Machines | Marie Ruel on local value chains for micronutrient-rich foods

Local value chains are a leverage point for improving micronutrient-rich food supply, access, and intake-- and therefore have good potential for raising nutrient levels in diets. However there is no scientific evidence yet on how to actually leverage value chains for micronutrient-rich foods, and whether this is an effective way to improve dietary quality among the poor. In this in-depth interview with the Platform, the director of the Poverty, Health and Nutrition division at IFPRI, Marie Ruel, gives a critical account of the current state of research and knowledge around some of the food-based approaches that can be used to improve micronutrient status in the developing world. She also notes that a key pathway by which agriculture and food based approaches can enhance micronutrient nutrition is through empowering women, especially in countries where large gender inequities exist as is the case in much of the developing world. Marie argues that improving women's empowerment is a "critical pathway" -- and that improvements in women's health, social status, and nutrition--as well as their decision-making power and their autonomy--can take us a long way in terms of reducing the stubborn problem of maternal and child undernutrition. "All of those factors are very important intermediary pathways by which agriculture can improve nutrition," she notes. Marie highlights a recommendation that she made at the Micronutrients Forum Global Conference 2014: "The first intervention that all countries should implement in order to improve the micronutrient status of its population is to work on the food system" -- to make it more nutrition-sensitive, and ensure that it produces the right quantity and quality of foods to allow populations to have adequate supply and access to micronutrient-rich foods, and focus on equity (e.g. ensure that all people have access to high-quality diets). Marie also deals with the tough question of whether hard-earned gains in income and nutrition for the poor are too easily relinquished to the marketing machinery of unhealthy food, trapping uninformed people in nascent consumer societies into a quick path from undernutrition to obesity. Supporting consumer awareness programmes and protective legislation could be part of an agenda that donors should support. From Marie's point of view, though, there is still a large gap in knowledge and expertise in scaling up effective behaviour change communications programs that can counter-balance the powerful marketing of unhealthy foods and support healthy choices, especially among poorer populations.