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Wed, 19 Oct 2016 08:16:30 +0000
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This is Francisco Gurri, again.

I write in response to Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda's message (Nr. 54) on the relationship between the diversity of on-farm production and farm households' nutrition. 

Dionisio's suggestion that there is "significant scientific evidence showing little impact of production diversity of smallholders' farms on the improvement of households' nutrition status" surprised me, so I looked up the references he provided in his message.

While not a single one of these references tests nutritional status, every single one of them finds positive associations between farm diversity and food diversity and even food security. Most of them find a weak link but when they couple it with market diversity they find even more significant associations. Studying single elements of small household producers may be misleading. Household agriculture is only part of a traditional subsistence system that includes many productive activities allowing the family to survive. Altering these strategies has usually led to deteriorations in nutritional status. This was observed by Wiggins and Keats (2013) referenced by Dionisio.  

They wrote: "Under some conditions, however, nutrition may be impaired by cash crops; as, for example, when the demands of these crops mean that women working in the fields have too little time to feed and care for infants" (page V). 

They also conclude: "Promote home gardens and small-scale livestock rearing for increased diversity of production and consumption. Children's nutrition often improves: effects that are stronger when these programmes are combined with education on diet, child care and hygiene" (page V) - in other words increase diversity to promote better nutrition.

This knowledge is not new. The negative effects of commercial agriculture, particularly mono-cropping, on the nutritional status of traditional societies was well documented since last century. This is not just because it alters food production, but because it alters proven survival systems that have lasted for generations. While there are many case studies from last century, I will only give you two that do study nutritional status - Baer (1987) and Fleuret and Fleuret (1980).

Francisco D. Gurri García, Ph.D.
Investigador Titular C y Coordinador:
Departamento de Ciencias de la Sustentabilidad,
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur-Unidad Campeche.
Mexico
Tel: 52 (981) 127 3720 ext. 2504.
E-mail: fgurri1 (at) gmail.com

References:

Wiggins, S. and S. Keats (2013). Smallholder agriculture's contribution to better nutrition. Report commissioned by the Hunger Alliance. Overseas Development Institute. https://www.odi.org/publications/7317-smallholder-agriculture-nutrition-food-security 

Baer, R.D. 1987. Nutritional Effects Of Commercial Agriculture. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 16 (No.1): 39-61. 

Fleuret, P. and A. Fleuret. 1980. Nutrition, Consumption, and Agricultural Change. Human Organization 39 (3): 250-60.

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