Interventions in agri-food value chains are thought to potentially make important contributions towards enhancing agriculture’s role in nutrition. Some frameworks have begun to identify sets of requirements for pro-nutrition value chains. Pakistan’s dairy sector has been the focus of a business-driven innovation which introduced ultra-high temperature treated (UHT) milk in aseptic packaging. This was expected to relieve existing constraints in production and distribution, raise...
LANSA Working paper
This paper seeks to introduce the systems of innovation concept, one of LANSA’s three cross-cutting themes, but not yet well understood by many of its partners and stakeholders. The origins of the concept and the need it was seen to fill will be described. The paper will illustrate the relevance of a system of innovation perspective and the notion of “convergence on nutrition” to LANSA’s objectives using examples from on-going work in Pakistan. It is intended as a living...
Does women’s work in agriculture help or hinder nutrition in Pakistan? This question has assumed great significance due to the steady feminisation, over the last decade, of the agricultural labour force, and the absence of nutritional improvement in the same period. This exploratory paper builds upon the agriculture-nutrition pathways framework to propose an approach to individual or household-level decision-making, in which the provision of care (for children and women) plays an...
How can agriculture play a more effective role in improving nutrition in countries with a high burden of hidden hunger and where an increasing proportion of the poor sources its food from the market? There is a need to understand how linkages between the farm and the consumer can be made to work for nutrition goals. This review paper examines the case of Pakistan, which has a relatively productive agricultural sector but which has experienced high and persistent rates of undernutrition.
Food fortification is a popular strategy for addressing ‘hidden hunger’, and staple foods are seen as promising if unproven vehicles for the delivery of essential micronutrients to the poor in developing countries. This paper examines wheat flour fortification with iron in Pakistan as a case of technocratic optimism in the face of institutional constraints. An evaluative framework based on the analysis of the entire value chain can provide a reality check on technocratic optimism....
