Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) as well as community workers can be key agents for the delivery of nutrition knowledge and practices to rural communities. They reach and interact closely with farmers or women groups in different settings and can sensitize them on nutrition sensitive agriculture and diets. Furthermore, they can facilitate local initiatives and facilitate coordination among local actors related to improving nutrition. In the Nutrition and Mountain Agroecosystems Project in Ethiopia, Nepal, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Peru, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), the following initiatives implemented by AEAS proved to be particularly useful:
- awareness raising on nutrition (curricula, school gardens, preparing traditional dishes);
- sustainable small-scale farming (organic farming, compost making, nutrition gardens);
- diversification of home-based food production (fruit and vegetable nurseries, promoting legumes, low-cost greenhouses);
- small-scale animal husbandry (rearing poultry, goats, fish, guinea pigs; honey production);
- post-harvest handling (processing at household level, low-cost drying, safe food handling, food preservation).
This experience shows that diversifying farms in an ecological way helps to increase farm incomes, strengthen the role of women, improve family health, protect natural resources and increase resilience to market fluctuations and climate change. Producing and selling a variety of nutritious products not only improves the nutritional situation of local communities, but also provides business opportunities for farmers (particularly for women), agribusinesses, processors, traders, retailers and other stakeholders. In addition, it serves local policy goals related to improving health, alleviating rural poverty and reducing environmental impact. AEAS can therefor play a convening and facilitating role to bring the different stakeholders (farmers and farmer groups, municipalities and district authorities, businesses and civil society organizations) together to jointly advance nutrition sensitive agriculture practices and value chains, and to raise consumer awareness.
For more details, please refer to the attached short paper prepared for the Sustainable Food Systems Program's Technical Workshop on Sustainable diets in the context of sustainable food systems.
Frank Eyhorn