Global Hunger Today: Challenges and Solutions

Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages in Ethiopia: Lessons from the AgriDietProject

Nick Chisholm and colleagues, UCC

AgriDiet Project - July 2017

AgriDiet

Objective – a better understanding of the linkages between agriculture and nutrition

1. 800 households randomly surveyed in selected Ethiopian lowland and midland zones in 2014

2. 200 mother and child households selected for anthropometric & biomarker nutrition tests

3. Child stunting rates about 45% (pre-harvest)

4. 72% of mothers deficient in zinc and 21% iron (ferritin), with higher deficiency rates in lowlands

AgriDiet Project - July 2017

Four main points

• Salient characteristics of Ethiopian smallholder agriculture & food security situation

• What can we say about the linkage between agriculture, food security and nutrition?

• Are there better ways to measure agriculture-nutrition linkages?

• Multi-sectoral collaboration to improve nutrition – how?

Most Households Experience Food Shortage: Oromia

38.4%

27.9%

28.9%

4.9%

no shortage

one month shortage

2 to 3 months shortage

more than 4 months shortage

• 61.6% of households experience food shortage of at least one month per year

• Households on average run out of food for 1.2 months per year

• Female headed households had more months of food shortage than their male counterparts

Diet dominated by cereals: TigrayAverage consumption of food groups, at low season (by monetary value)

72.4%

12.3%

3.9%

0.3% 1.5% 0.9% 5.6% 3.3%

Cereals

Pulses and oilseeds

Vegetables

Fruits

Beef

Egg

Milk and milk products

Oil

Food accounts for 77% of total household expenditureAnimal based foods = 8% of total food expenditureFruit and veg = 4.2% of food expenditure

Tigray: All indicators show significant seasonal differences in food security

5.9

5.8

5.75

5.8

5.85

5.9

5.95

HDDS (High s.) HDDS (Low s.)

31.38

30.44

29.5

30

30.5

31

31.5

FCS (High s.) FCS (Low s.)

3.33

4.21

0

1

2

3

4

5

HFIAS (High s.) HFIAS (Low s.)

20.10

21.25

19.50

20.00

20.50

21.00

21.50

CSI (High s.) CSI (Low s.)

Coping Strategy IndexHousehold Food Insecurity Access Scale

Household Dietary Diversity ScoreFood Consumption Score

Higher production diversity associated with higher dietary diversity

82.5% of households in Oromia with lower dietary diversity produced three or less types of crops in a year

Households with higher diet diversity produced >4 crop types

Econometric analysis indicated dietary diversity of households positively and significantly associated with:

number of crops grown

number of livestock owned

size of cultivated land

cooperative membership and

educational status of household head

Dietary diversity negatively associated with household size

Agriculture to nutrition framework

AgriDiet Project - July 2017

Correlations of key agricultural variables with HFCS & Maternal Zinc

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Total FarmDiversity

CropProduction

CropDiversity

LivestockUnits

LivestockDiversity

Co

rre

lati

on

Co

effi

cie

nt

HFCS

Maternal Zinc

AgriDiet Project - July 2017

Influence of variable categories on key food and nutrition indicators

• Meat & fruit/veg quantity consumed = strong +ve influence on zinc & iron

• Agricultural variables account for >20% ferritin & >10% zinc variance

• Water quality & assets have strong +veinfluence on zinc & iron

• Total & cash crop area +ve for FCS & HDDS but –ve for zinc & iron

Key findings

1. Agriculture linkages to food security and nutrition outcomes can be strong, explaining some 10-20% of the variance of selected indicators in our models

2. The influence of some key variables on micronutrient outcomes may be opposite to their influence on standard food security indicators

3. Diversity of crops, livestock or even diets, may not always lead to better nutritional outcomes, particularly where quantities are small - but also need to note importance of non-agricultural factors (WASH etc)

4. Need better metrics and methodologies for measuring food security and nutrition outcomes

AgriDiet Project - July 2017

Nutrient Deficit Score (NDS)

1. Captures typical food intake by households over

previous week/month and seasonal changes

2. Calculates implied macro and micronutrient intakes

using food composition tables

3. Compares actual intakes to recommended WHO

intake by age and gender, to calculate household

nutrient gaps

4. Considers the relative importance of each nutrient to

calculate a weighted household nutrient deficit score (eg 40% calories, 30% protein, 15% iron and 15% VitA)

Nutrient GapsBreaking down the NDS into average nutrient gaps for two different agro-ecological zones in Tanzania

Nutrient GapsDietary diversity in Arusha better than in Singida, but lower

quantities consumed = larger nutrient deficit gaps in Arusha

Cross-sectoral collaboration -Stakeholder workshops

Total of 177 stakeholders who work in agriculture, nutrition, health, planning, finance, education, water and sanitation and gender.

Aims:

Bring together actors from different sectors

Encourage the use of the generated research to influence policy and programmes

Share information and experiences and promote good practice

Barriers to co-ordination

Nutrition is still viewed as a food security or emergency issue.

Lack of guidance on HOW to work across sectors.

No dedicated space where organisations and individuals could come together to share knowledge, access peer to peer support, network and collaborate across sectors.

“ Those working within agriculture, their focus is on yields and production for income, not on nutrition.”

4 District level workshopsHealth and Agriculture Extension Workers, Nutrition Officers, Local Government, Planning Department, NGOs, CSOs, Researchers.

Value in collaboration is acknowledged.In practice, district government and extension still working in silos.More collaboration between NGOs.

Initiatives generally targeted at either nutrition OR agriculture.Some examples (OFSP), but largely NGO driven

Implementation of National Nutrition Strategies not happening at District level.Tanzania – District Nutrition officers in place.

Barriers to co-ordination

Planning happens in isolation.

Policies are generally market-orientated rather than nutrition focused.

Lack of communication and guidance from the National level.E.g. Nutrition Officers

Capacity is an issue, both financial and human. The budget allocated to nutrition is inadequate, and in Tanzania funds are often not released at all.

“ National policies are moving this way with large-scale commercial farming – sisal and sugar etc and staple cereals but little on ensuring a diverse diet.”

Recommended Actions Decision makers need to be involved in these discussions and workshops, and experts who attend

workshops need to go back and advocate to their decision makers.

An inventory of programmes and implementers to improve coordination and avoidduplication of efforts.

Clear guidelines are needed on HOW to collaborate between sectors.

Common indicators or targets are required across sectors.

Regular training of staff on nutrition issues, and why agriculture is important and how it can helpaddress undernutrition is required.

Create a space where organisations and individuals could come together to share knowledge, accesspeer to peer support, network and collaborate across sectors.