Previous strategies to improve nutrition within agriculture programmes have been driven primarily by the nutrition sector. To achieve positive nutrition outcomes within an agriculture project, nutritionists analyse localised macronutrient and micronutrient needs, and select crops to address those specific requirements. However, this approach often neglects the agricultural programme’s priorities, such as increased production, improved market linkages and increased incomes.

 

The purpose of this pilot is to test the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Tool (Nutri-SAT) developed by ACDI/VOCA which is used to create/adapt nutrition sensitive agriculture programmes.

The tool has five main components that are used to determine the best entry points for nutrition-sensitive activities within an agricultural development and economic growth programme:

• desk research collects background information and other studies done in the target region/country to give a complete picture of both the nutritional and agricultural landscape of the project

• barrier analysis examines the root causes of the nutrition behaviours

• focus groups determine production and market behaviors of small holder farmers in key value chains

• cost of the diet (CoD) determines the minimal cost of a nutritious diet using a market survey of locally available and accepted foods

• nutrition-sensitive agricultural work plan is developed in collaboration with agriculture and nutrition staff

 

Based on the pilot, this tool proved useful in all of these aspects and was successfully used to design nutrition interventions that were integrated into agricultural activities. Time and regular monitoring will determine how successful these interventions will be in changing house hold nutritional status or the underlying determinants of nutrition. While this pilot focused on a specific point in the value chain it can be used along the entire value chain to focus activities to address the barriers, to monitor the market changes on activities and to monitor effects on the most vulnerable household’s ability to improve their household diet diversity.