The Influence of Agro-Food Policies and Programmes on the Availability, Affordability, Safety and Acceptability of Food

2. The Influence of Agro-Food Policies and Programmes on the Availability, Affordability, Safety and Acceptability of Food Spencer Henson and John Humphrey Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK

3. Our choices Focus on micronutrient undernourishment – hidden hunger Food-based approaches Post-farmgate, not on-farm consumption Urban households; non-farm rural households; farm households that buy food in markets, seasonally or year-round, etc. Market-based approaches. Businesses of all types and sizes Enhancing the nutritional functioning of agri-food value chains Is there is unrealised potential to mobilise business for combating micronutrient deficiencies amongst the poor?

4. Food-based options for improving micronutrient intake Increasing dietary diversity Fortification of Staple Foods – oil, flour, etc. • Targeted fortified foods: • Foods with added nutrient packages – Shoktidoi • Complementary foods for children • Lipid-based supplements for regular consumption Biofortification – orange fleshed sweet potato Agronomic biofortification – zinc-enhanced fertiliser

5. Essential outcomes for food-based approaches to nutrition Food is safe Food maintains nutritional quality and benefits up to the point of consumption • Food is consumed by the populations whose nutritional deficits are being targeted by the intervention

6. Requirements for successfuly selling foods rich in micronutrients Nutrition awareness – buyers understand importance of foods Signalling – people believe foods have the claimed benefits. Nutrient content is often a ʺcredence characteristicʺ Acceptability – people are willing to prepare and eat the product Availability –physically availability in places where the target populations can purchase it Affordability – target populations must be able to purchase it Adapted from, Hawkes, C. and Ruel, M.T. 'Value Chains for Nutrition', paper presented at Conference ‘Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health’, New Delhi, February 2011

7. Business challenges for selling nutritious foods Meet the five requirements • Capturing value: • Credence good issues • Risks and uncertainties of innovation Value chain integrity: food safety and quality issues

8. Minimise the challenges Dietary diversity Staples fortification Supplementary foods Biofortification Agronomic biofortification Sidestep the acceptability challenge Use existing distribution channels wherever possible, and avoid products that require careful handling and preservation Avoid the signalling problem altogether – for example, compulsory fortification – or focusing on foods whose characteristics are more evident: fresh fruit and vegetables Combat fraudulent claims through branding and certification and certification

9. Policy initiatives: offset costs or defray risks Nutrition awareness programmes and demand promotion Use of public distribution: feeding programmes Advance commitments to enable companies to get to scale Support for value chain integrity, particularly for food safety at the farm level

10. Concluding remarkss What role for the informal sector Consider more focus on improving quality and safety of informal sector provision of nutrient-rich food Keep it simple. Minimise the challenges Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of business-promoting interventions is varied and requires more impact assessment