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Home » What We Do » Food And Nutrition » Improved Health through Agriculture Interventions: Providing continued support to two CCRP projects in the Andes

Improved Health through Agriculture Interventions: Providing continued support to two CCRP projects in the Andes

Introduction

The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program funded eight agriculture research projects in the Andes of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia 2005-2009 working to improve food security.  HealthBridge provided technical support to the projects in this "Community of Practice" on matters related to health and nutrition, and study design.

Small-scale agriculture interventions that focus solely on improving production usually do not have an impact on the diet or health of participating households. In order to improve diet and health, agriculture interventions need to invest broadly, including investments in community/household relationships, physical and natural resources, financial capital and, most importantly, human capital, especially nutrition education. Those agriculture interventions which integrate a nutrition education component are more likely to have a positive health outcome. Supporting literature can be found in a report and published paper by HealthBridge and a report by the World Bank.

The goal of HealthBridge in these projects was: To strengthen the promotion of improved health and nutrition through improved production of healthy foods, especially lupin and quinoa, and to strengthen the monitoring of health changes in a scientifically rigorous manner, by contributing to the efforts of INIAP and World Neighbors Bolivia. HealthBridge had the responsibility for advising on the technical content of the promotional messages in Ecuador, for advising on the feeding practices research in Bolivia, and for leading monitoring programs measuring changes in diet and health in both settings.

Project Summary

INIAP in Ecuador: HealthBridge worked with INIAP to increase food security, nutrition, and income generation in the target communities through the improvement and promotion of quinoa and lupin. INIAP in Ecuador have been promoting lupin and quinoa production for years and through this project they promoted the consumption of these crops via community recipe days, radio infomercials, home visits and a regular presence in the communities, and facilitating the inclusion of quinoa and lupin into the local school lunch program.  With this integrated agriculture-nutrition approach, the consumption of lupin and quinoa increased to approximately 3-fold the levels in the control communities. There are plans to do a follow-up study on consumption levels some time in 2012.

A report from this project in which the dietary changes made were integrated with new data from INIAP on fat composition in lupin to describe the health implications is available here.

World Neighbors in Bolivia: HealthBridge worked with World Neighbors to expand the role of green manures, forages, and grain legumes in crop rotations, to build local capacity for agricultural innovation, and to improve maternal and child nutrition by building on gains in crop productivity from participatory research on legumes in crop rotation. World Neighbors conducted research to identify suitable legume varieties for the harsh environments of Northern Potosi but, in the absence of a nutrition intervention, this was not enough to lead to changes in diet.

Some of these findings were summarized at a presentation at the International Ecohealth conference, in Mexico, 2008. Towards the formal ending of HealthBridge’s project, a graduate student from Cornell University, Andy Jones, joined the team and the work continued with Peter Berti co-supervising his work.  Andy worked with the World Neighbors team to introduce improved child feeding practices, and these practices were adopted with measurable impact.  The publications on this research are forthcoming.

Project profile

Key partners: World Neighbors, Bolivia, National Program for Andean Legumes and Grains of the National Agricultural Research Institute (PRONALEG-GA of INIAP), Ecuador

Location: Bolivia and Ecuador

Donor: The McKnight Foundation

Duration:

2007 - 2009

Contact person:

Peter R. Berti, PhD

Nutrition Advisor / Deputy Director

Reports and Resources

Reports

Publications