Evidence-Based Agricultural Policy Formulation for Improved Nutrition

Akhter AhmedEsha Sraboni

Workshop on Evidence-Based Policy Options For Food And Nutrition Securityin Bangladesh

1 October 2014, Dhaka

Motivation Ultimate goal of ensuring food security is to improve health

and nutrition of people While Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in

foodgrain production, its performance in improving child and maternal nutrition is less satisfactory

Agriculture provides a source of food and nutrients, a broad-based source of income, and affects food prices. Given these links, agriculture has the potential to be a strong driver of nutrition. However, that potential is not being fully realized

Empirical evidence on the impact of agricultural growth on nutrition is limited

The lack of women’s empowerment weakens the links between agriculture and nutrition

Background Evidence

Overwhelming dominance of rice in diet: Share of rice in total nutrient intakes of Bangladeshis

Food energy (calorie)

Protein Zinc Iron0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

71

5762

44

78

6770

52

63

4652

36

All Poorest 20% Richest 20%

Pe

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ge

of

tota

l nu

trie

nt

inta

ke

Rice-centric agriculture: Share of crops on total cropped land in Bangladesh

Rice Vegetables Pulses Potatoes Wheat All other crops

0

20

40

60

80

100

76.8

3.5 2.9 1.7 1.5

13.8

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of t

ota

l cro

pp

ed

are

a

Regional differences in percentage of women empowered in agriculture: IFPRI’s WEAI study

BARISAL RAJSHAHI DHAKA RANGPUR KHULNA CHITTAGONG SYLHET BANGLADESH0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

30 28 27

20 20

12 11

23

Perc

enta

ge o

f w

omen

Agricultural diversity increases dietary diversity in Bangladesh: Evidence from IFPRI study

Using IFPRI’s 2011-12 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) data and rigorous econometric modelling exercise (instrumental variable regressions), IFPRI researchers found that: Agricultural diversity promotes household and child dietary

diversity, and hence, diet quality, after controlling for income effect

Women’s empowerment (measured by the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index – WEAI) improves household, child, and maternal dietary diversity

Education matters: Women’s education improves household diet quality Mother’s education promotes child diet diversity Women’s education improves maternal diet diversity

What are the main determinants of agricultural diversity?

IFPRI study shows that agricultural diversity increases if:Primary woman is empowered (measured by the Women’s

Empowerment in Agriculture Index – WEAI)Household has access to irrigationAgricultural extension agents visit farm householdHousehold has access to agricultural loansHousehold has agricultural input subsidy card

Positioning Agriculture toward Improved Nutrition and Women’s Empowerment:

New Research Design

Project objectives and policy relevance

Overall objectives: Identify actions and investments in agriculture that would lead

to agricultural development for improved nutrition Make recommendations on how to strengthen pathways to

women’s empowerment—particularly within agriculture The project addresses two important aspects of the National Agricultural Policy 2013: 1. Encouraging crop diversification and production of crops with

greater nutrition value for meeting the nutrition demand of the population

2. Empowering women, encouraging their participation in production and marketing for income generation, and ensuring their nutritional status for improving food and nutrition security

Project design

Implement and evaluate impacts of six alternative modalities for nutrition and gender sensitive agriculture: 1. Facilitating the production of the high-value food

commodities that are rich in essential micronutrients 2. Undertaking activities that lead to the improvement in the

status/empowerment of women 3. Conducting behavior change communication (BCC) training

to improve nutrition4. Combining (1) and (2)5. Combining (1) and (3)6. Combining (1), (2) , and (3)

Research design

IFPRI will conduct the research using a rigorous method of evaluation: the randomized controlled trial (RCT) method to evaluate the impact of the 6 modalities: Sample villages will be randomly assigned to treatment and control gropus

The impact evaluation will involve two rounds of comprehensive household surveys

The first survey will be designed as a baseline, to be conducted just before the start of project activities

The second follow-up survey will be conducted 24 months later, shortly after the second year of project activities are completed.

The longitudinal dataset that will emerge from the two rounds of surveys will enable researchers to construct difference-in-differences (or double difference) impact estimates—meaning, they will determine the difference between the change in the treatment group and the change in the control group

RCT with difference-in-differences

 

Baseline(Before)

Follow-up(After)

PB = CB

Program

Control

PA

CA

Impact = (PA - CA) - (PB - CB)

Outcome indicators

Using the RCT with data from baseline and endline surveys, researchers will estimate impacts of each of the 6 modalities on: Incomes of farmers (by marginal, small, medium, and large

farm size groups) Household, child, and maternal dietary diversity (measured by

food consumption score and dietary diversity score) Child nutritional status in terms of stunting, wasting, and

underweight (from anthropometric measurements of height and weight of children under 5 years of age)

Nutritional status of child bearing-age women (measured by body mass index)

Women’s social status and empowerment (measured by the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index – WEAI)

Potential partners of the pilot project

Agricultural Policy Support (APSU) of Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) will implement the pilot project with technical assistance from IFPRI

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) will produce breeder seeds for nutrient-dense rice varieties such as the recently released biologically fortified zinc rice (BRRI dhan-62)

Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) will produce breeder seeds of high nutritive value vegetables, fruits and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes

Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and private sector seed companies will produce certified seeds for high nutritive value crops

Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN) will conduct training of trainers on nutrition BCC

Conclusions

The evidence created by the pilot project will be used to design a national program for implementation by the Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen the agriculture-gender-nutrition linkages

The evidence will enable the Government and its development partners to make informed choices for investment in various interventions to strengthen the agriculture-gender-nutrition nexus

Expected benefits: Improved nutrition of the population, higher social status of women, increased incomes of farmers through high value and high nutritive value added agricultural production, and accelerated nutrition-enhancing agricultural growth