A lot of times when people think about hunger and food security, they focus on increasing crops yields. For many, the obvious solution is to grow more food. CARE has learned that it’s an approach that leaves a lot to be desired. We build integrated programming that brings together food security and agriculture, nutrition, water and sanitation, and gender because we know it works a lot better. Getting beyond how much we grow to think about who gets to eat it and when has a bigger impact on hunger and malnutrition than simply thinking about how many tons per hectare we achieve.
Want proof that agriculture has a lot to learn about food security? Talk to Kelvin Kambamba, the Acting District Agriculture officer for Lundazi, Zambia. He’s recently become a convert to the idea that food means a lot more than production.
“You know, in my field as a livestock specialist, I never took nutrition seriously as something that I needed to think about. Sweet potatoes were just sweet potatoes, who cares? Now I know that they need to be orange flesh sweet potatoes because those are the ones that have all of the Vitamin A and are really good for people.
Issues of nutrition were not something that we used to discuss. It was just a by-the-way kind of issue. But ever since CARE started working with the Ministry, I realized how important nutrition is. Did you know livestock impact nutrition? They contribute to the protein in people’s diets.
Wherever I go now, I don’t just talk about livestock issues. I infuse nutrition information into our day to day messages. And it’s important to talk about how people can appreciate locally available foods and how families can get the most out of them. That’s been the biggest impact of Nutrition at the Center: all of the work on figuring out how to create nutritious diets for people out of food they can get or grow at home. We can’t convince people to change if we’re talking about foods that aren’t available or affordable to them. So it’s important create an appreciation of local foods.
The idea of integrating the different pieces is so important that I think we need to get even more ministries involved, and lots more actors. People always think food means crops, but it also means livestock, so we can expand to make sure all of the livestock officers are included in the work. I want everyone to get involved in trying to support nutrition.”
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