Tackling rural poverty, together

Extract

From Agriculture to Nutrition examines what determines human nutritional status and how food production affects nutrition. It also analyses the factors that are changing how agriculture can impact nutrition --- including technology, policies, marketing, and new patterns of food consumption. The report ends with a discussion of the potential and limitations of government agricultural institutions working with other sector agencies whose responsibilities bear upon nutritional status.

It would appear that the operating assumption behind the Green Revolution was that increasing food production would automatically improve human nutrition.

Experience has shown otherwise. Using GR technology food production did increase in the 1960s and 1970s at a pace that was more than sufficient to satisfy the food requirements of a growing global population. However, malnutrition, and particularly childhood malnutrition, have persisted despite this increased food supply, lower food prices, and higher incomes. Agricultural production can contribute to better human nutrition, but it must go beyond volume and the nutritional outcomes need to be incorporated explicitly into agricultural planning and production decisions.