Maximizing Nutrition In Forestry

This guidance note focuses on mainstreaming nutrition into the wild food subsector of the forestry sector, using Uganda as a case study. It is part of a series of guidance notes examining the main food sectors (crops, fishing, forestry and livestock) in 12 sub-Saharan African countries and providing practical suggestions on how to formulate programmes and policies that contribute to healthy diets and enhanced nutrition.

The question of how to better incorporate nutrition into the livestock sector is a challenge shared by many policymakers and programme managers at regional, national and local levels, due to a lack of proven methodological tools setting out how to effectively achieve this. In response to this challenge, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with support from Action Contre la Faim and World Vision, has developed an innovative stepwise approach that combines theory and practice by establishing a theory of change and associated impact pathways. This work was carried out as part of a consultative process involving expert stakeholders from Eswatini and Zimbabwe. The results obtained demonstrate the utility of this methodological process to help policy makers and technicians formulate and evaluate nutrition sensitive policies, programmes and interventions.

This guidance note focuses on mainstreaming nutrition into the fisheries sector, using Kenya as a case study. It is part of a series of guidance notes examining the main food sectors (crops, fishing, forestry, and livestock) in 12 sub-Saharan African countries and providing practical suggestions on formulating programmes and policies that contribute to healthy diets and enhanced nutrition.

Ghana’s agricultural sector plays a vital role in income generation, foreign exchange earnings, employment, and food security for over 70 percent of its people. Despite the significant role of the crop production sector, limited attention has been given to maximizing its potential to address food insecurity and malnutrition. For that reason, FAO, in collaboration with World Vision, has produced this guidance note on mainstreaming nutrition into the crop production sector using a food systems approach. This guidance note aims to inform national-level policymakers and key participants in the food system on the issues and opportunities relating to Ghana’s fruit and vegetable value chain, with a particular focus on smallholder households.

An integrated treatment of forest nutrition management that draws on the fields of silviculture, soil studies, ecology, and economics to provide broad-based information on how to enhance the nutritional status of forest soils in order to increase their long-term stand productivity. Covers the use of fertilizers to enhance biological nitrogen fixation and how the nutrition status of forests is affected by other operations, such as harvesting and site preparation. Includes methods for assessing nutrient status, the economics of nutrition management, and models to aid in decision making. Written for the non-specialist needing a clear conceptual base for applying forest nutrition science to management. Numerous examples of successful forest management illustrate concepts.

The Role of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Human Nutrition is a component of Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Human health and wellbeing depend strongly on production, quality, and availability of food. Agriculture, or cultivation of the soil, harvesting crops, and raising livestock, which are the main sources of food, has no single origin. At different times and in numerous places, many plants and animals have been domesticated to provide food for humankind. Fishing, like farming, is a form of primary food production. Through food gathering, primitive humans first obtained fish and other aquatic products in the shallow waters of lakes and along the seashore, in areas with ebb tides, and in small streams. The breadth and complexity of the subject matter presented here is vast. This volume traces the extraordinary history of human colonization of the habitable world and is a chronicle of humankind’s early communion with the underlying realities of the earth’s physical environment, the eventual destruction of this harmonious relationship, and efforts to repair the damage. To make it easier for the reader the volume is divided into 7 sections Food and agriculture and the use of natural resources examines the relationship between food production and the resource base and demonstrate how humans have adapted and exploited Nature to feed the burgeoning populations of humans and their domestic animals. History of forestry from ancient times to the present day is analyzed and shows the linkage between forest clearance for agriculture and the rise of human populations, and current global environmental issues. History of Fishing is a saga explained that spans the full range from traditional fishing for subsistence through to the evolution of modern factory fishing fleets Impact of global change on agriculture outlines the impact of climate change, human demographic trends and the sustainability issues that arise. Economics and policy of food production analyzes the global trade in foodstuffs and the regional specializations and land use complexities. Fundamentals of human health and nutrition explains the complexities of providing a balanced and safe diet for humans throughout their life cycle from birth to old age. It explores some of the linkages between human health and the quality and quantity of food provided. Human nutrition: an overview provides, a wide ranging summary of the issues and imperatives associated with providing humans with food of a quality and standard that will ensure healthy lives. In the history of human development from the time of the earliest agricultural activities humans have cleared the natural forests and woodlands to obtain building materials and fuel wood, and to provide lands for domestic animals and crops. It is this aspect that is the main focus of the volume. The authors in this volume have analyzed and reviewed the interactions between the utilization of natural resources and human nutrition. Much attention focuses on the specific contribution by agriculture (including livestock husbandry), forestry and fisheries in meeting human needs. This synoptic overview assesses the pattern of past change in the relationship between humans and the resource base on which their lives depend. Lessons learned, or still to be learned, are teased out and elaborated. The vast breadth of the subject matter covered in this volume has meant that the work has benefited from the input of many individual contributors from vastly different parts of the globe. I am grateful to the contributors and reviewers for their time and effort and the exchange of ideas and the learning experience that I obtained by working with such a diverse and learned group. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the vast "invisible college" of colleagues whose publications that have shed light on some of the most pertinent problems facing humankind today. These four volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.