By Jimoh Babatunde
The President of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, has revealed that making smallholder farmers have a massive role to play in eradicating hunger and poverty if made more productive.

Delivering a keynotes address at the ongoing conference on “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health.” Organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute in New Delhi, India yesterday, she disclosed that three-quarters of the world’s poorest people get their food and income by farming small plots of land.

“If we can make smallholder farmers more productive and more profitable, we can have a massive impact on hunger, poverty, and nutrition.

“Agriculture and nutrition are part of a virtuous cycle. Not only does increasing agricultural productivity improve the health of smallholder farmers through better nutrition, but healthier smallholder farmers are also more productive, giving them the opportunity to grow more food, earn more income, and contribute to further economic growth.

She said while agriculture alone cannot defeat under nutrition, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation they believe agriculture can play a much bigger role than it has been in improving the diets of the world’s poorest families.

Burwell said it is not a surprise that a recent study shows that countries which pursue pro-agriculture policies have faster reductions in their stunting rates. “Agricultural productivity has not only raised incomes, it has also reduced food prices, making it easier for the world’s poorest people to feed their families.”

Burwell added “decisively combating under nutrition will require contributions from the fields of agriculture, health, water and sanitation, education, and social protection. It is my hope that this conference will foster greater collaboration between our areas of expertise and help us find solutions to the world’s nutrition challenges. “

She explained that It’s not enough for people to just increase the quantity of food available to the world’s most vulnerable communities, especially women and children, that there is need to improve the quality of their diets by ensuring they have access to diverse, nutritious foods.

“Over 2 billion people in the world still suffer from poor nutrition. Each year, more than 3.5 million mothers and children under five die unnecessarily because of a lack of key nutrients in their diets.”

She said many countries with impressive gains in agricultural and economic growth have not experienced the full benefits of improved nutrition.

“India’s tremendous economic achievements and dramatic increases in food production, for example, have not allowed it to break free from the challenges of chronic under nutrition and malnutrition among its poorest citizens. India is home to one-third of the world’s undernourished children. Under nutrition is also widespread among India’s adults too. “

Burwell said at the Gates Foundation that they are working to realize agriculture’s full potential to help overcome nutrition challenges.

“We are supporting a game-changing effort to increase the levels of vitamin A, zinc, and iron in staple crops widely grown and consumed by the poor.

She added that they know that more nutritious crops are only beneficial if the world’s poorest farming families have enough land and support to grow them. “That’s why we are working with Landesa, an organization securing land rights for the world’s poorest families, to give women farmers access to land and training to help them grow nutritious foods to feed their families.

“At the same time, we recognize there’s a lot we still don’t know about the links between agriculture and nutrition. To better understand why high levels of malnutrition in India persist despite sustained economic and agricultural growth, we have teamed up with the International Food Policy Research Institute to explore the links between agriculture and nutrition. “