7 July 2015, Lilongwe, Malawi – The agriculture sector has a critical role in nutrition as a basis for food supply and healthy diets. A recent study on the Cost of Hunger (COHA) has revealed that Malawi loses 10.3 percent of its Gross Domestic Product every year due to under-nutrition, posing a major threat to the nation’s growth and development.In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held a workshop to review the agriculture sector’s role in improving nutrition, with the more than 50 participants committing themselves to elevating agriculture to meet this part.The workshop was aimed at improving awareness and understanding within the Ministry directorates on ways that Agriculture can improve nutrition. It provided a unique opportunity for the MoAIWD and its key stakeholders to review local, regional and global evidence, programmes and commitments through presentations, field visits and discussions. Prevention better than cure
Speaking at the opening of the retreat, Secretary for Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Erica Maganga, noted the inescapable role agriculture plays to tackle all forms of malnutrition through prevention, emphasizing the incontestable evidence that prevention is better than cure.
“Prevention can reduce cases of malnutrition for all ages, reducing the need of the health sector to provide a cure. Prevention can reduce the cost of treating malnutrition; hence result in increased productivity and saving of resources. This is the key role Agriculture has in improving the nutrition status of the population,” said Maganga.
Maganga also called on participants – who were from key government departments, academia, research institutes, civil society, development partners and UN agencies – to gain consensus and buy-in on what needs to be done to transform Agriculture in its role towards scaling up nutrition.
Maganga cited the recent MDG award Malawi received from FAO for successfully halving the number of hungry people, but noted that all forms of malnutrition must be considered and addressed, not just hunger.
This award is a demonstration of how Malawi is committed to stamping out malnutrition, especially stunted growth, which affects almost half (42 percent) of Malawian children.
Agriculture critical in fighting malnutrition
Micronutrient deficiencies are a persistent problem, while overweight and obesity is a growing concern. Agriculture, therefore, has an important role to plan in preventing all forms of malnutrition. FAO Representative in Malawi, Florence Rolle, reiterated the need for concerted efforts to dealing with malnutrition amongst different sectors and stakeholders.
“We all know that nutrition is an issue in Malawi and that agriculture has a role to play in contributing to improving nutritional status of children, women and men. It is now time to identify which existing agricultural programmes have potential to become much more nutrition sensitive,” said Rolle.
Rolle reminded participants of FAO’s role in the fight against food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition and re-affirmed the organization’s global commitment to ensure food and nutrition security for all.
Participants agreed to diversify production to provide Malawians with the Six Food Groups throughout the year, and to improve food and nutrition education and increase awareness using opportunities such as School Health and Nutrition (SHN), Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) and the media in order to succeed in having healthy, diverse diets for all age groups.
Growing importance of nutrition education
Presentations covered immediate causes of under-nutrition in Malawi, which include lack of diverse foods, poor eating habits and unhealthy living environments while the basic causes cross all sectors and include issues related to agriculture, health, education, gender, economics and natural environment.
The workshop was made possible through FAO under the project: “Improving Food Security and Nutrition Policy and Programme Outreach”, which was financially supported by the Government of the Flanders from 2011 to June 2015.
During the project, FAO provided advisory services in two districts (Kasungu and Mzimba), and for the past two years, provided policy support to the Department of Agriculture Extension Services under MoAIWD.
Research conducted independently by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and Justus-Liebig Universitat Giessen (JLU) - a German university – emphasized the growing importance of integrated nutrition education with food security activities based on the six food groups to improve dietary diversity and overall nutrition outcomes.
During the Second International Conference on Nutrition held in Rome, Italy from November 19-21, 2014 and jointly organized by FAO and World Health Organization, member countries, including Malawi, re-affirmed their commitments to address the multiple challenges of malnutrition in all its forms and identify opportunities for tackling them in the next decades.
This workshop propelled Malawi closer to that goal.
Contact: Mike Chipalasa
Communications Officer
FAO MalawiMob. (+265) 888 715 385
Mike.Chipalasa@fao.org
This News Release was issued by FAO Malawi, Evelyn Court Plot 13/31, P.O. Box 30750, Lilongwe 3, Malawi. Follow us on Twitter: @FAOMalawi