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Costs

The integration of a nutrition-sensitive approach in agricultural value chains entails the following costs: 

  • investment in expertise to develop advisory messages related to nutrition education, business skills, and production techniques 
  • equipping extension agents with quality training materials (posters, guidelines, visual aids) to optimise learning by the target population 
  • management support to encourage supervision and coaching 
  • resources to ensure manpower, transportation, and allowances for extension agents 
  • seed funds for demonstration plots or for demonstrating improved technologies for off-farm activities. 
  • Strengths and weaknesses The major strengths and weaknesses of integrating nutrition-sensitive advisory services in extension are shown in Table 1.

Strengths and weaknesses

The major strengths and weaknesses of integrating nutrition-sensitive advisory services in extension are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses

 

Strengths Weaknesses
  • Crop diversification through rotation, intercropping, and off-season production is a recognised strategy to preserve soil fertility and reduce pest incidence in cash-crop production. It does not conflict with the mandate of EAS. 
  • Nutrition-sensitive extension messages are available and can be adopted and adapted to context with relatively low investments. 
  • The approach responds to a systemic weakness of agricultural extension services through building the capacity of extension agents to integrate business and nutritional skills in their services 
  • The approach does not address causes of malnutrition beyond the household level (e.g. high incidence of illness; lack of infrastructure to access clean water) nor does it inherently focus on better nutrition during the important first 1,000 days of a child’s life. 
  • EAS services are highly relevant for emerging farmers and smallholders with the potential to produce at commercial level. These services are not sufficient to address the needs of resource-poor (e.g. landless) households or subsistence producers, who are often the most affected by food insecurity

 

Table 2: Opportunities and challenges

 

Type of EAS Opportunity Challenge
Public
  • Large presence in rural areas 
  • Existing relations to smallholders and broad outreach 
  • Often a mandate to improve nutrition and women’s empowerment
  • Resource constraints 
  • Management inefficiencies
Private
  • More resources available 
  • Access to information, communication, and other technologies
  • Companies need to be convinced of return on investment 
  • Intervention limited to outgrowers and focused on specific crops 
  • Didactic experience and knowledge may be lacking