Improving diet quality and micronutrient nutrition: Homestead food production in Bangladesh PDF Download

Author: Lora Iannotti, Kenda Cunningham, Marie Ruel
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Author: Mostak Ahmed
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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This paper deals with diet quality and micronutrient nutrition as an essential yet overlooked component of food security- i.e. safe and nutritious food. Vitamin and mineral deficiency (VMD) is at the core of massive malnutrition in the world today. 'Hidden hunger' is a chronic lack of micronutrients which is basically a problem of balanced and healthy diet, affecting two billion people worldwide from reaching their physical and mental potential. Several strategies to combat VMD have been undertaken in Bangladesh on both a short and interim measures. However, agricultural intervention through dietary diversification has been found to be the most viable strategy in the long-term and on a sustainable basis. There is sufficient evidence to believe that higher intake of locally available fruits and vegetables on a regular basis might reverse the VMD. The Homestead Food Production (HFP) program in Bangladesh promotes an integrated package of home gardening, with the aim of increasing the health and nutritional status of women and children. This paper presents major finding derived from an empirical study of HFP in the northern Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), Bangladesh, involving 120 households represented by ethnic women of child-bearing age. The underlying objective is being to provide an effective approach to sustainable nutrition solution in the country. The Chittagong Hill-Tracts is a classic example of an underdeveloped region with an overwhelmingly rural, low income agro-based economy, seeking to achieve basic goals of development in both social and economic terms. There is ample evidence to show that HFP program in Bangladesh has improved food security for more than 5 million vulnerable people in diverse agro-ecological zone. In the study area, the HFP program has significantly improved the food security status of the sample population in terms of production, diversification, consumption and sale of nutritious foods.

Author: Lora Iannotti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
A critical yet often overlooked component of food security is diet quality. Even households who have access to sufficient amounts of food and calories may still lack essential micronutrients, increasing their risk for both short- and long-term health and development consequences. Interventions that address poor diet quality and related deficiencies of vitamin A, zinc, iron, among others, are important for achieving full food security in vulnerable populations. The homestead food production (HFP) program, introduced in Bangladesh by Helen Keller International nearly two decades ago, promotes an integrated package of home gardening, small livestock production and nutrition education with the aim of increasing household production, availability, and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods and improving the health and nutritional status of women and children. Implemented by NGO partners and the Government of Bangladesh, HFP has expanded its reach into over one half of the country's subdistricts and is now operating in several countries of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence shows that HFP in Bangladesh has improved food security for nearly 5 million vulnerable people in diverse agroecological zones. This has been achieved through: increased production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods; increased income from gardens and expenditures on micronutrient-rich foods; women's empowerment; enhanced partner capacity; and community development.

Author: Mara van den Bold
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Many development programs that aim to alleviate poverty and improve investments in human capital consider women’s empowerment a key pathway by which to achieve impact and often target women as their main beneficiaries. Despite this, women’s empowerment dimensions are often not rigorously measured and are at times merely assumed. This paper starts by reflecting on the concept and measurement of women’s empowerment and then reviews some of the structural interventions that aim to influence underlying gender norms in society and eradicate gender discrimination. It then proceeds to review the evidence of the impact of three types of interventions—cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs—on women’s empowerment, nutrition, or both. Qualitative evidence on conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs generally points to positive impacts on women’s empowerment, although quantitative research findings are more heterogenous. CCT programs produce mixed results on long-term nutritional status, and very limited evidence exists of their impacts on micronutrient status. The little evidence available on unconditional cash transters (UCT) indicates mixed impacts on women’s empowerment and positive impacts on nutrition; however, recent reviews comparing CCT and UCT programs have found little difference in terms of their effects on stunting and they have found that conditionality is less important than other factors, such as access to healthcare and child age and sex. Evidence of cash transfer program impacts depending on the gender of the transfer recipient or on the conditionality is also mixed, although CCTs with non-health conditionalities seem to have negative impacts on nutritional status. The impacts of programs based on the gender of the transfer recipient show mixed results, but almost no experimental evidence exists of testing gender-differentiated impacts of a single program. Agricultural interventions—specifically home gardening and dairy projects—show mixed impacts on women’s empowerment measures such as time, workload, and control over income; but they demonstrate very little impact on nutrition. Implementation modalities are shown to determine differential impacts in terms of empowerment and nutrition outcomes. With regard to the impact of microfinance on women’s empowerment, evidence is also mixed, although more recent reviews do not find any impact on women’s empowerment. The impact of microfinance on nutritional status is mixed, with no evidence of impact on micronutrient status. Across all three types of programs (cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs), very little evidence exists on pathways of impact, and evidence is often biased toward a particular region. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings and remaining evidence gaps and an outline of recommendations for research.

Author: Brian Thompson
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1780642997
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
Nutrition-sensitive, food-based approaches towards hunger and malnutrition are effective, sustainable and long-term solutions. This book discusses the policy, strategic, methodological, technical and programmatic issues associated with such approaches, proposes “best practices” for the design, targeting, implementation and evaluation of specific nutrition-sensitive, food-based interventions and for improved methodologies for evaluating their efficacy and cost-effectiveness, and provides practical lessons for advancing nutrition-sensitive food-based approaches for improving nutrition at policy and programme level.

Author: Brian Thompson
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845937147
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This book, inclusive of 19 chapters, provides discussions on the benefits and limitations of food-based approaches for the prevention and control of micronutrient malnutrition. Different chapters focus on specific relevant topics, including current developments in food-based approaches and their program applications, relevance of agricultural interventions to nutrition, impact of multi-sectoral programmes with food-based approaches components in alleviating undernutrition and micronutrient malnutrition, animal-source foods as a food-based approach to address nutrient deficiencies, aquaculture's role in improving food and nutrition security, benefits of vegetables and fruits in preventing and combating micronutrient malnutrition, benefits of food-based approaches for overcoming single specific micronutrient deficiencies, and food fortification. This book will be of great use to professionals interested in public health, human nutrition, micronutrient deficiency interventions, food and nutrition security policy interventions, and agricultural research.

Author: Stuart W. Bunting
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003857191
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to sustainable aquaculture practices, focusing on how we develop social, economic and environmental resilience. Aquaculture has seen phenomenal worldwide growth in the past 50 years, and many people view it as the best solution for the provision of high-quality protein to feed the world's growing population. This new edition has been fully revised and updated to reflect new developments in the field and includes new case studies. Focusing on developing more sustainable aquaculture practices and aquatic food systems, the book provides a toolbox of approaches to support widespread adoption and appropriate adaptation of regenerating aquaculture strategies, ensuring that it has practical relevance for both students and professionals. Drawing on a range of case studies from around the world, the book shows where progress, in terms of developing ecologically sound and socially responsible forms of aquaculture, has been made. The book is based on extensive evidence and knowledge of best practices, with guidance on appropriate adaptation and uptake in a variety of environmental, geographic, socio-economic and political settings. Concentrating on low-impact aquaculture systems and approaches, which have minimal adverse effects on the environment, the book also emphasizes socially responsible and equitable aquaculture development to enhance the natural resource base and livelihoods. Principles of Sustainable Aquaculture is essential reading for students and scholars of aquaculture, fisheries, marine and water resource governance, and sustainable agriculture and sustainable food systems more broadly. It will also be of interest to professionals working in the aquaculture and fisheries industries.

Author: Sproule, Katie
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Researcher–implementer partnerships are frequently mentioned as key components of agricultural research for development (AR4D) programs. However, there is little information about what these types of partnerships look like, how they perform, and what factors facilitate and/or constrain their performance. By documenting and analyzing two partnerships in detail, including their history, formation, outputs, and outcomes, this study seeks to raise awareness about and improve understanding of long-term researcher–implementer partnerships. The lessons learned from these partnerships can be used by both the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and its implementing partner organizations, as well as other research and implementing organizations interested in engaging in or supporting such partnerships for AR4D in the future. The study was carried out through four case studies. Case 1 focused on a long-term partnership between IFPRI and Helen Keller International (HKI), documenting how it was formed, how it operated, and what outputs it produced. Case 2 looked at the evidence generated by this partnership on the effectiveness of homestead food production (HFP) programs on nutrition-related outcomes and its use by funders, implementers, and researchers. Case 3 looked at how and to what extent the approaches developed by the partnership for the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs — specifically the program impact pathway (PIP) approach — have influenced the broader field of program evaluation. Case 4 examined a partnership between IFPRI and the World Food Programme (WFP), documenting how it was formed, how it operated, and what outputs it has produced to date. The four case studies were completed through a series of in-depth interviews (IDIs) with key informants from a number of research, implementer, and funder organizations. Data from the IDIs were complemented by document and literature reviews.

Author: David J. Spielman
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
The world has made enormous progress in the past 50 years toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. While, in 1960, roughly 30 percent of the world's population suffered from hunger and malnutrition, today less than 20 percent doessome five billion people now have enough food to live healthy, productive lives. Agricultural development has contributed significantly to these gains by increasing food supplies, reducing food prices, and creating new income and employment opportunities for some of the world's poorest people.This book examines where, why, and how past interventions in agricultural development have succeeded. It carefully reviews the policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development that have reduced hunger and poverty across Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the past half century. The 19 successes included here are described in in-depth case studies that synthesize the evidence on the intervention's impact on agricultural productivity and food security, evaluate the rigor with which the evidence was collected, and assess the tradeoffs inherent in each success. Together, these chapters provide evidence of "what works" in agricultural development.

Author: Shenggen Fan
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896296733
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
The fundamental purpose of agriculture is not just to produce food and raw materials, but also to grow healthy, well-nourished people. One of the sector’s most important tasks then is to provide food of sufficient quantity and quality to feed and nourish the world’s population sustainably so that all people can lead healthy, productive lives. Achieving this goal will require closer collaboration across the sectors of agriculture, nutrition, and health, which have long operated in separate spheres with little recognition of how their actions affect each other. It is time for agriculture, nutrition, and health to join forces in pursuit of the common goal of improving human well-being. In Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, leading experts, practitioners, and policymakers explore the links among agriculture, nutrition, and health and identify ways to strengthen related policies and programs. The chapters in this book were originally commissioned as background papers or policy briefs for the conference “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health,” facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s 2020 Vision Initiative in New Delhi, India, in February 2011.