Integrating nutrition to systems research: through Nutrition sensitive landscapes

Diets to Landscapes

Adequate dietary intake

Disease

Supporting servicesNutrient cycling Soil formationPrimary production

Ecosystems and their

biodiversity

Provisioning services Food: macronutrients, micronutrients, anti-nutritional factorsMedicinal productsFresh waterFuel wood

Regulatory services Climate regulationWater purificationDisease regulationPollinators

Cultural services Culinary traditionsRecreationalSpiritual

Human nutrition outcomes

FOOD

CARE

HEALTH

Human selection, marketing and consumption and

the impact of dietary choices on ecosystem functioning and

services

“The most important route to improved nutrition is, however, the diversification of diets – and delivering this outcome will require CGIAR to adopt new approaches.

It will be vital to increase our understanding of food systems from the consumers’ point of view and to place more emphasis on the development of value chains that can deliver nutrient-rich foods to poor consumers efficiently, at the same time as providing new opportunities for producers and processors.”

CO SRF, February, 2015

Addressing nutrition with diversified agriculture

Food-related causes

IMPROVED quality

HIGH diet diversity

UNDERNUTRITION

DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE PRACTICES

• Diet diversity has been shown to be a good predictor of dietary quality in young children

• Diet diversity is associated with stunting

(Moursi et al., 2008; Arimond and Ruel, 2004)Slide:Fanzo, J.

“Increased availability of diverse nutrient-rich foods can be achieved by introducing fruits, vegetables, livestock and fish into the farming system” CO SRF, 2015

Biov

ersit

y In

tern

ation

al\Y

.Wac

hira

Nutrition Sensitive Landscapes

Working at the interaction between sustainability goals – also important in view of the SDGs and post 2015 development agenda

Improved natural resource systems & ecosystem services

Improved Food & Nutrition Security for

human health

Reducing poverty

Nutrition Sensitive Landscapes

Approach: Seasonal year-round access to diverse foodsSpatial, Temporal and gender analysisModeling scenariosParticipatory selection of interventionsScaling out of methods and tools

Zambia, Kenya and Vietnam

Central NSL hypotheses

• Diverse diets can lead to diverse landscapes• Environmental management and restoration of agricultural

landscapes can be a critical pathway to improving human nutrition and health

• Markets and value chains provide a means to trigger or accelerate such change

Environmentfarming & food

systems Human nutrition

& health

NSL approach and integration with AAS

THANK YOU

GOAL: meet human nutrient requirements through FOOD and DIET while also protecting the environment from where those foods are sourced.

Approach tries to optimize the multiple goals of food and nutrition security, sustainable use of natural resources and conservation of biodiversity, both for human health as well as environmental health.

Nutrition sensitive landscapes

ESS and Nutrition

• In what way can we look at current communities of species that form an ecosystem for the “provision of food”– Farm– Forest– Communal land spaces

• And how does provision of food (through ag practices) alter current ecosystem services

(+/-)

• Explore the ecosystem services within a given landscape that can contribute to nutrition

• Identify trade-offs and synergies between agricultural practices, nutrition and environment

• Promote solutions that are both environmentally sustainable and improve nutrition

Purpose of the research theme

Levels of information for the model1. Requirements of household membersUse: Compare hh nutrient requirements to food acquisition (own production + purchase) and simulate scenarios and assess trade offs2. Dietary diversity of all or selected HH membersUse: Assess trade-offs and develop best-bet scenarios *also key monitoring indicator for diet quality3. Quantitative dietary intakesUse: Quantify amount of food/food group currently consumed (in grams) and compare to requirements to assess gaps between current consumption and requirements and set upper and lower limits for modelling tradeoffs