World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 81

World Food Policy

key determinants for nutrition but not
nutrition per se. In the end, based on
these exclusion and inclusion criteria,
we use here 81 different references.
There is no claim to be exhaustive and
when the same idea is found in different
papers, we do not quote all of them. We
know the methodological weakness of
most of these papers which have been
already highlighted, notably by Arimond
et al. (2011): lack of control groups,
reference situations, and randomization.
We ought to underline the fact that, “in
one case, one observer has report in a
written form a specific risk.” With the
existing material, it is impossible to draw
conclusions regarding the probability of
the occurrence of neither the identified
risks nor their severity. The message here
is qualitative for practitioners: to have a
guideline in their impact assessments; and
for scholars: a claim for conducting more
serious research on this issue.

The existing work has mostly dealt
with the people directly concerned by
ADIs, yet they can have effects on other
populations, whether they live in a rural
or urban environment. In addition, most
of the work focused on protein-energy
undernutrition responsible for stunting,
while other forms of malnutrition such
as micronutrient deficiencies (vitamin A,
zinc, iron, iodine, etc.) or “overnutrition”
is a major issue. These two forms of
malnutrition (by deficiency or excess)
also often go hand in hand in the same
countries, or even within the same
households (Maire et al. 2002). The range of
ADIs is wide and covers as much technical
dimensions (development of production
basins for example) as it does institutional
dimensions (producer capacity building
or policy support). In the field, ADIs

usually comprise several components
combining technical and institutional
aspects. Some ADIs correspond more
to rural development projects taking
on regional dimensions, while others
focus on agricultural products. Here,
the ADI perimeter is mainly confined to
localized projects since it is the majority
of the literature. Agriculture is covered
in its broad sense (plant and animal
production, rural development, natural
resource management, etc.), but for
easier reading the examples of ADIs are
intentionally schematic ( irrigation, food
crop production, cash crop production,
livestock, land, plant health, etc.). This
presentation is consistent with that
undertaken by the French Development
Agency, one example of development
organizations targeted by this work. In
its 2013–2016 sectorial intervention
framework, the Agency distinguishes
interventions between food and cash crops
or land issues but in a wider perspective,
considering also transformation activities,
territorial governance, and public policies
(AFD 2013).

III - Links between agriculture and
nutrition: what impact pathways?

T

here are several schematic and
conceptual representations of the
effects of agricultural activities on
nutrition (Randolph et al. 2007; Headey,
Chiu, and Kadiyala 2011, 5). The different
stakeholders of the agri-food system are
more or less well taken into account
according to the different authors:
relations are especially represented for
individual scales but rarely at larger
scales. Most authors emphasize the
complexity of those relations. However,

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