Guidelines for Integrating Nutrition into Agriculture Enterprise Mixes in Uganda

The Ugandan government’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) has published a book titled “Guidelines for Integrating Nutrition into Agriculture Enterprise Mixes in Uganda“. The book presents a set of guidelines for promoting enterprise combinations informed by income and food security as well as nutrition considerations. Published in August 2016, the guidelines aim to direct agriculture extension and community development workers and their agents to support an enterprise mix development process that also considers nutrition.

 

Agriculture and nutrition are so interrelated that attention needs to be paid to both if meaningful nutrition outcomes are to be realized. To promote the consumption of adequate and diversified foods, the process starts with improving agricultural production and household food security. However, increasing household food production does not necessarily lead to improved nutrition. A number of interventions have been undertaken in Uganda to realize the objectives of the above frameworks and numerous stakeholders have invested in agricultural programs with the implicit intention of contributing to improvements in the nutritional status of the country’s citizens. However, the integration of nutrition into all these interventions has not been well coordinated.

 

The overall goal of these guidelines is to strengthen the contribution of agricultural interventions to improving household food and nutrition security. The guideline’s objectives are divided into three: (i) guide policymakers on the design of nutrition-sensitive policies, strategies and guidelines, (ii) provide a framework for enhancing assimilation of nutrition actions in the selection of agriculture enterprises, as well as promote nutrition-sensitive programs within the sector, and (iii) guide agriculture extension and community development workers and agents in selecting enterprise combinations that are both highly profitable and nutrition sensitive.

 

The forward to this book is by Hon. Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja (MP) Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. He makes an appeal to extension workers to make good use of these guidelines to facilitate farmer selection of enterprises that promise both financial and nutritional returns.

 

The primary users of these guidelines are agriculture officers and their agents, as well as community development workers, all of whom have a critical role to play in guiding the enterprise selection process. The guidelines are primarily meant to guide farmers during the enterprise selection process to ensure that the selections address both income needs and nutrition requirements. 

 

For more information on, and to download the Guidelines for Integrating Nutrition into Agriculture Enterprise Mixes in Uganda, click here