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ICLS and nutrition
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Food security encompasses the need to have access to not only sufficient energy intake but also to nutritious food that can meet dietary requirements. Agricultural biodiversity can deliver a diversified range of nutrients from local, adapted plant and animal species that perform well in low-input farming systems. The relationship between biodiversity and nutrition is highlighted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment itself (Wood et al., 2005). A further opportunity for developing comprehensive approaches to food security and sustainability comes from ensuring synergies between agricultural and nutritional policies at international, national and local scales. International initiatives include the adoption by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of a cross-cutting initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition9 with implementation activities undertaken by Parties to the Convention with the support of both FAO and Bioversity International. There have also been a number of local projects and initiatives that have shown remarkable success, such as the increased consumption in Kenya of local vegetables as a result of collaboration between government agencies, local NGOs and Bioversity International. One of the outcomes of the International Scientific Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets: United against Hunger, held in Rome in 2010, was a consensus on a definition of ‘sustainable diets’: “Sustainable diets are those diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing use of natural and human resources.”
Narrowing the “nutrition gap” – the gap between what foods are grown and available and what foods are needed for a healthy diet – can only occur when national policy makers and members of the international development community recognize that attempts to reduce malnutrition solely via increased production of staple crops are not enough. Agricultural development policies and agricultural development programmes that address food and nutrition security are an essential step in reducing malnutrition; they enhance national prospects for improved labour productivity and economic growth, and increase the chances of long, healthy lives for even the most vulnerable. Agriculture has a crucial role in reducing malnutrition and contributing to better nutrition through improved food security and nutrition security. Improved crop-livestock systems, by improving nutrition, can enhance the quality of life and significantly contribute to achieving MDG 1 and thus make its agenda even more relevant to its clients and the development process. Integrated Crop-Livestock systems can be part of an approach to close the ‘nutrition gap’. Nutrition is an important component of ICLS for the following reasons:
1. Food systems should be so designed and implemented that they address nutritional
needs, the integrated crop-livestock sector offers practical opportunities for achieving this at national, sub-national and smallholder level which need to be acted upon;
1. Increasing the diversity of crops and of the livestock can close not only the production gap or the yield gap by symbiotic mutualism or literal cross-fertilization, but can also close the “nutritional gap” by providing a broader range of nutritious, micronutrient-rich, seasonally available supplies of a variety of diverse foods whose consumption can optimize diets - very relevant both for net rural producers and consumers including smallholders; and
2. There is a huge opportunity to match and combine production education with nutrition education including for example the inclusion of nutrition modules in Farmer Field Schools curriculae.
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