Agriculture, health, and nutrition. Towards conceptualizing the linkages

For the 2020 conference on "Leveraging agriculture for food security and health", IFPRI published a series of papers, some of which are of particular interest and summarised below.

This paper outlines a conceptual framework that links agriculture, health, and nutrition. Three components make up this framework: settings, resources, and production processes. Policy levers, programs, and interventions designed to affect agriculture will affect health and nutrition by changing the quantity and type of goods consumed by household members; work intensity; exposure to zoonoses, pesticides, and work-related accidents; the allocation of time devoted to agriculture, health, and nutrition; asset accumulation; and the rules governing intra-household resource allocation. The presence of feedback loops within the framework illustrates the possibility that anything that affects agriculture can affect health and nutrition, and anything that affects health and nutrition can affect agriculture. Because there can be no presumption that these effects will be, on balance, beneficial or harmful, policymakers and program planners need to be cognizant of the multiple pathways through which agriculture can affect health and nutrition.

International Food Policy Research Institute - February 2011