1. From Harvest Plus to Harvest Driven:
How to Realise the Elusive Potential of
Agriculture for Nutrition?
Lawrence Haddad
Institute of Development Studies
Biofortification: The First Annual Conference
November 9-11, 2010
3. Three sub-questions
• What are the potential pathways between
agriculture and nutrition?
• How often are the pathways created and
travelled?
• What needs to be done to increase the
chances of the pathways linking agriculture
and nutrition?
4. Three sub-questions
• What are the potential pathways between
agriculture and nutrition? (Many)
• How often are the pathways created and
travelled? (Much room for improvement)
• What needs to be done to increase the
chances of the pathways linking agriculture
and nutrition? (Some ideas)
5. 1. What are the potential pathways
between agriculture and nutrition?
• Increased supply of
nutrients from
farming
– Own consumption
– Purchased
• Income effects
– Farm productivity
farm and nonfarm
rural income
– Lower food prices
effective increase in
income
• Post-harvest added
value
6. What are the potential pathways between
agriculture and nutrition?
• Increased supply of
nutrients from
farming
– Own consumption
– Purchased
• Income effects
– Farm productivity
farm and nonfarm
rural income
– Lower food prices
effective increase in
income
• Post-harvest added
value
x
• Pro-poor
governance
– Institutions
– Incentives
• Approaches that
empower women
– Agency to work
the rules of the
game
– Agency to define
rules of game
• Nutrition Lens
7. What are the potential pathways between
agriculture and nutrition?
• Increased supply of
nutrients from
farming
– Own consumption
– Purchased
• Income effects
– Farm productivity
farm and nonfarm
rural income
– Lower food prices
effective increase in
income
• Post-harvest added
value
x
• Pro-poor
governance
– Institutions
– Incentives
• Approaches that
empower women
– Agency to work
the rules of the
game
– Agency to define
rules of game
• Nutrition Lens
Improved
Nutrition
• Energy
• Diverse Diet
• Micronutrient
status
• Body Mass
Index
• Linear growth
=
8. What are the potential pathways between
agriculture and nutrition?
• Increased supply of
nutrients from
farming
– Own consumption
– Purchased
• Income effects
– Farm productivity
farm and nonfarm
rural income
– Lower food prices
effective increase in
income
• Post-harvest added
value
x
• Pro-poor
governance
– Institutions
– Incentives
• Approaches that
empower women
– Agency to work
the rules of the
game
– Agency to define
rules of game
• Nutrition Lens
Improved
Nutrition
• Energy
• Diverse Diet
• Micronutrient
status
• Body Mass
Index
• Linear growth
=
Enabling environment for nutrition
9. 2. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
• Agricultural growth-poverty
impacts
– Cross-country regression results (+)
(Ligon, Christiansen, Loayza)
– Country studies (mixed)
(Datt, Ferreira)
• Agricultural growth-nutrition
impacts
– Cross country regression results
more positive than negative, but
still mixed (Heady)
10. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Few ag-
nutrition
impact studies
to give
granularity
• SPIA
– 83 income or nutrition
impact evaluations
between 1995 and 2008
(out of 761)
• J-PAL in mid 2009
– 35 education
– 25 health
– 5 agriculture
• 3ie
– 2 of 18 in round 1 on
agriculture
• ALINe
– 6 of 50 large proposals to
a key Foundation
contained impact
evaluation designs
11. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Impact studies
not
systematically
organised
• Protocols for inclusion
– Clearly defined agricultural
intervention
– Clearly defined nutrition
outcome
– Quality of impact design
– Quality of data collection
– Quality of study
implementation
– Balance of interpretation
• Regression meta analysis of
studies
– Features of interventions
which have the biggest
nutrition impacts in studies?
12. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
No studies yet
of the
nutrition
impacts of bio-
fortification
13. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
14. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Few ag-
nutrition
impact studies
to give
granularity
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
15. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Few ag-
nutrition
impact studies
to give
granularity
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
Impact studies
not
systematically
organised
16. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Few ag-
nutrition
impact studies
to give
granularity
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
Impact studies
not
systematically
organised
No studies yet
of the
nutrition
impacts of bio-
fortification
17. How often are the pathways created
and travelled?
Few ag-
nutrition
impact studies
to give
granularity
Macro
agricultural
growth and
poverty: fairly
convincing
but crude
Impact studies
not
systematically
organised
No studies yet
of the
nutrition
impacts of bio-
fortification
• Difficult to say
• My guess is that there is
plenty of room for
improvement
18. 3. What needs to be done to increase the
chances of the pathways
linking agriculture and nutrition?
Create an Enabling Environment
21. Growth diagnostics:
from economics to nutrition
Source: Doing Growth Diagnostics in Practice: A ‘Mindbook’ Ricardo Hausmann,
Bailey Klinger, Rodrigo Wagner CID Working Paper No. 177 September 2008. Harvard University.
25. From Harvest Plus to Harvest Driven
Agriculture
cannot be
the prime
shaper of
nutrition,
but…
26. Agriculture
cannot be
the prime
shaper of
nutrition,
but…
..nutrition
should be the
prime shaper of
(public )
agriculture...
From Harvest Plus to Harvest Driven
27. Agriculture
cannot be
the prime
shaper of
nutrition,
but…
..nutrition
should be the
prime shaper of
(public )
agriculture... ..what else is
agriculture
for?
From Harvest Plus to Harvest Driven
