Feeding the Future: Leveraging Agriculture for Better Diets and Nutrition

A series of interconnected crises have significantly impacted global hunger and malnutrition, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruptions, conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, and climate change. Malnutrition, encompassing both undernutrition and obesity, is now the leading cause of poor health worldwide. Globally, poor diet is a cause of as much as 20 percent of deaths. 

Agriculture is fundamental to food and nutrition security, producing essential staples and diverse foods necessary for a balanced diet. It influences nutrition outcomes not just through food production but also via its impact on livelihoods, incomes, and food access. However, the relationship between agriculture and nutrition is complex. Increased agricultural production does not automatically lead to improved nutrition, especially if the produced foods are not nutritionally adequate or if access to nutritious foods is limited by poverty or inadequate infrastructure. Therefore, nutrition-sensitive agriculture is necessary, focusing on food quality, diversity, and equity rather than merely increasing food availability. As U.S. Government-funded programs such as Feed the Future continue to invest in agricultural development, CRS recommends the following practices to promote improved nutrition

1. Nutrition Prioritization in Feed the Future
   1. Rebalance programs to emphasize nutrition and diet-related goals, ensuring leadership commitment and dedicated resources.
   2. Create credible theories of change that include nutrition and dietary outcomes more integrally to the other objectives of livelihoods and resilience, so there is a clear understanding.
2. Indicators
   1. Focus on diet-related changes and improvements, such as diet diversity and adequacy, rather than stunting.
   2. Develop and implement short-term, measurable indicators of dietary quality, particularly for vulnerable populations including adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, children 6-59 months of age and lowest two wealth quintiles. 
3. Pathways for Nutrition and Diet Outcomes
   1. Update and elaborate pathways to incorporate new evidence, including the impacts of climate change on food systems and nutrition security.
   2. Refine conceptual frameworks and intervention strategies based on updated knowledge and research findings.
4. Women’s Empowerment
   1. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs should include gender analysis and women’s empowerment as core components.
5. Evidence
   1. Invest in research and impact analysis with special attention to provide guidance to practitioners and implementers.
6. Climate Change
   1. Initiatives to address climate change, such as the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) and the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), should have strong nutrition and diet-related components to ensure they are nutrition-sensitive and help address the underlying causes of malnutrition.
7. Coordination and Integration
   1. Improve coordination among agriculture, health, social protection, and education sectors to create synergistic effects on nutrition.
   2. Increase and protect resources including funding and staff to nutrition in U.S. Feed the Future programs.
   3. Provide more authority and engagement for nutrition leadership and bodies such as the Nutrition Leadership Council.

Realizing the potential of agriculture to improve nutrition requires intentional efforts to prioritize nutrition-sensitive approaches across food systems, address underlying determinants of malnutrition, and coordinate across sectors. By integrating nutrition objectives into agricultural policies, programs, and practices, we can harness the power of agriculture to promote health, well-being, and food and nutrition security for all.

Published August 2024