Academic literature on the topic 'Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA)'

AbstractAssessing progress towards healthier people, farms and landscapes through nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) requires transdisciplinary methods with robust models and metrics. Farm-household models could facilitate disentangling the complex agriculture-nutrition nexus, by jointly assessing performance indicators on different farm system components such as farm productivity, farm environmental performance, household nutrition, and livelihoods. We, therefore, applied a farm-household model, FarmDESIGN, expanded to more comprehensively capture household nutrition and production diversity, diet diversity, and nutrient adequacy metrics. We estimated the potential contribution of an NSA intervention targeting the diversification of home gardens, aimed at reducing nutritional gaps and improving livelihoods in rural Vietnam. We addressed three central questions: (1) Do ‘Selected Crops’ (i.e. crops identified in a participatory process) in the intervention contribute to satisfying household dietary requirements?; (2) Does the adoption of Selected Crops contribute to improving household livelihoods (i.e. does it increase leisure time for non-earning activities as well as the dispensable budget)?; and (3) Do the proposed nutrition-related metrics estimate the contribution of home-garden diversification towards satisfying household dietary requirements? Results indicate trade-offs between nutrition and dispensable budget, with limited farm-household configurations leading to jointly improved nutrition and livelihoods. FarmDESIGN facilitated testing the robustness and limitations of commonly used metrics to monitor progress towards NSA. Results indicate that most of the production diversity metrics performed poorly at predicting desirable nutritional outcomes in this modelling study. This study demonstrates that farm-household models can facilitate anticipating the effect (positive or negative) of agricultural interventions on nutrition and the environment, identifying complementary interventions for significant and positive results and helping to foresee the trade-offs that farm-households could face. Furthermore, FarmDESIGN could contribute to identifying agreed-upon and robust metrics for measuring nutritional outcomes at the farm-household level, to allow comparability between contexts and NSA interventions.

While there is an increased awareness of the role of nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions on nutrition, the studies that investigate holistic pathways from interventions to nutrition outcomes are inadequate. We aimed to understand these pathways to improved nutrition from the Enhancing Nutrition of Upland Farming Families (ENUFF) Project implemented in northern Laos. We applied an embedded case study design by recruiting 101 participants representing implementers, school and private sector representatives, and beneficiaries, of which 34 participated in interviews and 68 participated in 11 FGDs. This was supplemented by a desk review of project documents. We analyzed the data using a directed content analysis across five pathways using a published framework on impact pathways from NSA interventions to nutrition outcomes. The project contributed to nutrition mainly through three core pathways-food production, nutrition and WASH-related knowledge, and agricultural income, supported by strengthening local institutions within the project’s scope. While it is evident that the project contributed to empowering women by saving their time and increasing income, further study is needed to investigate the translation of these aspects to nutrition-related practices. We also suggest the need to sustain the capacity of local institutions and their engagement beyond the project cycle. To enhance the effectiveness of NSA interventions on nutrition, there is a need to design and implement intervention package with multiple pathways and tailored strategies based on nutrition outcomes, the envisaged pathways, geographical context, and factors affecting these.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) provides a promising pathway for addressing malnutrition. Fulfilling this promise needs a better understanding of the implementation and sustainability of NSA interventions because of their highly complex nature. This study aimed to explore the factors affecting the implementation and sustainability of NSA interventions. A case study design was employed using two focus group discussions with beneficiaries (n = 15), semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries (n = 13), and actors involved in implementation (n = 18). Factors were thematically analyzed using both deductive and inductive approaches adapting the consolidated framework for implementation research. A complex interaction of the factors across the five domains was found: outer setting—nutrition sensitivity of policies, institutional framework; inner setting—culture, social and economic environment, biophysical environment, local capacity, other programs or projects; characteristics of actors—beneficiaries, family members, household capacity, implementers; intervention characteristics—adaptability, design quality, cost of interventions; and, implementation process—fit-to-context, integration and multisectoral collaboration, continuous motivation through engagement, monitoring. Implementing and sustaining NSA needs consideration of multiple factors, with careful analysis of the absorptive capacities of local institutions and beneficiary households. Future studies should explore which mechanisms created for adoption can be continued beyond the project funding cycle, and how.

Abstract Objectives In 2015, depressive disorders led to over 50 million disability-adjusted life years lost globally, with more than 80% occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Depressive disorders are also risk factors of a number of adverse maternal and child health outcomes. To our knowledge, the Singida Nutrition and Agroecology Project (SNAP-Tz), is the first nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) intervention identified to improve women's probable depression (2020). Food security has been posited to play an important role in the relationship between NSA interventions and depression, yet causal factors have not yet been analyzed quantitatively. Therefore, we investigated food security's mediating role on this impact. Methods SNAP-Tz is a 30-month participatory agroecological intervention aimed to improve sustainable agriculture, nutrition and gender equity in Singida, Tanzania. Food insecure, married, smallholder female farmers with children < 1-year-old at baseline (n = 548) were interviewed annually in Feb 2016–2019. We used multiple logistic regression models to estimate the total effect (TE) of the SNAP-Tz intervention on women's Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scores (CESD). We further estimated natural direct effects (NDE) to evaluate mediation through household food insecurity access score (HFIAS); these represent estimates of the effect of SNAP-Tz on CESD if everyone were to receive SNAP-Tz, thereby changing food insecurity (HFIAS). Results SNAP-Tz had a large impact on reducing CESD scores: odds of probable depression were 32% lower in SNAP-Tz women compared to the delayed intervention group after adjusting for gender equity measures and religion (TE OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.58–0.80). Mediation by HFIAS explained about one quarter of the intervention's impact (NIE OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.84–0.94). Conclusions Improvements in household food security seems to play a substantial mediating role in the strong and unexpected impact of NSA interventions on women's mental health. Other possible pathways include improvements in peer mentoring and farmer experimentation. Future agricultural and nutrition projects should include mental health evaluations to see if this impact can be generalized. Funding Sources This study was funded by the McKnight Foundation, Mabie Global Health Fellowship at Northwestern University; NIH (K01MH098902).

Abstract Objectives Little is known about how level of participation affects nutrition outcomes in rural interventions. This study examined the association between participation level in a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention (NSA) and children's diet and anthropometric outcomes. Methods The Nutrition Links was a 2016–17 cluster RCT (clinicaltrials.gov NCT01985243) which enrolled caregivers with children < 18 mo in rural Ghana. Women in the intervention communities self-selected to receive poultry layers for egg production as part of a loan package, garden inputs, and nutrition education. Weekly meetings were used for education, for the staff to document egg production, and for the women to repay their loan and purchase feed. After endline, project participation was evaluated with a summative score that reflected 5 criteria: 1) egg productivity 2) timely and complete payment for feed and loan 3) meeting attendance 4) answering questions and making comments during the meetings and 5) attentiveness and helpfulness with the group. The field staff evaluated all criteria – from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) – for each intervention woman who received poultry. Their participation was classified as high, medium, or low, based on tertiles. The participation of intervention women who never received poultry was ‘none’. Logistic and linear regressions tested the likelihood of consuming eggs and having a minimum diverse diet (MDD) and changes in anthropometric indices for the participation levels compared to those of the controls, who received standard-of-care services. Results In comparison to the control group, only a high participation level was significant for having a MDD (aOR = 3.1, 95% CI [1.1, 8.8]). Both medium and high participation levels were associated with an increased likelihood in egg consumption (aOR = 2.1, 95% CI [1.0, 4.1]; aOR = 2.7, 95% CI [1.3, 5.4]), and length-for-age (LAZ)/height-for-age (HAZ) z-scores (β = 0.4, 95% CI [0.2, 0.6]; β = 0.4, 95% CI [0.2, 0.7]), and weight-for-age (WAZ) (β = 0.2, 95% CI [0.0, 0.4]; β = 0.2, 95% CI [0.0, 0.5]), respectively. Conclusions These results show the potential effect of NSA interventions and highlight the importance of facilitating high participation of beneficiaries. Funding Sources Global Affairs Canada, Heifer International, World Vision, McGill University, International Development Research Centre.

ABSTRACT The role of agriculture in reducing undernutrition is widely recognized, yet there is also consensus on the need to make the sector nutrition-sensitive. Evidence on the impact pathways from nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions, agricultural interventions with specific nutrition objectives, and actions detailing each temporal stage to reach nutrition outcomes is limited, however. We thus synthesized study results regarding impact of NSA interventions on nutrition outcomes relating to undernutrition, and constructed an impact pathway by mapping the evidence on each temporal stage from interventions to nutrition outcomes. We used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses to conduct and report our systematic review of studies on NSA interventions implemented in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Forty-three studies that met the inclusion criteria were extracted and synthesized across impact and pathways analyses. We carried out a thematic analysis of the effect of NSA interventions using evidence-based indicators and constructed the pathways by adopting a published framework on agriculture to nutrition pathways. Our findings reveal that NSA interventions can significantly improve dietary practices, and have the potential to enhance care practices and reduce occurrence of diseases, indicating their effectiveness in simultaneously addressing multiple determinants of undernutrition. However, NSA interventions have a lesser impact on nutritional status. NSA interventions lead to nutrition outcomes through 5 key pathways: food production, nutrition-related knowledge, agricultural income, women's empowerment, and strengthening of local institutions. We emphasize the need to carefully design, implement, and evaluate interventions with consideration for factors affecting impact pathways. Future research should focus on the effect of interventions combining multisector components, and pathways through non-food-production-related income, women's empowerment, strengthening of local institutions, food prices at intervention level, and expenditure on health care.

The importance of agriculture across the different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) results from its increased relevance to long-term developmental consequences that affect children and other vulnerable groups. Although encouraging progress has been achieved in documenting nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) in community-based programs through analyses of existing data, much remains to be learned about what, how, and at what cost agriculture can contribute to improving nutrition outcomes. This study aims to explore the perceptions and understandings of local agriculture planners towards NSA in CALABARZON, Philippines. It also aims to describe the current position of the local agriculture planning in the study area. Data were collected using a phenomenological study design using two focus group discussions and five key informant interviews. Municipal agriculturists, municipal agriculture officers, agriculture extension workers, municipal nutrition action office (focus groups), and provincial agriculture officers (key informants) were recruited. Patterns were identified through a rigorous process of data familiarization, data coding, theme development, and revision. It was observed that NSA is a new concept among the local agriculture planners in the study area. Understanding of the participants on NSA mainly focused on improving the nutrient content of the crops produced to improve the nutrient intake of the population. Although the agriculture office has conducted several programs related to nutrition in the past, the continuity of the projects was not sustained. Thus, there is a need to increase the awareness of local institutions towards the importance of improving the nutrition sensitivity of local agriculture plans.

Abstract Background Research on nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) has mostly been aimed at demonstrating its impact on nutrition and explicating underlying pathways, and more rarely at understanding processes and lessons learnt from them. This study aimed to gain insights into the processes that influence behaviour change, contributing to improved caring, feeding and food production practices, using a program theory perspective. It also investigated perceived challenges to the sustainability of interventions and potential solutions, in the context of an NSA program in rural Vietnam. Using a participatory approach, data were gathered on impact pathways and perceived outcomes, on elements of program theory that led to behavioural change, as well as barriers and facilitators. Respondents in semi-structured interviews (n = 30) and seven focus group discussions (total n = 76) were selected purposively among program participants. Data was collected and triangulated across several stakeholder groups. Results The impact pathways (production-consumption, caring and feeding, and home-grown school feeding) envisaged in the NSA program functioned as intended; synergies were revealed. The increased supply of locally produced nutrient-rich foods not only contributed to the emergence of a promising income sub-pathway but also reinforced synergy with the home-grown school feeding pathway. Improved diets, feeding and caring practices, and school attendance were key outcomes of the program. Successful elements were pathway-specific, such as flexibility in implementing context-appropriate agricultural models. Others, such as benefit-driven motivation and improved knowledge, triggered changes in multiple pathways. Role models, increased self-confidence, and change agents were the main process facilitators. The biggest barrier to both implementation and sustainability was the poor socio-economic conditions of the most disadvantaged households. Conclusions This study showed the relevance of NSA programs in addressing undernutrition in remote areas by enhancing self-reliance in local communities. The integration of behaviour change activities proved to be a key strategy in the process to enhance the impact of agriculture on nutrition outcomes. Though outcomes and influencing factors are very context-dependent, lessons on what worked and what did not work could inform the design and implementation of effective behaviour change strategies in future NSA programs in Vietnam and elsewhere.

Background: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions can contribute to improved food security and household dietary diversity. As well as undertaking trials, contextual factors that influence sustainability need to be scoped. Objective: To explore locals’ views of an NSA initiative, designed to improve food security and reduce malnutrition in children younger than 5 years, scoping future prospects 6 months after the conclusion of the trial. Methods: The initiative that was formally trialed over 6 months (November 2014 to April 2015) entailed keeping hens and home gardens. It occurred in the ethnic hill tribes of northern Thailand. In November 2015, 20 in-depth interviews were undertaken with villagers who had been involved in the initiative. Dialogue occurred in Thai with assistance of a translator and was recorded, transcribed, and translated to English. A detailed thematic analysis was undertaken. Results: Eggs produced by the hens were appreciated and fed to children, and the message of providing children with an egg a day was widely remembered. Subsequently, the hens ceased laying or died. The home gardens had seasonal scarcity of water. Less visible, but fundamental, women lacked time for these activities due to heavy burdens of farm labor. Conclusion: Keeping hens has potential to become a sustainable activity. Home gardens need water infrastructure to be viable. Women do not necessarily have spare capacity for such initiatives. The required labor needs deliberation by villagers.

Background: In response to calls to increase nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development developed the Nigeria Agricultural Sector Food Security and Nutrition Strategy 2016-2025 (AFSNS). Capacity development activities to facilitate the AFSNS implementation subsequently commenced. Objective: This study analyzed the processes and outputs of initial capacity development efforts, examined findings from the analysis using existing literature, and identified critical next steps for nutrition capacity development in the Nigerian agriculture sector. Methods: The study reviewed documents including a proposal for nutrition training of agriculture sector actors, reports of meetings held among 6 resource persons who designed and/or delivered training, training reports, participants’ pre- and posttraining assessments, and participants’ training evaluation. Interviews were conducted with 2 resource persons involved in training design and delivery. Documents and interviews were coded and analyzed to identify emergent themes. Participants’ pre- and posttests results were compared using paired t test in Stata 12.0. Results: Knowledge and practice gaps were more extensive than had been anticipated. Training had some but limited effects on knowledge scores at the federal level. Modules addressing implementation practices had to be scaled down for participants to keep up with the learning pace. Existing literature indicates that such training would have been better planned as part of a broader sectoral nutrition workforce strategy, to facilitate greater tailoring of training to participants’ job roles. Conclusion: Effective AFSNS implementation requires developing and operationalizing a comprehensive short-, medium- and long-term Agriculture Sector Nutrition Capacity Development Strategy for Nigeria.

It is a known fact that the whole agriculture system is suffering from the diseases caused by plant pathogens, affecting negatively the crop yield production, food security, biodiversity, agricultural ecosystem and hence agricultural economy. In many countries, the containment strategies of plant pathogens are still depending on chemical pesticides that cause adverse effects in the long term. According to the implementations reinforced by European council 2009/128/EC, biocontrol strategies are considered as the most profound and integrated approach for sustainable disease management. Defining biocontrol in terms of plant pathology, it is the purposeful utilization of beneficial microbes, or its molecules, to suppress phytopathogens’ ability to colonize or induce symptoms in the host. In spite of their lesser shelf-life and unreliability as compared to conventional pesticides, their targeted biological interaction with the phytopathogens reduces the possibility of affecting non-target organisms, environment and the development of resistance in the pathogen. In this context, exploitation of bacterial endophytes has gained much attention during the past decades. Endophytic plant growth promoting bacteria (ePGPBs) mediate their biocontrol efficacy by targeting species through a multitude of direct or indirect biological interactions, often employing both modes of action, such as plant growth promotion, host’s resistance induction, allelochemicals secretion, and nutrients and niche competition. Another strategy that has gained popularity is the exogenous application of double stranded RNA (dsRNA), which is considered as the key trigger molecule of RNA interreference (RNAi), a post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism, and has been shown to provide protection without the need for integration of dsRNA-expressing constructs as transgenes. In the present doctoral thesis, the above-mentioned biocontrol strategies were adapted, utilizing “ePGPBs as microbial inoculants” and “exogenously applied dsRNA as RNAi based natural product”, against several phytopathogens belonging to different families of viruses and fungi. Regarding ePGBPs as microbial inoculants, the objective of this study was to extend our understanding of five endophytic bacterial strains; Pantoea agglomerans (255-7), Pseudomonas syringae (260-02), Lysinibacillus fusiformis (S4C11), Paraburkholderia fungorum (R8), Paenibacillus pasadenensis (R16); that have shown a promising result in previous studies. In the present doctoral study, these strains were tested in planta to evaluate their role in providing plant growth promotion and broad-spectrum protection against two target pathosystems (viruses and fungi) that might have direct, indirect or simultaneous effects, proceeded with two following aims: (Aim 1) action against viruses: Cymbidium ringspot virus (CymRSV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Potato virus X (PVX), and Potato virus Y (PVY) on Nicotiana benthamiana plants, comparing their effects with those of three chitosan-based products, which are known to induce resistance in plants; and (Aim 2) action against fungal pathogens: Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum and Botrytis cinerea on Lactuca sativa plants, comparing their effects with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain (CC2) and Trichoderma spp. based product, under controlled conditions. To test the priming efficacy of ePGPBs against target viruses, several phenotypic parameters were observed along with the evaluation of three plant defense related genes (EDS1, PR2B and NPR1) on Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Interestingly, the symptoms reduction was successfully registered against CymRSV and CMV with increased heights of the plants. Some of the treatments were shown correlation between severity of symptoms and the virus concentration in the plants. Furthermore, the molecular interaction indicated the involvement of a salicylic acid (SA) mediated defense pathway as evidenced by the increased expression levels of EDS1 gene in strains R16 and 260-02. Whereas, strain S4C11 showed downregulation of PR2B gene, suggesting that SA-independent pathways could be involved. These findings opened queries regarding the duration of the protective effect, host-plant- pathogen interaction, and epidemiological implications of the use of similar biocontrol strains, that reduce the symptoms but not the concentration of virus in the host. To test the ePGPBs role against target fungi (pre- and post-harvest stage), several experiments were conducted including phenotypic paraments, gene expression analysis (PR1, PAL, ThlP3, ERF1 and ACCS1), microbiota analysis in bulk soil, rhizosphere, and root associated with Lactuca sativa in the presence or absence of the inoculants, and nutritional quality parameters at time of harvest and during shelf-life of Romaine lettuce. The results were accompanied in terms of symptoms reduction by strain R16 (P. ultimum, R. solani, B. cinerea) and strain 260-02 (R. solani, B. cinerea); % seed germination by strains R16, 260-02, 255-7, S4C11 in some healthy and R. solani infected lettuce varieties; inhibition of R. solani population in soil and rhizosphere soil by strains R16, 260-02 and 255-7. Furthermore, composition of the bacterial microbiota was radically different in the rhizosphere and the root endosphere among treatments, while the bulk soil formed a single cluster regardless of treatment, indicating that the use of these treatments did not have an ecological impact outside of the plant. Also, these strains were able to contribute to the maintenance of nutritional quality indexes of lettuce at harvest and during storage. All the obtained results indicated that these strains were involved directly (via antibiosis) and indirectly (via SA or ET/JA) in the observed reduction of symptoms. Particularly, strain R16 upregulated both PAL and ACCS1 gene in R. solani infected L. sativa (suggesting co-activation of SA- and JA/ ET mediated ISR resistance); strain 260-02 upregulated PAL gene in R. solani infected romaine lettuce and showed higher levels of ascorbic acid (AsA) production in B. cinerea infected romaine lettuce (suggesting the activation of SA- and AsA-mediated antioxidant resistance); and strain 255-7 triggered PAL and ThlP3 gene up-stream expression levels indicating SA mediated pathways in R. solani infected romaine lettuce. These findings affirmed the previous conclusions and added valuable pieces of information regarding the traits these ePGPB carried, most importantly, in individuating different mode of action of the different strains in different host plants with or without the presence of pathogen. Regarding the second approach, non-transgenic strategy was employed to induce resistance against Tomato Aspermy Virus (TAV) in N. benthamiana plants. DsRNA molecules for coat protein (CP) gene was produced by a two-step PCR assay followed by in vitro transcription and purification and was exogenously applied. The implementation of CP-derived dsRNA TAV was not successful in reducing observed symptoms (mosaics, blisters, crinkling, leaf distortion, and systemic vein clearing), regardless of treatments or days of post inoculation. Only a slight difference was found in plant heights indicating that the treatment managed to reduce stunted growth of the plant at dilution 01:10 (6 and 12 dpi). The reasons could involve inappropriate concentration of dsRNA inoculum. Therefore, future studies will be conducted to optimize in vitro dsRNA molecules production to obtain higher concentrations or more specific sequences, and more suitable viral genes. Both strategies have shown interesting outcomes and gave us the future direction which will help us in designing the adequate trials (in planta or semi-field) for the disease management and diseases control through the application of ePGPBs as a microbial inoculants and dsRNA-based product individually or in combination.

future of sustainable agriculture. The result of the study revealed that CA has had a significant impact on food production and productivity. The analysis shows that the productivity of maize increased by 90% and cassava by 2%. Increases in crop productivity have a positive impact on food security, as more food is available for consumption for the whole year. One of the key benefits of adopting CA for farmers is having less time on the farm and lower workloads compared to conventional farming due to decreases in wedding requirements. The impact of CA on household diet quality is marginal. The study findings indicate that CA adopters do not consume better quality or more diverse diets than non-adopters. The majority of adopters think their diets have not changed since adopting CA and their dietary practices are very poor both in terms of minimum dietary diversity and frequency of protein food intake. In addition, it is not surprising that the research found no impact of CA on nutrition knowledge and related behaviors. The study revealed that there is very poor child-feeding knowledge and that CA adopters do not display a better understanding of nutrition practices. The impact of CA on women's empowerment is positive. In terms of energy expenditure, female adopters have more time to rest due to reduced workloads such as weeding and less time and labor consumption. Most women decide on food purchases and uses of income from crop sales, yet decision-making on health is limited. The majority do not report changes in their community status after implementing CA, despite the benefits of group participation. Based on the result of the study it is recommended that it is important to invest in researching CA approaches that increase staple yields while producing nutrient-rich varieties, such as soybeans, red beans, and peanuts. Considering the nutritional value of legume varieties for both macro and micronutrients, such as protein and iron, is highly recommended. Thus, investing in the nutrition capacity of the CA workforce is needed, and this can be done by facilitating yearly training on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) to all staff involved in implementing CA programs.