SOAS Research Online

Abstract

There are strong conceptual linkages between agricultural development and nutrition improvements which may be categorised into three main pathways: the development, own-production and market pathways. Evidence on the efficacy of these pathways is mixed with some strong, some negative and some weak impacts. These findings reflect both the importance of agriculture for nutrition and the conditionality of that importance on contextual factors. They are also the result of insufficient high quality empirical research investigating these linkages. The most effective ‘pathways’ and interventions linking agricultural change to improved nutritional outcomes change with economic growth and development, with declining importance of the development and own-production pathways and increasing importance of the market pathway. Substantial challenges in operationalizing agricultural-nutrition linkages need to be overcome to better exploit potential opportunities.