The purpose of this paper is to provide accessible information on maximizing nutrition impact through agriculture, and provides a summary of the key messages currently available, to underscore key points of emerging consensus and to expose differences that may be potentially confusing to implementers or which offer opportunities for further refinement of guidance and strategies. The main audience is country-level policy-makers and programme planners; a secondary audience is the international development community. This synthesis helps to foster strategic coordination among institutions and to strive for comprehensive, sustainable agricultural, food security, nutrition and rural development programmes.