Presenter Professor Bill BelottiVincent Fairfax Chair in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

Topic “Linking agricultural development to nutrition and health outcomes”Related to ACIAR project: LWR/2010/082 Improving livelihoods with innovative cropping systems on the East India Plateau

Date 12.30pm, Monday 5 August 2013

Venue ACIAR House, Canberra

Acknowledgements Belotti B (2013) Linking agricultural development to nutrition and health outcomes, ACIAR Seminar Series presentation, 5 August 2013, Canberra, Australia.

India: 54% of 1.2 billion in poverty

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, www.ophi.org.uk

Poverty in east India (OPHI)Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) = Incidence of Poverty x Severity of Poverty

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, www.ophi.org.uk

Inadequate nutrition is the major contributor to MPI in India

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, www.ophi.org.uk

Diet diversity could be key to improving nutrition, particularly in south Asia

Starchy staple ratio = share of total calorie intake derived from cereals.

Herforth, 2013, World Bank

Propositions

• Poverty and malnutrition are particularly extensive and severe in east India.

• Need to focus on nutrition, not just calories.

• A more diverse agriculture could lead to a more diverse diet.

• Does it? What is the evidence for this?

Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH)

• LCIRAH established in 2010 with a grant from the Leverhulme Trust to develop “unifying approaches and methodologies for understanding the relationship between agricultural production and population health, and the factors which drive them both.”

• Part of London International Development Centre (LIDC) and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); University of London.

3rd Annual LCIRAH Conference 13-14 June 2013, London

Focus on concepts and methodologies

• Lack of integrated datasets linking agricultural development to nutritional security

• Need better understanding of linkages between subsistence and larger food systems

• Concepts like ‘household’ and ‘family farm’ are fluid and often need fuzzy definitions to reflect reality

• Research interventions intended to deliver behaviour change; what works?• Place farmer first, at the centre of research.

• LCIRAH and A4NH will form a Agri-Health Academy to support a community of practice

Key findings: CornishMedium-uplands of East India Plateau

• Transplanted rice is unreliable• Higher value options (horticulture) available• Season-landscape crop option matrix• Increase in crop intensity and diversity• System change• Based on changing perceptions

– Land– Water– Self

Transplanted rice on medium uplands - EIP

Soil water was measured in many fields – used to make a model that predicts soil

water

Available water for rice in medium uplands, Pogro 2006(Total rainfall 1153 mm – 6-year average 1208 mm)

Rainfall varies from year-to-yearBut what about soil water and ponding

0

500

1000

1500

2000 Hazaribag rainfall

An

nu

al r

ain

fall

(mm

)The duration of ponding in medium uplands is much

more variable even than rainfall (0-106 days)

This why rice crops fail so often

Rainfed cropping with non-flooded crops (including aerobic rice) a safer option than paddy

Soil water in medium uplands with no ponding, Pogro 2006-2011

Rainfed – bunds open

Abundant water, even in 2010

In project villages cropping systems are becoming more intensive and diverse

Season-Landscape Crop Matrix Learning Tool

Self Help Groups planning ‘year-round’ cropping

Improving livelihoods with innovative cropping systems on the East India Plateau

Research and Development Objectives

1.Research into process of scaling out

2.Monitoring and evaluation of impact

AusAIDDevelopment Objectives

1.PRADAN education & training

2.PRADAN scaling out on EIP

ACIARResearch Objectives

1.Water2.Soil3.Crops4.Livestock5.Integration

40 newly trained PRADAN Development Executives focussed on WSD and INRM to develop more resilient, diverse cropping systems

Development focus on five EIP states

Research focus in Jharkhand and West Bengal

Three locations:1. Purulia2. Bokaro3. West

Singbhum

Mechanisation of rice seeding

2-wheel tractor4-row seederSeparate seed and fertiliser boxesPossible to intercropRejected by farmers

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) changes the cropping system (everything)

• Earlier seeding, earlier harvesting• Early sowing of rabi crop, preferably a pulse

• Climate resilient agriculture• Gender supportive (frees women from

drudgery)• Nutrition enhancing

2010 kharif widespread failure to transplant rice2013 also delayed transplanting

Farmers unimpressed with manually pulled seeder

Diversify the farming system further

• Pulse agronomy• Vegetable crops• Small ruminants (forage legumes)

• Legumes for nitrogen, protein, nutrition• Vegetables for cash income & home consume• Goats for very poor & landless (walking ATM)

Existing M&E in LWR/2010/082

1. Longitudinal survey of 1080 households

2. Understanding PRADAN’s education program and innovation system (‘Agency’ focus)

3. Opportunities to add-on

Household Level Survey

• Three districts:– Purulia, West Singbhum, Bokaro

• Three target populations:– No contact PRADAN, + PRADAN, PRADAN + ACIAR

• Four villages per target group• 30 Households per village• Total = 3 x 3 x 4 x 30 = 1080 households• Surveyed in 2013, 2015, 2017• Comprehensive (Knowing – Doing – Being)

PRADAN education and innovation

• PRADAN ‘in-house’ training program, Development Apprenticeship program

• New partnership with Ambedkar University, Master of Philosophy in Development Practice

• New PRADAN focus on ‘agency’

• How can we facilitate transmission of ACIAR innovations throughout PRADAN?– 290 staff; 42 Districts; 268,600 families; 16,555 SHG

Opportunity 1Linking crop diversity to diet diversity

• We know our research is resulting in more intensive and diverse cropping systems.

• Are we having an impact on diet and nutrition?

• What evidence is needed?

Indicators for diet quality, continuity of food access, and food insecurity

Monitoring to link diet to nutrition & health

• Should we include health indicators?

• If yes:– Body Mass Index (BMI)– Middle Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC)– Stunting (low height for age)– Wasting (low weight for age)– Low birth weight

• Mixture of short- and long-term indicators

Opportunity 2Wider economy implications of intensification

• More diverse and intense cropping systems, higher household income from on-farm activity

• Creating demand for input supply and services, as well as output supply chains

• Wider economy development may have greater impact on nutrition and health than on-farm production and home consumption

Wider economy indicators

• Generation of employment• Off-farm income• Small business start-ups

• Household expenditure– Education– Health– Other?

Nutritionally sensitive A4H

1. Invest in women: safeguard and strengthen the capacity of women to provide for the food security, health, and nutrition of their families.

2. Increase access to and year-round availability of high-nutrient content food.

3. Improve nutrition knowledge among rural households to enhance dietary diversity.

4. Incorporate explicit nutrition objectives and indicators into project and policy design.

Herforth, 2013, World Bank

LWR/2010/082 has several interventions in place, but currently not formally monitoring

World Bank pathway ACIAR project LWR/2010/082

1. Increase overall macroeconomic growth. Yes, but currently not monitored.

2. Increase access to food by higher production and decreased food prices.

Likely, some data but need to monitor formally.

3. Increase household income through the sale of agricultural products.

Yes, positive impact and included in formal M&E.

4. Increase nutrient dense food production for household consumption.

Yes, increasing vegetables, pulses, goats, but currently not monitoring impact on diet.

5. Empowering women through targeted agricultural interventions.

Yes, women SHGs are central to our engagement process.

Livelihood aspirations and transformations

• Hanging in – maintaining status quo, hold farm but little interest in innovation

• Stepping up – increasing levels of production, innovation and investment

• Stepping out – engaging in non-farm production activities

• Falling down and out – falling to a lower level of production, possibly failing to survive

(Dorward, et al, 2009 & 2013)

Transdisciplinarity

1. Deliberate plan to transcend discipline boundaries from outset of research.

2. Active participation of non-scientists in the research process.

3. Respect for different knowledge systems and world views.

4. More effective research impact; particularly for behavioural change.

Consider . . .

• A region of extensive and severe poverty and malnutrition

• An intervention process (PRADAN-ACIAR) that appears to be delivering real impact

• An opportunity to expand the M&E to quantify linkages between agriculture-health, and between on-farm production and wider economy