There is growing global interest in better leveraging Agricultural Extension Services (AES) as a foundation for food and nutrition security. Pluralistic AES (defined in Box 1) consist of rural, agriculturally focused extension and advisory services implemented by public, NGO, and private-sector entities. They reach millions of farmers and represent largely untapped potential for influencing production and consumption decisions which could, in turn, affect the health and nutrition status of populations, particularly in rural areas. Their specific contributions, however, are only beginning to be articulated and evaluated.

This discussion paper addresses the specific contribution that AES can make to food and nutrition security in a way that is consistent with AES’s primary functions. It is particularly focused on the scope of the INGENAES project and the context of the Feed the Future countries within which the project operates.

This note presents lessons learned on integrated homestead food production (IHFP) emerging from projects and programmes implemented by IFAD and other development actors around the world. It aims to complement the How To Do Note (HTDN) on the same subject by illustrating success stories and good practices through case studies. The emerging lessons are distilled and synthesized in order to provide concrete models that could inform and ideally be scaled up in the design and implementation of future IFAD-funded interventions.

Since the food crisis in 2008, the L’Aquila commitments to agriculture - as well as increased investments in agriculture from multilateral development institutions and foundations - have led to increased funding and human resources for agricultural development, and in particular that focused on smallholder and women farmers. At the same time, the Scaling Up Nutrition Framework for Action (2010) and Road Map (2011) have also placed an emphasis on the need for urgent investment to reduce malnutrition, and the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is developing a Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (2012). National governments and operational staff have also increased their requests for assistance and guidance from the international development partners on what to do to improve nutrition impact from agriculture. For example, since the inclusion of nutrition as Pillar 3 in the CAADP, African nations are seeking improved knowledge and capacity in this area.

Nearly one out of every two children under 5 years of age in Guatemala is stunted. In the Western Highlands, the situation is far worse, with 7 out of every 10 children stunted. Stunting causes children to be shorter than healthy children of the same age. Stunting is a result of chronic malnutrition caused by inadequate quantity and variety of nutrient-rich foods and/or by repeated illnesses, and can lead to adverse health and physical and cognitive development. Stunting in young children increases the risk of: mortality from infections, impaired cognitive ability, late school enrollment, poor school performance, dropping out of school, lower future adult labor productivity, and chronic diseases in adulthood. Preventing stunting through key interventions during the critical 1,000 days from pregnancy through the first 2 years of life is important because it can become increasingly difficult to reverse stunting’s negative consequences after this period.

DURATION: 5 year integrated nutrition Feed the Future program, funded by USAID (2011-2016), working through multi-sector interventions 

Agriculture and livelihoods, nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming, policy, training for frontliners, and advanced degree programs 

PARTNERS: 

• Led by Save The Children 
• Partners include Land o’Lakes, Tufts University, JHPIEGO, The Manoff Group, Valid International, and local NGOs through sub-grants 

 LOCATION: 116 woredas (zones) in the Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Tigray, amd Somali regions of Ethiopia 

TARGETED BENEFICARIES: 

• 3.1 million under five children 
• half a million pregnant and lactating women 
• 3.2 million women of reproductive age 

In many developing countries, food insecurity combined with a high incidence of infections continues to affect detrimentally the nutrition and health status of poor households. Wasting and stunting are important indicators of undernutrition. Wasting reflects acute food shortages and health problems, and stunting reveals the longer-term presence of nutrition problems. The signs and symptoms of specific micronutrient deficiencies are much less commonly known or recognized by local people and therefore not acted upon as frequently. However, specific micronutrient deficiencies frequently go hand-in-hand with general undernutrition.

An important first step in strengthening gender equity and nutrition outcomes involves having reliable methods of measurement of current conditions (Ballard et al. 2011). Measurement tools and indicators have been developed and validated for measuring nutrition outcomes (FANTA 2008; FAO and FHI 360 2016) and gender equity (Malapit et al. 2014; Alkire et al. 2013) at international level. Measurement helps to hold implementers accountable for the actions they take towards improving the status of gender equity and/or nutrition outcomes in their target areas.

Malnutrition continues to be a major development challenge in the South Asia Region. Given its size, India hosts the majority of the malnourished. Around 300 million people in India do not have access to a food supply that sufficiently meets their basic energy needs (World Bank 2012. Nutrition at A Glance: India. Washington, DC: World Bank Group). Despite recent economic growth, poverty remains high, and malnutrition is now manifest in all its forms with overweight and obesity increasing alongside persistent undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. The progress made between 1970 and 2010 in reducing malnutrition was largely due to improving access to safe water, female education, and female empowerment, the latter 2 especially key in South Asia. The factor that made the least progress between 1995 and 2010 is increasing quantity and quality of food, clearly a responsibility of agriculture (L. Smith and L. Haddad 2014, “Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era.” IDS Working Paper 441).

In Bangladesh, rural households rear cattle as a component of mixed farming rather than on a truly commercial basis. Like most Asian countries, rural Bangladeshi women extensively participate in livestock management, especially in rearing dairy cows (FAO, 2003; Anderson and Eswaran, 2007; Hashemi et al., 1996; Kabeer 1998) yet society rarely recognizes them as farmers. Consequently, women still receive limited extension services or other support and therefore their contributions to dairy value chains are less than they could be.

Malnutrition is a threat to the wellbeing of vulnerable populations in Eastern Africa. Poor rural households often do not have access to high quality and nutritious foods or they lack a good understanding of improved nutrition habits. Through the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women and men in the region are now being trained on the nutritious value of locally available foods through the Farmer Field and Life Schools (FFLS).