RELAX

In the cotton-cereals producing areas in West Africa, the improvements in cereal production achieved during the last decades are widely acknowledged. Yet, progress in yields and agricultural incomes has not been matched by better nutrition outcomes. While the levels of caloric intakes have improved, malnutrition in family farms remains pervasive.

Objectifs

This project aims to explore the linkages between agricultural diversity, wild resources diversity & food consumption diversity (the agriculture/nature/food nexus) in order to better understand why higher crop production does not always translate into better nutrition for farm household members, and how to tailor better interventions for nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Actions

Based on conceptual and empirical work conducted in Burkina Faso, the project will address the following questions :

What are the relationships and interactions between production diversity, natural resources, and food diversity at the household and village levels ?
How does diet diversity relate to the resilience of the farm household, and beyond ?
What are the opportunities and bottlenecks for households and individuals to maintain an adequate level of diversity, both year round and over the long term ? And finally,
How can nutrition-sensitive interventions better harness those opportunities and address the bottlenecks ?

Résultats

Different theoretical models will be developed to represent (i) the intra-household decision process from production to consumption and vice versa (ii) the relations between the household level and the village/regional levels (iii) the intra-annual management of the diet diversity in the farm households.
The project will produce original and relevant scientific knowledge on the agriculture-nature-food nexus at the farm household level, and it will provide conceptual and practical guidelines for development practitioners and policy makers enabling all members of farming households to enjoy a more diverse diet on a permanent basis.