leveraging agriculture to improve nutrition
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TRANSCRIPT
- 1. Leveraging Agriculture to Improve Nutrition: Challenges and
Opportunities
Shenggen FanDirector General
International Food Policy Research Institute
SFNCC International Conference on Food and Nutrition, Beijing, Sept. 10, 2011 - 2. Key Messages
Global nutrition faces many challenges.
2. Agriculture presents a key opportunity for improving nutrition.
3. Agenda for nutrition security must take advantage of the linkages between sectors. - 3. Global hunger remains unacceptably high
Number of undernourished (1969-71 to 2010)
Source: FAO 2010 - 4. Asia has more than half of worlds hungry
Undernourishment in 2010, by region (in millions)
Source: FAO 2010 - 5. Two billion+ suffer from micronutrient deficiencies
Iron deficiency anemia
Africa and South Asia have the highest prevalence.
In some parts of India, 90 percent of girls suffer from this deficiency.
Vitamin A deficiency
163 million are vitamin A deficient in developing countries.
44.4 percent of children in South Asia alone suffer from this deficiency.
Iodine deficiency
1.7 billion people worldwide are affected by iodine deficiency, and 1.3 billion of them are in Asia.
Source: UNSCN 6th Report & Bharati et al 2009 - 6. Agriculture: Opportunity to improve nutrition
- 7. Economic growth has significant impacts on nutrition
Projected reduction in child malnutrition rate with 2.5% annual growth in income per capita (1990s-2015)
Source: Haddad et al. 2003 - 8. Growth impacts depend on countrys economic status
Proportion of undernourished (% of population)
Annual GDP per capita (constant 2000 US$)
Source: Ecker et al. 2010
Note: Nonlinear relationship between growth and nutrition - 9. Agricultural growth is crucial for nutrition in developing
countries
Proportion of undernourished (% of population)
Annual agriculture value added per worker (constant 2000 US$)
Source: Ecker et al. 2010 - 10. Agriculture-led growth is more pro-nutrition than
non-agriculture-led growth
Note: Relationship exists in the long-term but not short-term
Source: Headey. 2010 - 11. (Sub)Sectoral growth patterns and conditional factors
matter
- Agriculture is often considered as homogenous -> diversity of subsectors is ignored
- 12. Same growth rate could lead to different nutritional outcomes due to diverse growth patterns and conditional factors,including:
- 13. Smallholders vs. large farms
- 14. Staple vs. cash crops
- 15. Female- vs. male-led households
- 16. Less developed vs. developed regions