Seminar by Professor Bill Belotti: Linking agricultural development to nutrition and health outcomes”

1. Presenter Professor Bill Belotti
Vincent 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.

2. India: 54% of 1.2 billion in poverty
Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, www.ophi.org.uk

3. 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

4. Inadequate nutrition is the major contributor to MPI in India
Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, www.ophi.org.uk

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Key findings: Cornish
Medium-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

10. Transplanted rice on medium
uplands - EIP

11. 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)

12. Rainfall varies
from year-to-year
But what about soil
water and ponding
0
1000
2000
Annualrainfall
(mm)
Hazaribag rainfall
The duration of ponding in medium uplands is much
more variable even than rainfall (0-106 days)
This why rice crops fail so often

13. 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

14. In project villages cropping systems are
becoming more intensive and diverse

15. Season-Landscape Crop Matrix Learning Tool

16. Self Help Groups planning ‘year-round’ cropping

17. Improving livelihoods with
innovative cropping systems on the
East India Plateau

18. Research and Development Objectives
1.Research into
process of
scaling out
2.Monitoring
and evaluation
of impact
AusAID
Development
Objectives
1.PRADAN
education &
training
2.PRADAN
scaling out on
EIP
ACIAR
Research
Objectives
1.Water
2.Soil
3.Crops
4.Livestock
5.Integration

19. 40 newly trained
PRADAN
Development
Executives
focussed on WSD
and INRM to
develop more
resilient, diverse
cropping systems
Development focus on five
EIP states

20. Research focus in Jharkhand and West Bengal
Three
locations:
1. Purulia
2. Bokaro
3. West
Singbhum

21. Mechanisation of rice seeding
2-wheel tractor
4-row seeder
Separate seed and fertiliser boxes
Possible to intercropRejected by farmers

22. 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

23. 2010 kharif widespread failure to transplant rice
2013 also delayed transplanting
Farmers unimpressed with
manually pulled seeder

24. 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)

26. 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

27. 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)

28. 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

29. Opportunity 1
Linking 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?

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

31. 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

32. Opportunity 2
Wider 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

33. Wider economy indicators
• Generation of employment
• Off-farm income
• Small business start-ups
• Household expenditure
– Education
– Health
– Other?

34. 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

35. 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.

36. 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)

37. 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.

38. 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