-up growth are used, and it remains unclear whether children can recover from the broader consequences of undernutrition. We addressed these shortcomings by reviewing the literature on the criteria for catch-up in linear growth and on the potential to recover from undernutrition early in life in 3 domains: linear growth, developmental epigenetics, and child brain and neurocognitive development. Four criteria must be met to demonstrate catch-up growth in height: after a period in which a growth-inhibiting condition (criterion 1) causes a reduction in linear growth velocity (criterion 2), alleviation of the inhibiting condition (criterion 3) leads to higher-than-normal velocity (criterion 4). Accordingly, studies that are observational, do not use absolute height, or have no alleviation of an inhibiting condition cannot be used to establish catch-up growth. Adoption and foster care, which provide dramatic improvements in children's living conditions not typically attained in nutrition interventions, led to some (but incomplete) recovery in linear growth and brain and neurocognitive development. Maternal nutrition around the time of conception was shown to have long-term (potentially permanent) effects on DNA methylation in the offspring. Undernourishment early in life may thus have profound irreversible effects. Scientific, program, and policy efforts should focus on preventing maternal and child undernutrition rather than on correcting its consequences or attempting to prove they can be corrected.
Measuring time use in developing country agriculture: Evidence from Bangladesh and Uganda
Seymour, Gregory; Malapit, Hazel J.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.. 2020
This paper discusses the challenges associated with implementing time-use surveys among agricultural households in developing countries and offers advice on best practices for two common measurement methods: stylized questions and time diaries. Using data from Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) surveys in Bangladesh and Uganda, it finds that stylized questions do not always produce shorter interviews compared to time diaries, and recall accuracy may depend on the regularity and saliency of the activity and enumerator abilities. The paper suggests that combining promising methodological innovations from other disciplines with mainstream time-use data collection methods would allow capture of both the quantity and quality of time and provide richer insights into gendered time-use patterns. Broadening the scope of time-use research to other aspects of well-being can help identify how time constraints contribute to gender inequality and inform the design of policies and interventions to relieve those constraints.
To beat COVID, eating enough is not enough
Roy, Devesh; Sharma, Manika. 2020
While ensuring food and economic security for the poor is obviously a high priority, we cannot ignore the clear linkage between unhealthy diets and the severity of the pandemic.
Multidimensional predictors of common mental disorders among Indian mothers of 6- to 24-month-old children living in disadvantaged rural villages with women's self-help groups: A cross-sectional analysis
Scott, Samuel; Arrieta, Alejandra; Kumar, Neha; Menon, Purnima; Quisumbing, Agnes. 2020
Common mental disorders (CMD) among mothers cause disability, negatively affect child development, and have high long-term economic costs. Little is known about how factors across multiple life dimensions, modeled together, are differentially related to maternal mental health in high poverty contexts. Further, there is limited evidence on determinants of CMD in areas where self-help groups (SHGs) exist to promote women's wellbeing. Filling this evidence gap is important given the high prevalence of CMD and the rapid expansion of SHGs in rural India. Cross-sectional data were collected from 1644 mother-infant pairs living in disadvantaged rural villages across five Indian states—Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh—surveyed in the Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies study. CMD were assessed using the 20-item Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ). We examined 31 factors across four life dimensions: work (work type, time spent in labor, domestic and caretaking activities), agency (SHG membership, decision-making, gender attitudes), health/nutrition (underweight, fertility, diet diversity, child illness), and household/environment (dependency ratio, wealth, food security, shocks, water, sanitation). Survey-adjusted multivariate logistic and ordinary least squares regression models were fit to examine predictors of CMD or SRQ score. On average, mothers were 26 (range 18–46) years old and their children were 15 (range 6–24) months old. CMD defined as ≥ 8 positive SRQ responses were reported by 262 women (16%). Protective factors included being engaged in agricultural labor as a main occupation relative to being a housewife (AOR 0.18, 95% CI 0.10–0.32), more time working (0.85, 0.77–0.93), higher decision-making (0.33, 0.16–0.69), SHG membership (0.73, 0.56–0.96), and having an improved toilet (0.49, 0.33–0.72). Risk factors included food insecurity (1.13, 1.07–1.20) and shocks to non-farm livelihoods (2.04, 1.10–3.78). Practitioners and policymakers should aim to improve food security, economic wellbeing and social capital, such as that created through SHG membership, to improve maternal mental health. Future research should aim to understand why working outside the home, albeit in agricultural work, appears to protect maternal mental health in this context.
Monitoring and evaluation in nutrition programs
Ruel-Bergeron, Julie C.; Thorne-Lyman, Andrew L.; Ruel, Marie T.. Baltimore, Maryland 2020
Future challenges, trends, and opportunities
Templeton, Gizem; Hatik, Nihal Destan Aytekin; Campbell, Hilary A.. New York, NY, USA 2020
Epidemics and food systems: What gets framed, gets done
This brief article aims to interrogate some widely used concepts in framing the interactions between disease epidemics, food systems and nutrition, with a particular focus on the COVID-19 crisis. How should we conceptualize vulnerability in such situations – both with regard to viral exposure and to subsequent nutrition-relevant impacts of epidemics and responses (including lockdowns)? Is it possible to simultaneously pursue strategies aimed at strengthening resilience and driving transformation ('building back better')? What type of framing and conceptualization can help illuminate entry points and options for responding effectively to interacting crises? In addressing these questions, it's important to re-visit lessons from past attempts to address the impacts of epidemics on food and nutrition security.
Digital solutions to promote nutritious foods: Value chains for biofortified staples
Walton, Jenny; Aytekin, Destan. 2020
Micronutrient (mineral and vitamin) deficiency is one of the three forms of malnutrition, alongside overweight or obesity and undernutrition. It affects more than 2 billion people globally, causing health problems, reducing productivity and curtailing income at individual and national level (IFPRI, 2016). Malnutrition, in all its forms, can be tackled with a healthy diet. Current food systems are unable to provide healthy diets for many, however, especially those in rural areas who cannot access or afford nutrient-dense foods and rely on staple crops for their calorific needs. The biofortification of staples commonly grown and consumed in lower- and middleincome countries (LMICs) with key micronutrients (such as vitamin A, iron and zinc) is a cost-effective and scalable strategy with proven potential to improve the micronutrient access of the population (Lockyer, White and Butriss, 2018; HarvestPlus, 2019; Bouis and Saltzman, 2017).
Kohli, Neha; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Avula, Rasmi; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Childhood stunting has declined in India between 2006 and 2016, but not uniformly across all states. Little is known about what helped some states accelerate progress while others did not. Insights on subnational drivers of progress are useful not just for India but for other decentralised policy contexts. Thus, we aimed to identify the factors that contributed to declines in childhood stunting (from 52.9% to 37.6%) between 2006 and 2016 in the state of Chhattisgarh, a subnational success story in stunting reduction in India.
Using mobile-phone technology to change behaviour: Lessons from mNutrition
Barnett, Inka; Gordon, Jessica; Faith, Becky; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Palloni, Giordano; Batchelor, Simon; Scott, Nigel. 2020
This article presents key lessons learned from a rigorous mixed-method evaluation of mNutrition, a global mobile phone-based advisory service that promotes behavioural change around key nutrition and farming practices to boost the nutritional health of children and adults in low-income countries. The evaluation found that the reach and sustained uptake of mobile mNutrition services remain a challenge among very poor households, with women often being excluded. mNutrition services currently have limited effect on nutrition and agriculture behaviours at scale, although active users (those users who adopted and engaged with the service) report some behavioural change. Still, well-designed mNutrition services can provide individually tailored, practical and context-specific advice that is often lacking from other information sources. Mobile phone-based advisory services alone tend to be insufficient to ensure uptake, engagement and behavioural change. In-person support features may help, but also raise the cost of the service.
Incidence correction factors for moderate and severe acute child malnutrition from two longitudinal cohorts in Mali and Burkina Faso
Barba, Francisco M.; Huybregts, Lieven; Leroy, Jef L.. 2020
Child acute malnutrition (AM) is an important cause of child mortality. Accurately estimating its burden requires cumulative incidence data from longitudinal studies which are rarely available in low-income settings. In the absence of such data, the AM burden is approximated using prevalence estimates from cross-sectional surveys and the incidence correction factor K, obtained from the few available cohorts that measured AM. We estimated K factors for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) from AM incidence and prevalence using representative cross-sectional baseline and longitudinal data from two cluster-randomized controlled trials (Innovative Approaches for the Prevention of Childhood Malnutrition—PROMIS) conducted between 2014 and 2017 in Burkina Faso and Mali. We compared K estimates using a complete (weight-for-length z score, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), edema) and partial (MUAC, edema) definition of SAM and MAM. K estimates ranged from 9.4 and 5.7 for SAM, and from 4.7 and 5.1 for MAM in Burkina Faso and Mali, respectively. The MUAC and edema-based definition of AM did not lead to different K estimates. Our results suggest that K can be reliably estimated when only MUAC and edema-based data are available. Additional studies, however, are required to confirm this finding in different settings.
A research vision for food systems in the 2020s: Defying the status quo
Fanzo, Jessica; Covic, Namukolo M.; Dobermann, Achim; Henson, Spencer; Herrero, Mario; Pingali, Prabhu; Staal, Steve. 2020
Research and science should not only inform food and environmental policy but should be adopted and mainstreamed into actions at all levels. Food systems are faced with grander and interconnected challenges and constraints that bring about new research questions. Research has a vital role in charting a positive and sustainable direction for global food security, nutrition, and health. The status quo must be challenged to shape food systems transformation to deliver sustainable, healthier diets. Global Food Security provides a platform where evidence is shared in an accessible manner for those who need to act on it.
Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
Menon, Purnima; Khan, Shariqua Yunus; Sankar, Rajan. 2020
Every year 27 million babies are born in India. At any time, there is a cohort of over 50 million children under two years old. Good nutrition during the first two years helps to build bodies, brains and immunity for every child; yet, survey after survey tells us there is a real crisis in how babies across India are fed, especially around complementary feeding. Indeed, barely a tenth of Indian babies received a minimally adequate diet, even in 2018. Feeding babies well is no small task. Multiple times a day, every day, parents and caregivers must prepare, feed and clean their infants – adding up to an estimated 5,000 feeding moments in the first two years of life. Parents and caregivers need information, time, resources, skills and support to undertake what is a massive caregiving task over these first two years of a child's life. Public programmes implemented by frontline health workers and medical professionals typically offer parents advice and information, with research finding varying degrees of impact. Indeed, programmes to provide breastfeeding and complementary feeding information and support to families are a common feature of public policy across South Asia. However, few countries in the region also offer families with young children specially formulated complementary food supplements – fortified cereals, cereal-pulse mixes, eggs – to support infant feeding. Evidence suggests that, in food-insecure populations, either food or cash should be provided to families to support infant feeding1. India and Sri Lanka are two of the countries in South Asia that include public provisioning of complementary foods in their nutrition programmes at national scale.
Impacts of COVID-19 on childhood malnutrition and nutrition-related mortality
Headey, Derek; Heidkamp, Rebecca A.; Osendarp, Saskia; Ruel, Marie T.; Scott, Nick; Black, Robert; Bouis, Howarth. 2020
The unprecedented global social and economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic poses grave risks to the nutritional status and survival of young children in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Of particular concern is an expected increase in child malnutrition, including wasting, due to steep declines in household incomes, changes in the availability and affordability of nutritious foods, and interruptions to health, nutrition, and social protection services. One in ten deaths among children younger than 5 years in LMICs is attributable to severe wasting because wasted children are at increased risk of mortality from infectious diseases. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 47 million children younger than 5 years were moderately or severely wasted, most living in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
Resilient agri-food systems for nutrition amidst COVID-19: Evidence and lessons from food-based approaches to overcome micronutrient deficiency and rebuild livelihoods after crises
Heck, Simon; Campos, Hugo; Barker, Ian; Okello, Julius J.; Baral, Arun; Boy, Erick; Brown, Lynn; Birol, Ekin. 2020
COVID-19 has had an instant effect on food systems in developing countries. Restrictions to the movement of people and goods have impaired access to markets, services and food. Unlike other concurrent crises, rather than threatening the material hardware of food systems, COVID-19 has so far affected the 'software' of food systems, highlighting again that connectivity is at the heart of these systems. Drops in demand, the loss of markets and employment and growing concerns about international cooperation are indications of possible deeper disruptions to come. Amidst this uncertainty, strategies to safeguard food and nutrition security of the world's poor need to prioritize diversification of production and markets. Nutritious, biofortified crops such as potato, sweetpotato, but also wheat, maize and beans among others, can play a more significant role to provide key micronutrients (vitamin A, iron, zinc) at large scale. Strong local market chains, robust smallholder production systems and increasing commercial utilization make these crops powerful vehicles for securing nutrition when markets and mobility look uncertain. We posit that the evolving impacts of COVID-19 provide an opportunity to focus agricultural innovations, including the development and delivery of biofortified crops, on new and more specifically defined 'jobs to be done' throughout the food system. This will help bridge some of the current disruptions in supply and demand and will help prepare food systems for future crises.
How countries can reduce child stunting at scale: Lessons from exemplar countries
Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.; Akseer, Nadia; Keats, Emily C.; Vaivada, Tyler; Baker, Shawn; Horton, Susan E.; Katz, Joanne; Menon, Purnima; Piwoz, Ellen; Shekar, Meera; Victoria, Cesar; Black, Robert. 2020
Child stunting and linear growth faltering have declined over the past few decades and several countries have made exemplary progress.
Nutrient adequacy is low among both self-declared lacto-vegetarian and non-vegetarian pregnant women in Uttar Pradesh
Bellows, Alexandra L.; Kachwaha, Shivani; Ghosh, Sebanti; Kappos, Kristen; Escobar-Alegria, Jessica; Menon, Purnima; Nguyen, Phuong Hong. 2020
Poor dietary intake during pregnancy remains a significant public health concern, affecting the health of the mother and fetus. This study examines the adequacy of energy, macronutrient, and micronutrient intakes among self-declared lacto-vegetarian and non-vegetarian pregnant women. We analyzed dietary data from 627 pregnant women in Uttar Pradesh, India, using a multiple-pass 24 h diet recall. Compared to non-vegetarians, lacto-vegetarians (~46%) were less likely to report excessive carbohydrate (78% vs. 63%) and inadequate fat intakes (70% vs. 52%). In unadjusted analyses, lacto-vegetarians had a slightly higher mean PA for micronutrients (20% vs. 17%), but these differences were no longer significant after controlling for caste, education, and other demographic characteristics. In both groups, the median intake of 9 out of 11 micronutrients was below the Estimated Average Requirement. In conclusion, the energy and micronutrient intakes were inadequate, and the macronutrient intakes were imbalanced, regardless of stated dietary preferences. Since diets are poor across the board, a range of policies and interventions that address the household food environment, nutrition counseling, behavior change, and supplementation are needed in order to achieve adequate nutrient intake for pregnant women in this population.
It's about time: Intergenerational equity and nutrition
In his 2019 book "Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crises and Change", Jared Diamond starts by interrogating the word 'crisis'. Coming from the Greek noun 'krisis' and the verb 'krino' there are several meanings — to separate, decide, a turning point. Crises differ in terms of the way they emerge, their scale, duration, and impact. Some come as a shock, some are slow-burn — though in reality this distinction may be blurred once we look below the surface. The COVID-19 pandemic is a sudden-onset crisis, while climate change is slow-burn (albeit linked to increasing shocks like floods and droughts). The biggest cause of global ill-health and premature mortality – malnutrition — is also slow-burn. All three crises are massive in scale, they overlap and interact, and they share many drivers. In 2019, a Lancet Commission delivered an incisive analysis of the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. This was a year before the pandemic. COVID-19 has since added another crisis into this toxic mix.
Determining a global mid-upper arm circumference cut-off to assess underweight in adults (men and non-pregnant women)
Tang, Alice M.; Chung, Mei; Dong, Kimberly R.; Bahwere, Paluku; Bose, Kaushik; Nguyen, Phuong Hong. 2020
Impact of COVID-19 on agricultural markets: Assessing the roles of commodity characteristics, disease caseload and market reforms
Varshney, Deepak; Roy, Devesh; Meenakshi, J. V.. 2020
This paper assesses the impact of the spread of COVID-19 and the lockdown on wholesale prices and quantities traded in agricultural markets. We compare whether these impacts differ across non-perishable (wheat) and perishable commodities (tomato and onion), and the extent to which any adverse impacts are mitigated by the adoption of a greater number of agricultural market reform measures. We use a granular data set comprising daily observations for 3 months from nearly 1000 markets across five states and use a double- and triple- difference estimation strategy. Expectedly, our results differ by type of commodity and period of analysis. While all prices spiked initially in April, they recovered relatively quickly, underscoring the importance of time duration for analysis. Wheat prices were anchored in large part by the minimum support price, while tomato prices were lower in some months. Supply constraints began easing in May with greater market arrivals perhaps reflecting distress sales. Market reform measures did help in insulating farmers from lower prices, but these effects are salient for the perishable goods, and not so much for wheat where the government remained the dominant market player. Taken together, these results point to considerable resilience in agricultural markets in dealing with the COVID-19 shock, buffered by adequate policy support.
Nutrition transition in Vietnam: Changing food supply, food prices, household expenditure, diet and nutrition outcomes
Harris, Jody; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Tran, Lan Mai; Huynh, Phuong Nam. 2020
While literature has noted the presence of a nutrition transition in terms of changing nutrition outcomes in Vietnam, very limited evidence linking changes in upstream food system factors to downstream diet and nutrition changes exists. Combining available data from different sources and analyzing it through a conceptual food systems framework, our study examines different pathways of nutrition transition through food supply, food prices, household food expenditures, diets, and nutrition outcomes in Vietnam. Our findings show that while Vietnam is at the start of its nutrition transition, change is happening rapidly. Undernutrition is falling, obesity is rising, and nutrition-related chronic diseases account for a significant burden of diseases and death. In terms of changes in healthful foods, the supply of vegetables and fruits is plentiful, and expenditure on vegetables remains consistent and small. Notably however, vegetable consumption has dropped, and increasing meat and milk consumption have been double-edged swords for nutrition. In terms of foods associated with the negative sides of the nutrition transition, the availability of sweets and sweetened beverages has risen in recent years, with oils and fats rising less. The expenditure share on food eaten away from home, in many contexts a marker for less healthful diets, has increased over time. While these changes are typical of a nutrition transition, Vietnam is also somewhat of an outlier in some respects: wet markets and daily fresh food purchases continue to dominate food purchasing behaviour, and food eaten away from home means a different thing in a country renowned for its diverse and healthy street food and roadside restaurant culture. While this study brings together important data on the food system drivers of a nutrition transition in Vietnam, it cannot link each of these issues into a standard statistical model of change due to data gaps at different levels, calling for data collection improvement in future diet and food systems research. Vietnamese health policy explicitly acknowledges nutrition transition issues, with targets for obesity reduction. This work on the food system drivers of the nutrition transition points to the need to further adapt policy in other sectors beyond health, however. At the same time as making nutrient-rich foods more accessible, nutrient-poor or ultra-processed foods need to be made less accessible and desirable if additional income is to contribute to a healthy diet in limiting Vietnam's emerging nutrition transition.
Food systems everywhere: Improving relevance in practice
Brouwer, Inge D.; McDermott, John; Ruben, Ruerd. 2020
Food systems approaches are increasingly used to better understand transitions in diets, sustainable resource use and social inclusion. Moreover, food systems frameworks are also widely used in many recent policy and foresight studies. We assess 32 highly-cited international studies, identifying and comparing differences in the frameworks used for food systems analysis, and discrepancies in the procedures to identify strategies for and performances of food system transformation. We show that the relevance of existing food systems analysis for identifying critical trade-offs and understanding relevant policies and practices for achieving synergies remains limited. While many studies are largely descriptive, some offer more practical insights into and evidence of entry points for food system transformation as well as opportunities for improving multiple food system outcomes (i.e. nutrition and health, environmental sustainability and resilience, social inclusion). We distinguish four different pathways for food system transformation and outline their analytical underpinnings, their views on multi-stakeholder governance, and how they deal with critical trade-offs between multiple food system objectives. We conclude that food systems approaches must be useful to decision makers and performance can only be improved if decision makers have a better understanding of these underlying interactions and dynamics of food systems change.
Population estimates, consequences, and risk factors of obesity among pregnant and postpartum women in India: Results from a national survey and policy recommendations
Chopra, Mansi; Kaur, Naman; Singh, Konsam Dinachandra; Maria Jacob, Chandni; Divakar, Hema; Babu, Giridhara R.; Nguyen, Phuong Hong. 2020
To examine prevalence, risk factors, and consequences of maternal obesity; and provide evidence on current policies and programs to manage maternal obesity in India.
This is a mixed‐methods study. We analyzed the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)‐4 data (2015–16) to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of obesity, followed by a desk review of literature and stakeholder mapping with interviews to develop policy guidance.
National prevalence of obesity (defined by WHO as body mass index ≥25) was comparable among pregnant (12%) and postpartum women (13%) ≥20 years of age. A high prevalence of obesity (>40%) was observed in over 30 districts in multiple states. Older maternal age, urban residence, increasing wealth quintile, and secondary education were associated with increased odds of obesity among pregnant and postpartum women; higher education increased odds among postpartum women only (OR 1.90; 95% CI, 1.44–2.52). Dietary variables were not associated with obesity. Several implementation challenges across healthcare system blocks were observed at policy level.
Overall prevalence of obesity in India during and after pregnancy is high, with huge variation across districts. Policy and programs must be state‐specific focusing on prevention, screening, and management of obesity among pregnant and postpartum women.
Malnutrition, hypertension risk, and correlates: An analysis of the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data for 15–19 years adolescent boys and girls
Azupogo, Fusta; Abizari, Abdul-Razak; Aurino, Elisabetta; Gelli, Aulo; Osendarp, Saskia J. M.. 2020
The sex differences in malnutrition and hypertension during adolescence is largely inconclusive. There is also a paucity of data on the sex-specific correlates of malnutrition and hypertension for adolescents. Hence, this study aimed to assess the association between malnutrition, pre-hypertension/hypertension (PHH) and sex among adolescents. The study also aimed to determine and contrast the factors associated with these risks in Ghana. We analysed data of non-pregnant adolescent girls (n = 857) and adolescent boys (n = 870) aged 15–19 years from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). We modelled the prevalence risk ratio (PRR) of malnutrition and PHH using Cox proportional hazard models. Compared to adolescent girls, boys were more than twice likely to be stunted (PRR = 2.58, 95% C.I (1.77, 3.76)) and underweight (PRR = 2.67, 95% C.I (1.41, 5.09)) but less likely to be overweight/obese (PRR = 0.85, 95% C.I (0.08, 0.29)). Boys were also about twice likely to have PHH (PRR = 1.96, 95% C.I (1.47, 2.59)) compared to their female peers. Girls were more at risk of the detrimental effects of poor education on stunting and PHH. Empowerment index while protective of stunting for girls (PRR = 0.82, 95% C.I (0.67, 0.99)) also increased their risk of overweight/obesity (PRR = 1.31, 95% C.I (1.02, 1.68)). A higher household wealth index (HWI) increased the risk of overweight/obesity for adolescent girls but was protective of stunting and PHH for adolescent boys. Improvement in household water, hygiene, and sanitation (WASH) reduced the risk of stunting by 15% for adolescent boys. Overall, our findings suggest a double-burden of malnutrition with an up-coming non-communicable disease burden for adolescents in Ghana. Our findings may also be highlighting the need to target adolescent boys alongside girls in nutrition and health intervention programmes.
A review of leadership and capacity gaps in nutrition-sensitive agricultural policies and strategies for selected countries in sub-saharan Africa and Asia
Aryeetey, Richmond; Covic, Namukolo M.. 2020
Growth faltering in early infancy: Highlights from a two-day scientific consultation
Aneja, Satinder; Kumar, Praveen; Choudhary, Tarun Shankar; Srivastava, Akanksha; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Faltering of growth in early life has been recognized as a public health challenge among Indian babies. A two-day consultation on growth faltering in early infancy was organized to examine the data and evidence on identification and management of early growth failure and to identify knowledge gaps and future areas of research. The consultation was supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (Nutrition Chapter), Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, and the Society for Applied Studies. It brought together researchers, clinicians, policy makers and program managers.
Retention of Zn, Fe and phytic acid in parboiled biofortified and non-biofortified rice
Taleon, Victor; Gallego, Sonia; Orozco, Juan Camilo; Grenier, Cecile. 2020
Biofortified rice with high Zn concentration could reduce Zn deficiency in South Asia. This population frequently parboils rice. True retention (TR) of Zn, Fe and phytic acid after parboiling and milling was evaluated in biofortified and non-biofortified rice. TR in milled non-parboiled rice was 63.8–89.6% for Zn, 21.1–44.5% for Fe and 16.4–40.3% for phytic acid, whereas in milled parboiled rice TR was 49.8–72.2% for Zn, 23.4–36.7% for Fe and 22.0–33.3% for phytic acid. Milled parboiled rice resulted in lower Zn TR compared to milled non-parboiled. These results suggest that Zn moves from the inner endosperm towards the outer layers during parboiling, regardless of initial Zn concentration, consequently, once milled, the potential impact of Zn intake on Zn deficiency from parboiled rice is less than non-parboiled rice. Despite Zn losses during processing, biofortified rice could provide over 50% of the Zn EAR for children.
Food systems and building back better
Ebata, Ayako; Nisbett, Nick; Gillespie, Stuart. Brighton, UK 2020
Measures that have been put in place across the world to slow down the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) have had profound effects on food and nutrition security for those furthest behind. In the short run, many have experienced increased commodity prices, decreased access to food through schools and markets, disrupted agri-food supply chains, and loss of livelihoods. It is feared that these short-term effects will have a long-term impact on poverty, intergenerational malnutrition among vulnerable people (in particular, pregnant and lactating women), agricultural productivity reduction, and increased conflicts and displacement. How can we build back food systems better after Covid-19 so that they serve the needs of those furthest behind? To guide this decision, we employ the following concept of food systems resilience: 'Capacity over time of a food system and its units at multiple levels, to provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all, in the face of various and even unforeseen disturbances'. In applying this concept to the post-Covid-19 response, we supplement this with a political economy angle that critically examines whose resilience is and should be prioritised in humanitarian aid and donor-funded interventions. In line with international and Ireland's commitments, the aim is to build back food systems that 'leave no one behind'.
View: The clamour…and silence…over MSP in the farm bills
Roy, Devesh; Meenakshi, J. V.. 2020
The MSP system, in place since the mid-1960s, was part of the country's drive to reduce dependence on food imports. It was an integral part of a package that included subsidized inputs meant to incentivize farmers to adopt new technologies and enhance farm productivity. The MSP was meant to protect farmers against price crashes that could occur with large harvests.
Perception, reality, and optimality: The MSP composite in relation to the farm acts
Pradhan, Mamata; Roy, Devesh; Saroj, Sunil. 2020
Agriculture in India needs to get the markets right, in the first place. Only then can the raising of farmers' incomes to a reasonable level become a reality. Across space or over time, farmers should be able to trade freely with certainty. If MSP were a panacea, we would not be having any conversation, in the first place, about doubling farmers' income more than five decades on!
Farm laws debate: A bit of analytical rigour and global best practices
Roy, Devesh; Pradhan, Mamata; Boss, Ruchira. 2020
There are several lessons to learn from the experiments in the past, like the repeal of APMC in Bihar and the institution of e-NAM, which have elements of the current farm acts. History of little success will be repeated if the mechanics of trading are not understood and actions are not taken to alleviate the constraints.
Trends and inequalities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and adult women in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000: A cross-sectional series study
Jiwani, Safia S.; Gatica-Domínguez, Giovanna; Crochemore-Silva, Inacio; Maïga, Abdoulaye; Walton, Shelley; Verstraeten, Roosmarijn. 2020
Evidence on the rate at which the double burden of malnutrition unfolds is limited. We quantified trends and inequalities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and adult women in sub-Saharan Africa.
Multiplying the efficiency and impact of biofortification through metabolic engineering
Van Der Straeten, Dominique; Bhullar, Navreet K.; De Steur, Hans; Gruissem, Wilhelm; Bouis, Howarth E.. 2020
Ending all forms of hunger by 2030, as set forward in the UN-Sustainable Development Goal 2 (UN-SDG2), is a daunting but essential task, given the limited timeline ahead and the negative global health and socio-economic impact of hunger. Malnutrition or hidden hunger due to micronutrient deficiencies affects about one third of the world population and severely jeopardizes economic development. Staple crop biofortification through gene stacking, using a rational combination of conventional breeding and metabolic engineering strategies, should enable a leap forward within the coming decade. A number of specific actions and policy interventions are proposed to reach this goal.
Food biofortification: Reaping the benefits of science to overcome hidden hunger: A paper in the series on the need for agricultural innovation to sustainably feed the world by 2050
Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). Ames, Iowa 2020
Biofortification is a process of increasing the density of minerals and vitamins in a food crop through conventional plant breeding, genetic engineering, or agronomic practices (primarily use of fertilizers and foliar sprays). Biofortified staple food crops, when substituted consistently for non-biofortified staple food crops, can generate measurable improvements in human nutrition and health. This monograph describes the progress made in developing, testing, and disseminating biofortified staple food crops, primarily through the use of conventional plant breeding, summarizing the activities of two consortiums of inter-disciplinary collaborating institutions led the HarvestPlus program and the International Potato Center (CIP).
Second rapid assessment of food and nutrition security in the context of COVID-19 in Bangladesh
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Dhaka, Bangladesh 2020
FAO Bangladesh coordinated this Second rapid assessment of food and nutrition security in the context of COVID-19 in Bangladesh to understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses to it, on food and nutrition security in Bangladesh. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and WorldFish, made significant contributions to this combined assessment. The assessment was completed in 30 days, including information collection, report drafting, peer review and finalisation. FAO and CGIAR experts collected the information mostly through telephone interviews with government counterparts, private sector actors, producer associations and other key informants.
MILK Symposium review: Milk consumption is associated with better height and weight in rural Nepali children over 60 months of age and better head circumference in children 24 to 60 months of age
Miller, Laurie C.; Neupane, Sumanta; Joshi, Neena; Lohani, Mahendra. 2020
Intimate partner violence is associated with poorer maternal mental health and breastfeeding practices in Bangladesh
Tran, Lan Mai; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Naved, Ruchira Tabassum; Menon, Purnima. Oxford, UK 2020
Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) can have profound adverse consequences on maternal and child health. This study aimed to: (1) identify factors associated with IPV during pregnancy and postpartum in Bangladesh; and (2) assess the associations between IPV and maternal mental health and breastfeeding practices. We used data from a cross-sectional survey of 2000 mothers with children <6 months in four districts in Bangladesh. We applied multivariable logistic regression models to examine factors associated with IPV and structural equation modelling to assess the inter-relationships between IPV, maternal common mental disorders (CMD, measured by Self-reporting Questionnaire ≥7) and breastfeeding practices. Overall, 49.7% of mothers experienced violence during the last 12 months and 28% of mothers had high levels of CMD. Only 54% of women reported early initiation of breastfeeding and 64% reported exclusive breastfeeding. Women were more likely to experience IPV if living in food-insecure households, being of low socio-economic status, having low autonomy or experiencing inequality in education compared with husbands (OR ranged from 1.6 to 2.8). Women exposed to IPV were 2–2.3 times more likely to suffer from high levels of CMD and 28–34% less likely to breastfeed their babies exclusively. The indirect path (the indirect effects of IPV on breastfeeding through CMD) through maternal CMD accounted for 14% of the relationship between IPV on breastfeeding practice. In conclusion, IPV is pervasive in Bangladesh and is linked to increased risks of CMD and poor breastfeeding practices. Integrating effective interventions to mitigate IPV, along with routine maternal and child health services and involving men in counselling services, could help both to reduce exposure to IPV among women and to contribute to better health outcomes for women and children.
Picchioni, Fiorella; Zanello, Giacomo; Srinivasan, C. S.; Wyatt, Amanda J.; Webb, Patrick. 2020
Women's patterns of time-use, which proxy the work burdens associated with productive and reproductive activities, are an important determinant of nutrition and well-being in LMICs. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how patterns of time-use translate into patterns of physical activity and energy expenditure, particularly in rural areas where seasonal agricultural labour plays such an important role. We address this gap by integrating energy expenditure data derived from wearable tri-axial accelerometers with time-use data from conventional recall-based surveys. Using datasets from agricultural households in four rural communities in India and Nepal, our results show that there are significant gender differences in the patterns of time-use and energy expenditure. Men and women participate equally in productive work, however, women shoulder most of the additional reproductive work burdens in rural households at the expense of leisure opportunities. Our results provide insights into women's responses to opportunities for productive work and highlight the nature of trade-offs they face.
Biofortified pearl millet cultivars offer potential solution to tackle malnutrition in India
Govindaraj, Mahalingam; Virk, Parminder K.; Kannati, Anand; Cherian, Binu; Rai, K. N.; Anderson, Meike S.; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang H.. Oxfordshire, UK; Boston, MA 2020
Dietary deficiency of micronutrients (iron, zinc, vitamin A), leading to micronutrient malnutrition or hiden hunger, has been recognized as a widespread food-related health problem, affecting more than 2 billion people worldwide (White and Broadley, 2009; Stein 2010; fao,2015; Darnton-Hill and Mkparu, 2015). This is primarily attributable to lack of affordability and access to diversified diet, such as fruits, vegetables and livestock products. As a consequence, women, children and infants, belonging to the poorer section of society are malnourished. In particular, deficiencies of iron and zinc are widespread, leading to numerous adverse health consequences , as they play a vital role in various physiological body functions.
The double burden of malnutrition: Further perspective: Authors' reply
Hawkes, Corinna; Ruel, Marie T.; Wells, Jonathan C.; Popkin, Barry M.; Branca, Francesco. 2020
We thank Saskia Osendarp and colleagues, Mohammad Sorowar Hossain and colleagues, and Christine Stewart and colleagues for their responses to the Lancet Series on the double burden of malnutrition. They make some relevant points that we would like to address here.
Urban food systems and diets, nutrition, and health of the poor: Challenges, opportunities, and research gaps
Ruel, Marie T.; Leroy, Jef L.; Ecker, Olivier; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Resnick, Danielle; Thurlow, James. Cheltenham, UK 2020
Evidence-based decision making for nutrition policy and programme formulation in Ethiopia: A qualitative study exploring barriers and facilitators
Hailu, Solomon Eshetu; Bekele, Tesfaye; Covic, Namukolo; Kuche, Desalegn; Teshome, Beza. 2020
Despite much nutrition research conducted in Ethiopia, none has described existing opportunities for synergy or possible missed opportunities to use research to inform policy and program decisions to foster accelerated progress. The study aimed to describe prevailing processes on evidence use in formulating nutrition policy and program decisions and identify potential barriers and opportunities for evidence-based decision-making for nutrition for Ethiopia's context.
Covid-19 and the irreversible marks undernutrition will leave in its wake
Leroy, Jef L.; Ruel, Marie T.. 2020
India's Covid-19 mitigation efforts should be to prevent child undernutrition now rather than to treat it later.
Assessing the economic feasibility of assuring nutritionally adequate diets for vulnerable populations in Uttar Pradesh, India: Findings from a "cost of the diet" analysis
Kachwaha, Shivani; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; DeFreese, Michelle; Avula, Rasmi; Cyriac, Shruthi; Girard, Amy; Menon, Purnima. 2020
Background: Healthy diets can help reduce undernutrition, morbidity, and mortality. However, evidence on the accessibility and affordability of recommended diets is limited, particularly in poor-resource settings including India.
Objectives: This study examined: 1) the minimum cost of different types of household diets; 2) how economic constraints can prevent households from accessing a nutritious diet; and 3) how home production and social protection can improve access to nutritious diets.
Methods: We conducted 24 market and 125 household surveys in Uttar Pradesh, India, to obtain food prices and consumption patterns. Cost of Diet, a linear programming software, was used to assess the minimum cost of different diets, estimate affordability of nutritious diets, and model scenarios of home production and social protection interventions to improve affordability.
Results: The minimum-cost nutritious diet that met all recommended nutrient requirements [904 US dollars (US$)/y] was over twice as expensive as the diet that only met energy requirements (US$393/y). The nutritious diet was unaffordable for 75% of households given current income levels, consumption patterns, and food prices. Household income and dietary preferences, rather than food availability, were the key barriers to obtain nutritious diets. Home production had potential to reduce the cost of nutritious diets by 35%, subsidized grains by 19%, and supplementary food by 10%. The poorest households could only afford recommended nutritious diets with access to multiple interventions.
Conclusions: Practical, habitual, diet-related behavior change communication to middle- and high-income households and additional social protection for poorer households could enable individuals to achieve optimal nutrient intakes.
Community interventions with women's groups to improve women's and children's health in India: A mixed-methods systematic review of effects, enablers and barriers
Desai, Sapna; Misra, Madhavi; Das, Aikantika; Singh, Roopal Jyoti; Sehgal, Mrignyani; Gram, Lu; Kumar, Neha; Prost, Audrey. 2020
India is home to over 6 million women's groups, including self-help groups. There has been no evidence synthesis on whether and how such groups improve women's and children's health.
Preconception micronutrient supplementation positively affects child development at 6 years of age: A randomized controlled trial in Vietnam
Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Young, Melissa; Khuong, Long; Duong, Thai Hong; Nguyen, Hoang Cong; Truong, Truong Viet; DiGirolamo, Ann; Martorell, Reynaldo; Ramakrishnan, Usha. 2020
While there is growing evidence on the role of preconception nutrition for birth outcomes, very few studies have evaluated the effects of nutrition interventions during the preconception period on child development. This study evaluates the impact of preconception weekly multiple micronutrients (MM) or iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation compared to FA alone on child growth and development at age 6–7y.
Different cooking styles enhance antioxidant properties and carotenoids of biofortified pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) genotypes
Moreira, Lara de Azevedo Sarmet; Carvalho, Lucia Maria Jaeger de; Cardoso, Flávio da Silva e Souza Neves; Ortiz, Gisela Maria Dellamora; Finco, Fernanda Dias Bartolomeu Abadio; Carvalho, José Luiz Viana de . 2020
Biofortification is an important technique where the nutritional quality of food crops is enriched through the increase of nutrient content. Provitamin A deficiency is still a public health concern mainly in developing countries. Since beta-carotene is a vitamin A precursor, the increase of this compound in foods through biofortification is a manner to reach people under hidden hunger condition. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of different cooking styles on carotenoids content and antioxidant activity of two different genotypes of biofortified Cucurbita moschata. In the present study, biofortified pumpkins submitted to different cooking conditions were assessed for antioxidant activity by ABTS, DPPH, β-carotene/linoleic acid systems and have polyphenols and carotenoids content compared. The cooking style affected the antioxidant activity. Pumpkins from genotype 1 showed high levels of carotenoids, α-carotene and all-E-β-carotene compared to samples from genotype 2. There was an increase of all carotenoids in both cooked pumpkins, and steam cooking showed the highest retention percentages. Steam cooking presented a higher percentage of carotenoid retention. Pumpkin consumption in developing countries, especially in the Northeast Brazil may be promoted to combat vitamin A deficiency.
Willingness to pay of Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers for aflatoxin‐safe maize
Johnson, Andrew M.; Abdoulaye, Tahirou; Ayedun, Bamikole; Fulton, Joan R.; Widmar, Nicole J. Olynk; Adebowale, Akande; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit. 2020
Dietary aflatoxin exposure is a widespread problem in the developing world and causes severe negative health consequences to humans and livestock animals. A new biological control product, called Aflasafe, has been introduced in Nigeria to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of maize in the field and in storage. No known prior work has estimated how much African agribusinesses using maize for animal feed will pay for aflatoxin‐safe maize. This study measured the levels of Aflasafe awareness, surveyed current aflatoxin management practices, and estimated, using choice experiments, willingness to pay (WTP) for aflatoxin‐safe maize by Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers. Data was gathered from 272 orally administered surveys, which included discrete choice experiments examining maize purchasing decisions. Results suggest that the proportion of enterprises that were aware of aflatoxin was found to vary across states. Two latent classes of Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers were identified that were willing to pay average premiums of 4.9% and 30.9%, respectively for maize with 10 parts per billion (ppb) aflatoxin concentration relative to maize with 20 ppb aflatoxin concentration. Both latent classes were, on average, willing to pay larger premiums for maize with 4 ppb aflatoxin concentration. There was evidence that latent class membership, and hence WTP, varied based on awareness of aflatoxin and across geographies.
Expression, purification, and enzyme activity assay of phytoene synthase in vitro
Camagna, Maurizio; Welsch, Ralf. New York, NY 2020
Genetic dissection of zinc, iron, copper, manganese and phosphorus in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain and rachis at two developmental stages
Cu, Suong T.; Guild, Georgia; Nicolson, Alison; Velu, Govindan; Singh, Ravi; Stangoulis, James. 2020
The development of high-yielding wheat genotypes containing micronutrient-dense grains are the main priorities of biofortification programs. At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, breeders have successfully crossed high zinc progenitors including synthetic hexaploid wheat, T. dicoccum, T. spelta and landraces to generate high-zinc varieties. In this study, we report a genome-wide association using a wheat diversity panel to dissect the genetics controlling zinc, iron, copper, manganese and phosphorus concentrations in the grain and rachis during grain development and at physiological maturity. Significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were identified for each nutrient using multi-locus mixed model methodologies. For mature grain, markers that showed significant pleiotropic effects were found on chromosomes 1A, 3B and 5B, of which those on chromosome 5B at ∼95.5 cM were consistent over two growing seasons. Co-located MTAs were identified for the nutrient concentrations in developing grain, rachis and mature grain on multiple chromosomes. The identified genomic regions included putative candidate genes involved in metal uptake and transport and storage protein processing. These findings add to our understanding of the genetics of the five important nutrients in wheat grain and provide information on genetic markers for selecting high micronutrient genotypes.
Seroprevalences of multi-pathogen and description of farm movement in pigs in two provinces in Vietnam
Lee, Hu Suk; Bui, Vuong Nghia; Nguyen, Huyen Xuan; Bui, Anh Ngoc; Hoang, Trung Duc. 2020
In Vietnam, lack of animal health information is considered a major challenge for pig production. The main objective of this study was to assess the seroprevalences of five pathogens [porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and leptospirosis] and to better characterize the farm movements through a survey.
A total of 600 samples were collected from 120 farms from Bac Giang and Nghe An. Among unvaccinated herds, the highest seroprevalence was found for JE with 73.81% (95% CI: 68.39–78.74) in Bac Giang and 53.51% (95% CI 47.68–59.27) in Nghe An. Seroprevalences for PCV2 and M.hyo were 49.43% (95% CI: 45.06–53.80) and 46.06% (95% CI: 41.48–50.69) among unvaccinated animals. Accumulative co-infections for JE (86.25%) showed the highest level followed by M. hyo (66.25%) and PCV2 (62.50%). Three co-infections with JE had the highest positive rate (28.75%) followed by four co-infections (25.0%). Medium farms had relatively higher herd prevalences for all pathogens, except from leptospirosis. Overall, farmers exported/imported their pigs at the most 1–2 times every 6 months. Some respondents (5% for exportation and 20% for importation) had moved pigs more than 6 times over the last 6 months.
Exploring solution spaces for nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Kenya and Vietnam
Timler, Carl; Alvarez, Stephanie; DeClerck, Fabrice; Remans, Roseline; Raneri, Jessica. 2020
Smallholder agriculture is an important source of livelihoods in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions the highest concentrations of nutritionally vulnerable populations are found. Agricultural development needs to be nutrition-sensitive, and contribute simultaneously to improving household nutrition, farm productivity and environmental performance. We explored the windows of opportunities for farm development and the potential of crop diversification options for meeting household dietary requirements, whilst concurrently improving household economic performance in contrasting smallholder farm systems in Kenya and Vietnam. Farm and household features and farmer perspectives and priorities were integrated into a farm-household model that allowed quantification of a diverse set of nutritional, labour and productive indicators. Using a multi-objective optimization algorithm, we generated 'solution spaces' comprising crop compositions and management configurations that would satisfy household dietary needs and allowed income gains. Results indicated site-specific synergies between income and nutritional system yield for vitamin A. Diversification with novel vegetables could cover vitamin A requirements of 10 to 31 extra people per hectare and lead to greater income (25 to 185% increase) for some households, but reduced leisure time. Although the Vietnamese sites exhibited greater nutrient system yields than those in Kenya, the household diets in Kenya had greater nutrient adequacy due to the fact that the Vietnamese farmers sold greater proportions of their on-farm produced foods. We conclude that nutrition-sensitive, multi-method approaches have potential to identify solutions to simultaneously improve household income, nutrition and resource management in vulnerable smallholder farming systems.
A model-based exploration of farm-household livelihood and nutrition indicators to guide nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions
Estrada-Carmona, Natalia; Raneri, Jessica E.; Alvarez, Stephanie; Timler, Carl; Chatterjee, Shantonu Abe; Ditzler, Lenora. 2020
Assessing progress towards healthier people, farms and landscapes through nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) requires transdisciplinary methods with robust models and metrics. Farm-household models could facilitate disentangling the complex agriculture-nutrition nexus, by jointly assessing performance indicators on different farm system components such as farm productivity, farm environmental performance, household nutrition, and livelihoods. We, therefore, applied a farm-household model, FarmDESIGN, expanded to more comprehensively capture household nutrition and production diversity, diet diversity, and nutrient adequacy metrics. We estimated the potential contribution of an NSA intervention targeting the diversification of home gardens, aimed at reducing nutritional gaps and improving livelihoods in rural Vietnam. We addressed three central questions: (1) Do 'Selected Crops' (i.e. crops identified in a participatory process) in the intervention contribute to satisfying household dietary requirements?; (2) Does the adoption of Selected Crops contribute to improving household livelihoods (i.e. does it increase leisure time for non-earning activities as well as the dispensable budget)?; and (3) Do the proposed nutrition-related metrics estimate the contribution of home-garden diversification towards satisfying household dietary requirements? Results indicate trade-offs between nutrition and dispensable budget, with limited farm-household configurations leading to jointly improved nutrition and livelihoods. FarmDESIGN facilitated testing the robustness and limitations of commonly used metrics to monitor progress towards NSA. Results indicate that most of the production diversity metrics performed poorly at predicting desirable nutritional outcomes in this modelling study. This study demonstrates that farm-household models can facilitate anticipating the effect (positive or negative) of agricultural interventions on nutrition and the environment, identifying complementary interventions for significant and positive results and helping to foresee the trade-offs that farm-households could face. Furthermore, FarmDESIGN could contribute to identifying agreed-upon and robust metrics for measuring nutritional outcomes at the farm-household level, to allow comparability between contexts and NSA interventions.
Quantitatively evaluating the cross-sectoral and one health impact of interventions: A scoping review and application to antibiotic resistance
Naylor, Nichola R.; Lines, Jo; Waage, Jeff; Wieland, Barbara; Knight, Gwenan M.. 2020
Background: Current frameworks evaluating One Health (OH) interventions focus on intervention-design and -implementation. Cross-sectoral impact evaluations are needed to more effectively tackle OH-issues, such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We aimed to describe quantitative evaluation methods for interventions related to OH and cross-sectoral issues, to propose an explicit approach for evaluating such interventions, and to apply this approach to AMR.
Methods: A scoping review was performed using WebofScience, EconLit, PubMed and gray literature. Quantitative evaluations of interventions that had an impact across two or more of the human, animal and environment sectors were included. Information on the interventions, methods and outcome measures found was narratively summarised. The information from this review informed the construction of a new approach to OH-related intervention evaluation, which then was applied to the field of AMR.
Results: The review included 90 studies: 73 individual evaluations (from 72 papers) and 18 reviews, with a range of statistical modelling (n = 13 studies), mathematical modelling (n = 53) and index-creation/preference-ranking (n = 14) methods discussed. The literature highlighted the need to (I) establish stakeholder objectives, (II) establish quantifiable outcomes that feed into those objectives, (III) establish agents and compartments that affect these outcomes and (IV) select appropriate methods (described in this review) accordingly. Based on this, an evaluation model for AMR was conceptualised; a decision-tree of intervention options, a compartmental-microeconomic model across sectors and a general-equilibrium (macroeconomic) model are linked. The outcomes of this multi-level model (including cost-utility and Gross Domestic Product impact) can then feed into multi-criteria-decision analyses that weigh respective impact estimates alongside other chosen outcome estimates (for example equity or uncertainty).
Conclusion: In conclusion, stakeholder objectives are key in establishing which evaluation methods (and associated outcome measures) should be used for OH-related interventions. The stated multi-level approach also allows for sub-systems to be modelled in succession, where resources are constrained.
Local solutions for sustainable food systems: The contribution of orphan crops and wild edible species
Borelli, Teresa; Hunter, Danny; Padulosi, Stefano; Amaya, Nadezda; Meldrum, Gennifer. Basel, Switzerland 2020
Calls for a global food system transformation and finding more sustainable ways of producing healthier, safe and nutritious food for all have spurred production approaches such as sustainable intensification and biofortification with limited consideration of the copious amounts of orphan crops, traditional varieties and wild edible species readily available in many countries, mostly in and around smallholder farmers' fields. This paper explores the potential role of locally available; affordable and climate-resilient orphan crops, traditional varieties and wild edible species to support local food system transformation. Evidence from Brazil, Kenya, Guatemala, India, Mali, Sri Lanka and Turkey is used to showcase a three-pronged approach that aims to: (i) increase evidence of the nutritional value and biocultural importance of these foods, (ii) better link research to policy to ensure these foods are considered in national food and nutrition security strategies and actions, and (iii) improve consumer awareness of the desirability of these alternative foods so that they may more easily be incorporated in diets, food systems and markets. In the seven countries, this approach has brought about positive changes around increasing community dietary diversity and increasing market opportunities for smallholder growers, as well as increased attention to biodiversity conservation.
Genetic analysis of agronomic traits and grain iron and zinc concentrations in a doubled haploid population of rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Calayugan, Mark Ian C.; Formantes, Andrea Kariza; Amparado, Amery; Descalsota-Empleo, Gwen Iris; Nha, Chau Thanh. London, U.K. 2020
Wheat flour iron (Fe) fortification is mandatory in 75 countries worldwide yet many Fe fortificants, such as Fe-ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), result in unwanted sensory properties and/or gastrointestinal dysfunction and dysbiosis. Nicotianamine (NA) is a natural chelator of Fe, zinc (Zn) and other metals in higher plants and NA-chelated Fe is highly bioavailable in vitro. In graminaceous plants NA serves as the biosynthetic precursor to 2′ -deoxymugineic acid (DMA), a related Fe chelator and enhancer of Fe bioavailability, and increased NA/DMA biosynthesis has proved an effective Fe biofortification strategy in several cereal crops. Here we utilized the chicken (Gallus gallus) model to investigate impacts of NA-chelated Fe on Fe status and gastrointestinal health when delivered to chickens through intraamniotic administration (short-term exposure) or over a period of six weeks as part of a biofortified wheat diet containing increased NA, Fe, Zn and DMA (long-term exposure). Striking similarities in host Fe status, intestinal functionality and gut microbiome were observed between the short-term and long-term treatments, suggesting that the effects were largely if not entirely due to consumption of NA-chelated Fe. These results provide strong support for wheat with increased NA-chelated Fe as an effective biofortification strategy and uncover novel impacts of NA-chelated Fe on gastrointestinal health and functionality.
The challenges of investigating antimicrobial resistance in Vietnam: What benefits does a One Health approach offer the animal and human health sectors?
Mitchell, Marisa E.V.; Alders, Robyn; Unger, Fred; Nguyen-Viet, Hung; Le, Trang Thi Huyen; Toribio, Jenny Ann. 2020
The One Health concept promotes the enhancement of human, animal and ecosystem health through multi-sectorial governance support and policies to combat health security threats. In Vietnam, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animal and human health settings poses a significant threat, but one that could be minimised by adopting a One Health approach to AMR surveillance. To advance understanding of the willingness and abilities of the human and animal health sectors to undertake investigations of AMR with a One Health approach, we explored the perceptions and experiences of those tasked with investigating AMR in Vietnam, and the benefits a multi-sectorial approach offers.
Construction and integration of genetic linkage maps from three multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross populations in rice
Qu, Pingping; Shi, Jinhui; Chen, Tianxiao; Chen, Kai; Shen, Congcong; Wang, Jiankang; Zhao, Xiangqian; Ye, Guoyou; Xu, Jianlong; Zhang, Luyan. 2020
The construction of genetic maps based on molecular markers is a crucial step in rice genetic and genomic studies. Pure lines derived from multiple parents provide more abundant genetic variation than those from bi-parent populations. Two four-parent pure-line populations (4PL1 and 4PL2) and one eight-parent pure-line population (8PL) were developed from eight homozygous indica varieties of rice by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports on linkage map construction and their integration in multi-parent populations of rice.
We constructed linkage maps for the three multi-parent populations and conducted quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for heading date (HD) and plant height (PH) based on the three maps by inclusive composite interval mapping (ICIM). An integrated map was built from the three individual maps and used for QTL projection and meta-analysis. QTL mapping of the three populations was also conducted based on the integrated map, and the mapping results were compared with those from meta-analysis. The three linkage maps developed for 8PL, 4PL1 and 4PL2 had 5905, 4354 and 5464 bins and were 1290.16, 1720.01 and 1560.30 cM in length, respectively. The integrated map was 3022.08 cM in length and contained 10,033 bins. Based on the three linkage maps, 3, 7 and 9 QTLs were detected for HD while 6, 9 and 10 QTLs were detected for PH in 8PL, 4PL1 and 4PL2, respectively. In contrast, 19 and 25 QTLs were identified for HD and PH by meta-analysis using the integrated map, respectively. Based on the integrated map, 5, 9, and 10 QTLs were detected for HD while 3, 10, and 12 QTLs were detected for PH in 8PL, 4PL1 and 4PL2, respectively. Eleven of these 49 QTLs coincided with those from the meta-analysis.
In this study, we reported the first rice linkage map constructed from one eight-parent recombinant inbred line (RIL) population and the first integrated map from three multi-parent populations, which provide essential information for QTL linkage mapping, meta-analysis, and map-based cloning in rice genetics and breeding.
Including food systems, biodiversity, nutrition and dietary health in the zero draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: A joint submission from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (the Alliance), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Hunter, Danny; de Souza Dias, Braulio; Borelli, Teresa; DeClerck, Fabrice; Meldrum, Gennifer; Demers, Nicole. 2020
The Zero Draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD/WG2020/2/3) for consideration by the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) at its second meeting presents significant opportunities to address food systems, biodiversity, nutrition and dietary health as fundamental to the vision of a world living in harmony with nature where: "By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people."
Nicotianamine-chelated iron positively affects iron status, intestinal morphology and microbial populations in vivo (Gallus gallus)
Beasley, Jesse T.; Johnson, Alexander A. T.; Kolba, Nikolai; Bonneau, Julien P.; Glahn, Raymond P.; Ozeri, Lital; Koren, Omry; Tako, Elad. 2020
Optimizing livestock farming in urban agriculture
Grace, Delia; Cook, Elizabeth; Lindahl, Johanna F.. 2020
Genetic variability, diversity and interrelationship for twelve grain minerals in 122 commercial pearl millet cultivars in India
Govindaraj, Mahalingam; Yadav, O. P.; Rajpurohit, B. S.; Kanatti, A.; Rai, Kedar N.; Dwivedi, Sangam L.. 2020
Global drivers of food system (un)sustainability: A multi-country correlation analysis
Béné, Christophe; Fanzo, Jessica; Prager, Steven D.; Achicanoy, Harold A.; Mapes, Brendan R.; Alvarez Toro, Patricia; Bonilla Cedrez, Camila. 2020
At present, our ability to comprehend the dynamics of food systems and the consequences of their rapid 'transformations' is limited. In this paper, we propose to address this gap by exploring the interactions between the sustainability of food systems and a set of key drivers at the global scale. For this w