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PR, IFPRI4; MaSSP; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; Capacity Strengthening; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), With Malawian diets heavily dominated by staple foods—maize first and foremost, but also rice and cassava in some areas—food security in Malawi is often equated with having access to enough maize. What is missing in this traditional measure of food security in Malawi is the importance of the quality, in addition to the quantity, of dietary intake. This household-level scenario is reflected in, and exacerbated by, national development priorities; food security is a top-line agenda item for agriculture in Malawi, whereas nutrition is still considered primarily a health issue. To guide analysis and action in this complex environment, we present a conceptual framework to illuminate the multiple and complex linkages from agriculture to food security and nutrition. This framework reveals a number of ways in which the agriculture sector can help strengthen diet quality. These include: (1) promoting production of nutrient-dense foods via subsidies and other incentives; (2) promoting food processing, marketing, and consumption in ways that conserve nutrients, create demand, and decrease prices; and (3) supporting women farmers through, for example, targeted efforts to increase their productivity and bargaining power.

PR, IFPRI4; MaSSP; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; Capacity Strengthening; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), How can the nutrition impactof agriculture programsbe assessed? Depending on context, data may need to be collected on production practices for food, livestock, and cash crops; post–farm gate value chain and other market-based activities; commodity prices; household food security; women’s empowerment; dietary quality and quantity, and nutritional status. This chapter provides a primer3 on commonly used indicators for these processes and outcomes: diet and nutritional status; household food security; gender, household decision making, and empowerment; agricultural production, productivity, and diversification; and food markets and prices. The importance of dietary quality as a key intermediary between agriculture and nutrition is emphasized throughout this chapter. Individual dietary quality is best measured by dietary diversity as dietary diversity indicators have been repeatedly validated as predictive of nutritional adequacy. Individual dietary quality is a key outcome to measure the success of most agricultural programs and policies, if an impact on population well-being is desired. However, in many countries the surveys which collect data on individual dietary patterns (and other nutrition indicators) are not the same as those which collect information on agricultural production. While justifiable from a sectoral perspective, this “data disconnect” poses a challenge to analyzing agriculture–nutrition links.

PR, IFPRI1; MaSSP; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; Capacity Strengthening; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Although the Malawian food supply is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food crop production, Ma­lawi’s decades-long focus on improving smallholder productivity has only moderately improved food secu­rity and nutrition outcomes. Country statistics indicate an estimated 36.7 percent of rural Malawian house­holds failed to access sufficient calories between 2010 and 2011. During the same period, 47 percent of children under the age of five years were esti­mated to be stunted in their growth. These indicators imply that some Malawian diets are lacking in terms of quantity (total calories consumed), and most are lacking in terms of quality (sufficient calories derived from nutrient-dense foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes, fruits, and vegetables). Good nutrition requires both enough total calories (quantity) and enough vitamins and minerals per calorie (quality). How can Malawi better leverage its smallholder agriculture sector to improve nutrition? This report provides a series of primary and secondary data anal­yses that examine different aspects of this question.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; MaSSP, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Smallholder agriculture is the mainstay of Malawi’s economy. Its importance for livelihoods cannot be overstated. 94 percent of rural residents and 38 percent of urban residents engage in agriculture to some extent (Jones, Shrinivas, and Bezner-Kerr 2014), the vast majority as smallholder farmers with landholdings of less than one hectare. Smallholder crops are primarily maize—which accounted for nearly 80 percent of smallholder-cultivated land in 2011 —followed by cassava and other food crops (FAO 2008; IFAD 2011). These foods are grown for household consumption and for sale at local and regional markets. As such, the Malawian food supply, especially in rural areas where markets are thin with few buying or selling options, is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food-crop production

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; MaSSP, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Smallholder agriculture is the mainstay of Malawi’s economy. Its importance for livelihoods cannot be overstated. 94 percent of rural residents and 38 percent of urban residents engage in agriculture to some extent (Jones, Shrinivas, and Bezner-Kerr 2014), the vast majority as smallholder farmers with landholdings of less than one hectare. Smallholder crops are primarily maize—which accounted for nearly 80 percent of smallholder-cultivated land in 2011 —followed by cassava and other food crops (FAO 2008; IFAD 2011). These foods are grown for household consumption and for sale at local and regional markets. As such, the Malawian food supply, especially in rural areas where markets are thin with few buying or selling options, is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food-crop production

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; MaSSP, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), How can the nutrition impact of agriculture programs be assessed? Depending on context, data may need to be collected on: production practices for food, livestock, and cash crops; post-farm gate value chain and other market-based activities; commodity prices; household food security; women’s empowerment; and diet and nutrition outcomes. While not intended as an exhaustive review, this chapter provides a primer on some of the most commonly-used indicators for research, monitoring, and evaluation of these areas. The following sections discuss the commonly-used indicators for assessing:  diet and nutrition outcomes;  household food security;  gender, household decisionmaking, and empowerment;  agricultural production, productivity, and diversification; and  food markets and prices.

PR, IFPRI5; CRP4, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)