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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Agricultural Technology, Health and Nutrition Linkages: Some Recent Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa |
Author: | Teklu, Tesfaye |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review (ISSN 1027-1775) |
Volume: | 17 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | January |
Pages: | 1-14 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs., ills. |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | food policy agricultural technology Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Law, Human Rights and Violence Medicine, Nutrition, Public Health agricultural development technological change nutrition Child welfare health education |
Abstract: | Investment in agricultural technology is crucial for countries in sub-Saharan Africa in order for them to meet their growing demand for food at low costs. Technological change improves income and food consumption. However, the impact on nutrition outcomes seems weak. This phenomenon is attributed to the weak relationship between income and food consumption, as well as between income and health expenditures. Given the strong link between morbidity and child nutrition in Africa, the weak link between income and health expenditures is a key limiting factor. In order for technical change to have an appreciable effect on nutrition outcomes, investments in agricultural technology have to be accompanied by investments in health and environmental sanitation, better nutrition education, and possibly policies that lower the trade-off between employment and child care, especially for the primary child carer in technology-adopting households. Policymakers, however, need to be guided by more interdisciplinary research to promote greater understanding of how the links between agricultural technology and nutritional outcomes can be strengthened.The evidence in this paper is drawn mainly from studies in the Gambia (von Braun, Puetz and Webb, 1989), Kenya (Kennedy, 1989), Rwanda (von Braun, de Haen, and Blanken, 1991) and Zambia (Kumar, 1994; Holleman and Pinstrup-Andersen, 1993). Bibliogr., note, sum. |