Food, nutrition, and agriculture: a liaison for world development

In spite of larger worldwide food harvests in recent years, the number of people in underdeveloped countries without enough food to eat is increasing. Those most likely to suffer from undernutrition are the traditionally vulnerable groups, especially the rural poor. In many underdeveloped countries, the average farm size is smaller, the number of landless farm workers is larger, and the number of rural poor families without land on which to grow food or money to buy it for home consumption is greater than ever before. Undernutrition is often viewed as a family health problem only. Thus, education in nutrition is generally directed toward home economists, health workers, and primary school teachers. Since unavailability of food is usually the most limiting factor in improving nutritional status of the poor, all agencies dealing with the food chain from production to consumption should be involved. An educational partnership between health, nutrition, and agriculture may be the most important alliance that could be brought into being to ensure enough food for the nutritional well-being of the world's population. This article presents the rationale for education in nutrition in the preparation of agriculturalists and reviews some of the past efforts and present activities of national and international organizations to meld nutrition into agricultural world development programs.