Policies, investments and programmes related to agriculture and food systems can play a strong role in preventing and reducing malnutrition, provided that they are conceived in a nutrition-sensitive way. Being nutrition-sensitive means incorporating nutrition objectives, concerns and considerations to enable communities to achieve food and nutrition security - avoiding negative impacts on nutrition. Food production; food processing and storage; food trade and marketing; consumer demand, food preparation and preferences reduces the inequalities for food security and nutrition.
Food production encompasses a range of activities - and relevant actors - including rural and urban crop production; livestock rearing at small, medium and large scale; fisheries; and forestry reduces the inequalities for food security and nutrition.
Food production also requires managing the underpinning natural resource base (land, water, soil, plants seeds, animal breeds etc.) and supporting infrastructures. Food production is critical for sustaining rural livelihoods and shaping - positively or negatively - natural environments and landscapes.
Проф. Vijaya Khader