Asia

This article in the The Journal of Nutrition, investigated the associations between food price spikes and childhood malnutrition in Andhra Pradesh, one of India’s largest states. The authors tested the hypothesis that the escalating prices of rice, legumes, eggs, and other staples of Indian diets significantly increased the risk of wasting (weight-for-height z scores) in children. »

This blog elaborates on some examples in which genetic improvements for seeds and livestock varieties provided benefits to smallholders. Genetic intensification incorporates conventional breeding and the use of biotechnology to cultivate crops and livestock breeds that satisfy a number of needs and can overcome challenges, such as climate change. Although many of these technologies remain controversial, they seem to be gaining wider acceptance in some places. »

This paper analyzes agriculture and nutrition linkages in Bangladesh, a country that achieved rapid growth in rice productivity at a relatively late stage in Asia’s Green Revolution, as well as unheralded progress against undernutrition. The authors further show that rice yields have large and positive effects on the timely introduction of complementary foods for young children but not on dietary diversity indicators and that this complementary feeding indicator is positively associated with child weight gain but not with linear growth. »

The past 50 years witnessed a remarkable spread of smaller-scale rural mechanization in some regions of South Asia, mostly characterized by the spread of single-cylinder diesel engines. Despite the evidence, international and local policy debates do not reflect the significance of these patterns of rural mechanization for agricultural and rural development. This paper by IFPRI starts with a discussion of three main generalizations arising from the spread of smaller-scale technology. »

Agricultural intensification, now commonly referred to as sustainable intensification, is presented in development discourse as a key means to simultaneously improve food security and reduce rural poverty without harming the environment. Taking a village in Laos as a case study, we show how government agencies and farmers could perceive the idea of agricultural intensification differently. »

This discussion paper (PDF) by CGIAR, explores the dairy innovation system of Bihar mainly to explore the critical bottlenecks in the policy environment that constrain smallholder dairying in the state. »