10 Sep 2013

Constraints in promoting nutrition sensitive agriculture, in many countries, are not due to major practical issues, but due to lack of understanding and collaboration within the agricultural sector and the industry.

Agriculture minister, Mr Christiaan De Graaff, said this when officiating at the Southern Africa Regional Nutrition workshop on Mainstreaming Nutrition in National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans in Africa, on September 9.

“There is therefore usually no linkage between agricultural production and the processing industry and hence no nutrition improvement,” he added. For that reason, Mr De Graaff urged countries that participated at the workshop to develop plans in order to strengthen coordination among appropriate sectors and stakeholders to align the nutrition programmes with current and planned agricultural programs.  

The key issue, he said, was to fight hunger and malnutrition through increasing the supply of affordable nutritious and safe food, as well as to improve incomes of the poor- while ensuring overall dietary diversity.

“As participants of this meeting you are expected to come up with recommendations and actions for strengthening capacities across various institutions or sectors which deal with agricultural issues,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr De Graaff also challenged all the participants to address the issues of malnutrition and agriculture and to explore how to coordinate their efforts better to effectively deliver nutrition services where they were most needed. 

The agriculture minister also noted that various factors that contributed to food and nutrition insecurity, such as HIV/AIDS and gender issues should also be taken into account considering their link to nutritional conditions of the society. 

The workshop was meant to build capacity for the participants in integrating nutrition in agricultural development in the Southern Africa region and to discuss actions required to facilitate nutrition security through improved agricultural practices in our region.  

A range of participants from 14 countries versed in nutritional issues including Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework country focal points and delegates from Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Education, Finance, Civil Society and the private sector attended the workshop. ENDS