World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 90

The Negative Side of the Agricultural–Nutrition Impact Pathways: A Literature Review

in favor of a direct causality (Gong et al.
2003; 2004). Contamination occurs right
from the field, before the crop mature,
amplified by drought, and heat, then after
ripening, favored by moisture in the fields,
and during drying, storage, and transport
(Zakhia-Rozis and Schorr-Galindo 2013).

surface water near villages may also lead to
a deterioration of drinking water quality
and a multiplication of diarrheal diseases
(Van der Hoek et al. 2001). Such links
are not systematic: despite a high density
of Anopheles mosquitoes throughout
the year associated with irrigation, the
prevalence of malaria in people living
near irrigated zones is often less than in
control groups, for immunological and
socioeconomic reasons (WHO 2005).

• Risks associated with exposure to
pesticides

T

he risks of pesticide use for the health
of those applying them are known
in the short term and suspected over
the medium and long terms (INSERM
2013). Those health risks affect nutrition.
They are particularly significant in
developing countries where, even if the
use of pesticides is low (25% of world
consumption, 4% for Africa), they account
for 99% of deaths due to poisoning (75%
in Africa) (Thiam and Sagna 2009). In
Africa, the regions most affected by the
impacts of pesticide applications are the
zones with large farms, irrigated zones,
and cash crop areas, where pollution can
contaminate the environment and the
food chain (Thima and Sagna 2009).

• Market gardening and diarrheal diseases
in urban areas

U

rban agriculture, practiced in a
polluted environment, generates
health risks for producers and consumers.
However, studies often consider that
the benefits of the activity (income and
supplies for towns, development of urban
space, a better living environment and
conditions) outweigh the risks entailed.
Waste water use by urban agriculture
has particularly attracted the attention of
numerous studies. This practice offers the
merits of using water rich in nutrients and
available throughout the year for several
cropping cycles, while helping to make
• Risks associated with irrigation
use of urban waste. However, it greatly
exposes the populations to pathogens
rrigation is a way of improving (Blumenthal and Peasey 2002) and to
productivity, alleviating poverty in chemicals—heavy metals, hydrocarbons,
rural zones (Mc Cartney et al. 2007) and and pesticides—which entail health risks.
breaking away from the seasonality of
hunger (Devereux and Longhurst 2010). VII
- Risk of worsening
However, it may also be propitious to the inequalities
development of water-borne diseases,
such as schistosomiasis and malaria (Mc
he risks described here refer to
Cartney et al. op cit.), major scourges in
partial or total exclusions, created
Africa. It may also be conducive to the
or amplified by ADIs. They
spread of zoonosis such as Rift Valley concern producers not directly targeted
Fever (FAO–WHO 2008). The existence of by an intervention and who lose some

I

T

89