Integrated Homestead Food Production

Author: IFAD , 2015

Over the past years, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has been increasingly proactive in enabling smallholder farmers across the developing world to increase production and productivity, while concurrently enhancing their access to markets and integration into the value chains. However, experience shows that productivity and income increases do not automatically translate into improved nutritional status, especially among women, young people and children. Around three quarters of undernourished people live in rural areas of developing countries and are those producing most of the food. Addressing nutritional issues is, therefore, crucial to combating rural poverty, feeding the world in a sustainable manner and ensuring a healthier future for the younger generations. Integrated homestead food production (IHFP) is one of the most promising pro-poor strategies to address undernutrition and specific nutritional deficits such as micronutrient deficiencies (Box 1). In a number of programmes in rural areas of all the developing regions, homestead gardens have been providing access to nutritious fresh food to households with relatively limited economic and productive assets. More recently, smallholder fish-farming has also become an important source of animal protein for poor households in rural areas.

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