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Moderated conference on rural advisory services for family farms: 1-18 December 2014

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Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:53:58 +0100
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My name is Madeleine Smith and I am an Agriculture Advisor with John Snow Research and Training Institute in Arlington. VA, USA, and working on a USAID Feed the Future funded program: Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally - SPRING.  One of our key initiatives is building the evidence base for integration of agriculture and nutrition in view of improving health and nutrition, reducing stunting, and impacting food systems.  

 

Within that scope, we are very interested in building the evidence around the role rural advisory services have in promoting integration nutrition sensitive agriculture, and linking agriculture agents and private service providers with other more health and nutrition-specific actors, such as front-line community health workers. There is a growing body of literature on agriculture-nutrition among many other global actors now, including UN agencies, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), etc. [For example, see all the documents etc. made available for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), which took place at FAO Headquarters, 19-21 November 2014. The conference was an inclusive inter-governmental meeting on nutrition jointly organized by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF), IFAD, IFPRI, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, WFP and the WTO (http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/icn2/en/)...Moderator].

 

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a very impressive USAID nutrition-led agriculture program in Senegal, which included a key component to build a network of community based service providers focused on agriculture and nutrition. These agents started as lead farmers and community health workers, and are collaborating to provide highly effective integrated services through selling nutrition sensitive agricultural inputs and providing training and demonstrations. They have also now formed apex groups, and are growing and increasing groups through input financing. Along with mainstreamed agricultural inputs, where they still make most of their income, they are marketing products such as high quality vegetable seeds, promotion of Vitamin A rich products such as orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), as well as improved gardening techniques, conservation agriculture, and other climate smart agriculture approaches. Additionally, many community health volunteers also use this model to sell products such as soap, disinfectant, iodized salt, as well as other agriculture inputs. They are increasing cross-learning and service provision, and bundling of agriculture-nutrition products and services. This initiative also targets households with pregnant and lactating mothers with children under 2 and women of reproductive age, recognizing the significant role of women, and gender dynamics in the household that directly impact decisions to grow and consume more nutritious foods, and adopt more nutrition sensitive, and nutrition specific practices. 

 

I could say a lot more, but would be very interested in connecting with those interested in integrating nutrition into rural advisory services, but also along the broader spectrum of agriculture and nutrition, e.g.  policy, monitoring agricultural indicators for nutritional outcomes, design of nutrition-led agriculture programs.

 

Please see the technical brief and webinar materials referenced below, and please visit SPRING’s library of publications and resources as well.  

 

Madeleine Smith

Agriculture Advisor

1616 Fort Myer Drive, 

Suite 1600

Arlington, VA, 

USA, 22209

Cell: 425-614-5901 

Skype: madsysmith

Email: madeleine_smith (at) jsi.com

http://www.spring-nutrition.org  



References:



Aakesson, A., V. Pinga, and S. Titus. 2014. Using agriculture extension agents to promote nutrition: A process review of three Feed the Future activities in Ethiopia. Arlington, VA: USAID/ Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) Project. http://www.spring-nutrition.org/publications/reports/ethiopia-process-review-feed-the-future 



The making of a messenger: Engaging extension and advisory service providers in nutrition-sensitive agriculture webinar series. 2014. Event materials. http://www.spring-nutrition.org/events/making-messenger-engaging-extension-and-advisory-service-providers-nutrition 



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