Agriculture and Nutrition:

Is the Marriage Working?

Marie Ruel, IFPRI

#IFPRI40 November 18, 2015

Mature Marriage (>3 decades)

Key Milestones

1980s- Concepts

Agriculture affects nutrition through:

Income, prices, demand for labor, time allocation, energy expenditure

1990s – Research

Agriculture commercialization:

Income effect not sufficient to improve child nutrition (women and WASH may be important)

Breeding for nutrition: idea was born

2000s – Research, Partnerships, Policy Engagement

Beyond calories:

HarvestPlus, diet quality, nutritious foods, micronutrients

Evidence generationon what works, how, where, when

Multi-sectoral work:

Role of women and of other sectors to deliver on nutrition

2020 Conference

Filling Evidence Gap through

Rigorous Evaluations

Working with partners such as Helen KellerInternational to evaluate impacts of agriculturalprograms on maternal and child nutrition

Bangladesh (MOA) commissions a studyto design and evaluate (RCT) a nation-wide project linking agriculture, women’sempowerment and nutrition

Decades of IFPRI Research (led by A. Ahmed) :- Heavy reliance on rice – poor diet diversity- Women’s empowerment important for

production diversity, food security, nutrition- Behavior change key to improving nutrition

Evidence-Based Policy-Making

in Bangladesh

Countries need to translate political momentum into action on the ground …..

2

0

1

2015

Momentum in Nutrition

Initiative to document country experiences on how to improve nutrition - at scale

Uses a common approach – mix of quantitative and qualitative tools

Generates learning, knowledge; helps translate into improved policy and practice

Creates a learning platform to inform and inspire Builds capacity and fosters sharing of experiential

learning

Stories of Change

Is the Marriage Working?

In 2025