Send a Cow welcomes the opportunity to comment on the issues note for the forthcoming report by the HLPE on Nutrition and food systems. We support much of it, but would like to draw attention to certain aspects.
Send a Cow works in seven countries in Africa, helping smallholder farmers build the hope and the means to secure their own futures from the land. While our focus is therefore on poor people in rural Africa, we believe that an approach that benefits them can have benefits globally, including in the over-nourished developed world.
1. It is vital that the report takes a holistic view of nutrition, recognising that food and nutrition cannot be seen in isolation from political, social, economic and environmental factors.
2. Send a Cow advocates in its programmes a farm systems approach, whereby farmers are encouraged to map out and then optimise all their resources and linkages, whether their own or shared: land, livestock, people, communities, skills, water, crops, access to markets etc. This enables people to build viable farms with minimal external input so they can feed their families a balanced diet, without recourse to food aid.
3. This agro-ecological approach is beneficial for people and the environment. Even farmers with tiny plots of land can learn how to increase output without encroaching on marginal or forested lands. Farmers can learn how to produce enough food for growing populations while adapting to, or even mitigating, the effects of climate change.
4. Good food stems from good agriculture. While high-tech supplements can be useful in emergency situations, they must not dominate the nutrition agenda. They encourage poor people to become dependent on external agencies, rather than build their own resilience.
5. In particular, we do not wish to see more investment in GMO products, which remove farmers’ ability to save seeds. Likewise, we believe that fossil fuel-based fertilisers are an environmentally damaging and costly substitute for animal and green manures.
6. It is vital that the rights of smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa, take centre stage. They produce most of the world’s food, yet are among the world’s hungriest people. They require investment in skills, extension services, access to credit and savings, access to markets, and land rights.
7. This is particularly true for women, who make up roughly half of Africa’s smallholder farmers yet receive a small percentage of the assistance. Nutrition awareness training is also vital, as women tend to be in charge of providing meals for the family.
8. We wish to see investment in local markets, and in smallholder cooperatives that link farmers to better trade deals and contracts. Shifting the focus to local production, away from an export-led model, would also benefit the countries of the developed world. Cheap imports into the developed world not only risk undermining local agriculture, but also encourage over-consumption that is damaging to these populations’ health.
9. The evidence is strong that this rights-based, holistic approach is effective for the food security and nutrition of Africa’s smallholder farmers. After a recent three-year Send a Cow programme in Uganda, 97% of respondents were eating a balanced diet of more than six different foodstuffs per day, according to the Household Dietary Diversity Score; the average household had eight different foodstuffs per day. Some 87% considered themselves food secure or only mildly food insecure, as measured on the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale.
Richie Alford