Food and Nutrition Security: What's the role of Agricultural Policy in Asia?
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Food and Nutrition Security: What’s the Role of Agricultural Policy in Asia? Siem Reap, Cambodia; September 25-27, 2013 International Conference on “Agricultural Transformation in Asia: Policy Options for Food and Nutrition Security” H.E. Srun Darith (moderator); Dr. Akhter Ahmed, Dr. Kamiljon Akramov, Dr. Olivier Ecker, Dr. Yanyan Liu
Food and Nutrition Security: What's the role of Agricultural Policy in Asia?
1. Food and Nutrition Security: Whats the Role of Agricultural
Policy in Asia? Siem Reap, Cambodia; September 25-27, 2013
International Conference on Agricultural Transformation in Asia:
Policy Options for Food and Nutrition Security H.E. Srun Darith
(moderator); Dr. Akhter Ahmed, Dr. Kamiljon Akramov, Dr. Olivier
Ecker, Dr. Yanyan Liu
2. Introduction H.E. Srun Darith, Dr. Olivier Ecker
3. Motivation Malnutrition slows economic growth (2-3% GDP
lost) and deepens poverty through productivity losses (10% of
lifetimes earnings) from poor physical performance and cognitive
capacity as well as increased health care costs. Poverty and
malnutrition are closely associated and highly prevalent in rural
areas. Although agricultural growth has been shown to have high
poverty reduction effects (Christiaensen et al. 2011; Diao et al.
2010; World Bank 2007), empirical evidence on its nutrition impact
is limited and inconclusive (Pinstrup-Anderson 2013; Berti et al.
2004; Masset et al. 2011). Nonetheless, development and
agricultural policy is often based on the assumption that
agricultural growthparticularly among smallholder farmersimproves
household food security and thereby reduces malnutrition.
4. Pathways from Agricultural Transformation and Growth to Food
and Nutrition Security Agricultural transformation and growth
driven by Demand increase Productivity growth due to policy reform,
investment, techno logical progress Purchasing power increase from
Income growth among farmers Food price reduction Change in food
self- sufficiency dependence among subsistence farmers Household
food and nutrition security (in terms of food quantity and dietary
quality) Nutrition outcomes Intra-household resource allocation,
care, education, health environment
5. Dietary Quality-Growth Relationship Cambodia Global trend
GDP per capita (constant 2005 US$) Share of calorie supply from
staples (%) Bangladesh Nepal Tajikistan Source: O. Ecker based on
data from FAOs FSI and World Banks WDI, complemented with IMFs WEO
and UNSTAT data.
6. Undernutrition-Growth Relationship Source: O. Ecker based on
data from World Banks WDI, complemented with IMFs WEO, UNSTAT, and
recent country survey data. Cambodia Global trend GDP per capita
(constant 2005 US$) Prevalence of underweight among children under
5 years (%) Bangladesh Nepal Tajikistan
7. Dietary Diversity as FNS Indicator Dietary quality
contributes to an individuals nutrition and health status and
thereby to peoples economic productivity. Households will only
diversify their diets into higher-value micronutrient-rich foods
when they have satisfied their basic calorie needs. For the poor,
these foods are often unavailable or unaffordable. Dietary
diversity is a strong predictor of dietary quality in terms of
(micro)nutrient intake and adequacy (Ruel et al. 2013). Household
dietary diversity is strongly correlated with per capita calorie
consumption and dietary energy adequacy and is correlated with
nutrition outcome indicators such as anthropometrics (Ruel 2003;
Ruel et al. 2013). Dietary diversity is responsive to welfare
trends and sensitive to shocks and seasonality, indicating high
inter-temporal validity (Headey & Ecker 2013). Dietary
diversity is measured as a count of different foods or food groups
consumed over a specified reference period. All country cases
studies use 12-scale or 16-scale household Dietary Diversity Scores
(DDS) as indicator of household food and nutrition security
(FNS).
8. Evidence from 4 Country Case Studies 1. Cambodia: Does
agricultural transformation slow progress toward achieving food and
nutrition security? Presented by Dr. Olivier Ecker 2. Tajikistan:
Agricultural biodiversity, dietary diversity and nutritional
outcomes Presented by Dr. Kamiljon Akramov 3. Nepal: Nutritional
Intake, Agricultural Production, and Conflict Presented by Dr.
Yanyan Liu 4. Bangladesh: Pathways of impact of agriculture on
nutrition Presented by Dr. Akhter Ahmed
9. Does Agricultural Transformation Slow Progress toward
Achieving Food and Nutrition Security in Cambodia? Coauthor:
Jean-Francois Trinh Tan Financial support: United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) Dr. Olivier Ecker
10. Motivation and Research Questions Cambodias Rectangular
Strategy (2009-2013) aims at achieving food and nutrition security
through agricultural transformation and growth (p. 13): The first
Strategic Rectangle to promote broad-based economic growth is the
enhancement of the agricultural sector, especially in the
high-potential agricultural and agro-industrial sectors. The
agricultural policy of the Royal Government is to improve
agricultural productivity and diversification [] to bolster
economic growth, create employment and generate income in the rural
areas, thus ensuring nutritional improvement, food security and
increased agricultural exports. This requires shifting the
direction from expansionary or extensive agriculture to deepening
or intensive agriculture, especially by increasing the yields using
the existing land through intensification. Does agricultural
transformation and growth translate into improved food and
nutrition security (FNS)? What are the policy-relevant variables
enabling this transmission?
11. Dietary Quality-Growth Relationship Cambodia Global trend
GDP per capita (constant 2005 US$) Share of calorie supply from
staples (%) 1992 2005 2009 SGDP=600 = -0.09 Annual change in share
of calorie supply (%-points) Annual GDP per capita growth (%) Arc
semi- elasticity 1992-2005 -0.54 5.30 -0.10 2005-2009 -0.50 5.33
-0.09 Source: Own estimation based on data from FAOs FSI and World
Banks WDI, complemented with IMFs WEO and UNSTAT data.
12. Undernutrition-Growth Relationship Source: Own estimation
based on data from World Banks WDI, complemented with IMFs WEO,
UNSTAT, and recent country survey data. Cambodia Global trend GDP
per capita (constant 2005 US$) Prevalence of underweight among
children under 5 years (%) 1996 2005 2010 SGDP=600 = -0.17 Annual
change in child underweight (%-points) Annual GDP per capita growth
(%) Arc semi- elasticity 1996-2005 -1.58 6.43 -0.25 2005-2010 0.12
5.13 0.02
13. Agricultural Transformation and Malnutrition 20 25 30 35 40
45 200 300 400 500 600 700 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Constant 2005 US$ (PPP) Percent of children (|< 50% Share of
food consumption from purchases >|< 50%
19. Conclusions and Policy Implications Economic growth is good
but is not enough for reducing (child) malnutrition. Agricultural
transformation may slow down progress toward achieving food and
nutrition security, depending on the patterns of transformation and
the adaptation capacity of the food and nutrition insecure farm
households. Market expansion benefits FNS overall. Farm households
tend to be more food and nutrition secure than non-farm households,
while FNSamong subsistence farmersincreases with growing non-farm
income. Subsistence farmers FNS increases with higher shares of
food consumption from purchases, whereas there is no evidence for
positive effects from food production diversificationbut, from
livestock diversification. Unlike for FNS, there is no evidence for
positive effects of agricultural transformation on child nutrition.
To make agricultural transformation more nutrition-sensitive,
complementary nutrition-specific interventions are needed.
20. Tajikistan: Agricultural Biodiversity, Dietary Diversity,
and Nutritional Outcomes Dr. Kamiljon T. Akramov Coauthor: Mehrab
Malek Financial support: United States Agency for International
Development (USAID)
21. Motivation Despite recent improvements, malnutrition in
Tajikistan remains very high: stunting among children under 5 is
about 30% The current strategy of national government and
development partners is to promote agricultural growth and
diversification to ensure food security and nutritional outcomes
Agrarian policy concept, Food Security Strategy and Agricultural
Investment Plan adopted by government in 2011 USAIDs FFP and FTF
programs and World Bank managed Global Agriculture and Food
Security Program These interventions could be very beneficial given
the fact that Tajikistan has less diversified agricultural
production system About 75% of sown area is allocated to wheat and
cotton However, there is little evidence regarding the linkages
between agricultural diversity, dietary diversity and nutrition in
Central Asian context
23. Research questions This study aims to provide empirical
evidence on agriculture-nutrition linkages in Tajikistan by
investigating three interrelated questions How is agricultural
diversity associated with household dietary diversity? Does
allocation of more land to cotton and wheat affect dietary
diversity? How is dietary diversity correlated with nutritional
outcomes? Assumption: Agricultural biodiversity influences
nutritional outcomes mainly by improving dietary diversity of
households and individuals What are the policy implications of main
findings of the study?
24. Measuring agricultural and dietary diversity Dietary
diversity Count based household DD score was developed using FAOs
(2011) guidelines (12 food groups) Calorie intake and food
expenditure weighted Berry indexes capture richness and evenness
Calorie intake and food expenditure based Log-abundance indexes
captures richness and abundance Agricultural diversity Count based
household level agricultural diversity score Land allocation based
and population-weighted log abundance diversity scores were
calculated at the district level
25. Data and Methodology Data sources Tajikistan Living
Standards Survey (TLSS) 2007 and 2009 District level population and
land allocation data (Regions of Tajikistan database, National
Agency on Statistics, 2011) Methodology: Multilevel mixed effects
and control function models to examine relationships between
agricultural diversity and dietary diversity and nutritional
outcomes Dependent variables: HH dietary diversity scores and child
stunting, measuring chronic malnutrition Key independent variables:
agricultural diversity at HH and district levels and share of
cotton and wheat in total land area; HH dietary diversity score,
with a maximum of 12 food groups Control variables: child, HH and
community characteristics, and region fixed effects