feeding on a wide scale in Brazil; a project to increase production and consumption of animal-source foods to improve child nutrition in Ghana; and a project to integrate agricul- ture, nutrition, and health services in Zambia to prevent malnutrition among young children and provide evidence on how agricultural interven- tions can lead to reduced stunting of children.
It is important to note that so far there is
little concrete evidence on how agriculture- nutrition linkages work. In the effort to lever- age agriculture for nutrition, one crucial task, then, is to compile an evidence base on these links. Many more studies are needed on the nutritional impacts of agricultural interventions, and nutritional indicators should be included in evaluations of agricultural programs. A larger
effects in mind and that agriculture and health professionals should work together to mini- mize the negative health effects of agricultural activities. Incorporating health impact assess- ments into agricultural projects could be useful. Education campaigns are also needed to inform farm households about, for example, how to safely use pesticides.
The health risks continue after products
leave the farm and offer opportunities for using agriculture-health linkages to improve both sectors. In developing countries, consump- tion of unsafe food and water is one of the major causes of preventable illness and death. Food-borne pathogens and zoonoses affect millions of people. Toxins—such as cyanide in cassava, mycotoxins in grains, or exposure to
“If we can get the economic aspects of food production linked to the economic indicators that we’ve developed in the health sector to talk about burden of disease and health impacts, then we would come a long way.”
—Robert Bos, World Health Organization
evidence base on what works and what does not would make it easier to call on policymakers to do more to exploit the links between agricul- ture and nutrition.
AGRICULTURE FOR BETTER HEALTH
The agriculture and health sectors may work together even less than the agriculture and nutrition sectors do, and bringing them together poses its own challenges. Yet there are many links between the two sectors, and these links run in both directions, offering substantial scope for using agriculture to reduce health risks.
During production, agricultural practices re-
lated to pesticide use, migration of farm labor, use of child labor, and many farming practices can all have impacts on the health of agricul- tural households. At the same time, disease and poor health can sharply cut into farm house- holds’ labor, time, and assets and thereby push down agricultural production.
This situation suggests that agricultural interventions need to be designed with health 4
pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables— are also widespread in poor countries. Both private-sector solutions (such as collective action, cooperatives, and contract farming for small producers) and public sector solutions (such as better government regulation of food safety and better dissemination of this infor- mation) can help overcome these challenges. One private company in Ethiopia, for example, worked with local groundnut farmers to help them eliminate aflatoxin in groundnuts—an ac- complishment that allowed the company to use local groundnuts to produce ready-to-use foods for use in programs for severely malnourished children.
Opportunities to exploit the links between
agriculture and health can be found in helping both governments and the private sector play effective, appropriate roles; adopting risk-based analyses and interventions, which will allow nuanced approaches to health risks; and engag- ing stakeholders in the value-chain approach, including small-scale producers, traders, handlers, importers and exporters, retailers, consumers, and government institutions.7
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