Value Chains and Diet Quality: A Review of Impact Pathways and Intervention Strategies

Ridoutt, B and Bogard, J R and Dizyee, K and Lim-Camacho, L and Kumar, S (2019) Value Chains and Diet Quality: A Review of Impact Pathways and Intervention Strategies. Agriculture, 9 (9) (185). pp. 1-18. ISSN 2077-0472

PDF (It is an Open Access article) - Published Version Download (789kB)

Abstract

Low and middle-income countries increasingly face a triple burden of malnutrition encompassing undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and excessive energy consumption contributing to overweight and obesity. Food systems are also becoming more complex, supported by investments in food processing and retailing. Traditional approaches addressing hunger, typically based on agricultural development, are deemed insufficient alone to address the problem and attention is now being directed to food value chains, although experience is currently limited. To assess the state of science and identify knowledge gaps, an integrative review of the broad topic of value chains and diet quality was undertaken, with particular focus on interventions and their related impact pathways. Interventions were classified according to their primary orientation: to increase the availability, accessibility, or desirability of nutritious food. We identified 24 separate interventions associated with 10 different impact pathways, demonstrating the numerous entry points and large potential for value chain interventions to influence diet quality. However, case study evidence regarding effectiveness remains scant. Most studies addressed individual nutrient-rich commodities that could address a nutritional deficiency in the community of interest. Rarely was overall diet quality assessed, and future studies could benefit from taking a wider perspective of dietary patterns and food substitutions. The value chain analytical approach was deemed valuable due to its consumer orientation that seeks to understand how food products are used and what motivates their choice. The systems perspective is also important as it considers the roles of actors involved in food production, distribution, marketing, and regulation. However, few studies directly engaged with the subject of the local food environment as the bridge connecting food production and food choice. The challenge is to combat the increasing prevalence of processed foods of low nutritional value through interventions that lead to nutritious food becoming more conveniently available, affordable, and desirable.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Research Program : Innovation Systems for the Drylands (ISD)
CRP:	CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	dietary diversity; food environment; food landscape; food system; nutrition-sensitive agriculture; triple burden of malnutrition; United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, SDG2, Malnutrition, Zero hunger
Subjects:	Others > Agriculture Policy Others > Impact Assessment Others > Food and Nutrition Others > Food Security Others > Value Chains
Depositing User:	Mr Ramesh K
Date Deposited:	03 Sep 2019 09:46
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2019 09:46
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11274
Official URL:	https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture9090185
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	This work was supported by the CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Value Chain Analytics Platform initiative. S.K. acknowledges funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC) supported by CGIAR Fund Donors
Links:	Google Scholar

View Statistics

Actions (login required)

View Item