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Agriculture and its sector play a key role in maintaining the balance in human diet. Food is a key outcome of agricultural activities, and, in turn, is a key input into good nutrition. Without agriculture there is little food or nutrition, but availability of food from agriculture doesn’t ensure good nutrition. Common sense would dictate a reinforcing relationship between the two fields of agriculture and nutrition but, in fact, there is often a significant disconnect.
Evidence shows that nutrition is about much more than food availability; it encompasses access to food at the household level, health services and a healthy environment and adequate child caring practices.
FAO Role in NUTRITION:
Good nutrition is our first defense against disease and our source of energy to live and be active.
Nutritional problems caused by an inadequate diet can be of many sorts, and when they affect a generation of youngsters, they can lower their well-being and learning capacities, thus compromising their futures.
Problems of malnutrition –undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity – exist in all countries and cut across socio-economic classes.
Emerging challenges, such as climate change, environmental sustainability and rapid technological shifts, are transforming food systems and raising questions about how to ensure healthy diets for a growing world population in sustainable ways.
Uneven economic growth, social and economic transformations and other factors are shaping food systems and diets. FAO's work in nutrition
Why Nutri-sensitive mode of Agriculture is important?
It is food-based approach to agricultural development that puts nutritionally rich foods and dietary diversity at the heart of overcoming undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.
Although 63 per cent of low-income people worldwide work in agriculture – the overwhelming majority of them on small farms – many are at risk of food and nutrition insecurity.
Investing in nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems is to ensure that acceptable, diverse, nutritious and safe foods, adequate to meet the dietary needs of people of all ages, are available and affordable at all times.
Over the past 40 years, agricultural advances, such as the Green Revolution, led to the doubling of cereal production and yields, improving the well-being of many people and providing a springboard for remarkable economic growth.
Enabling a year-round production and productivity to the agricultural workers or low biased people who cannot afford, or it can produce the nutritious and benefitable diet for the people who can afford and use of technologies for improving the nutritious diet.
Preventing food loss and waste by reducing food-borne pathogens through good hygiene practices and improving technology along the value chain.
Agricultural intensification has been essential to feed the world’s growing population, but it has also brought its own risks for people’s health, including zoonotic diseases, water- and food-borne diseases, occupational hazards, and natural resource degradation and overuse.
Training for the professionals and students in Agricultural sectors:
About the impact of under-nutrition on the wellbeing and economic development of the community.
Importance of proper nutrition and its association with the socio-economic development.
Categories of nutrients and their roles in the normal functioning of human bodies.
Concept of balanced and healthy diet for humans depending on different preconditions and health situations of individuals.
Integrate home utilization of nutritious crops and products into the agricultural extension.
Promote hygiene and sanitation practices in the preparation of foods and feeding children.
