Bioversity's nutrition strategy

Bioversity’s Nutrition Strategy for 2011-2021 centres on using food and nutrition system approaches to improve human nutrition and health.

The major goal of the strategy and subsequent programme is to promote the use of agricultural biodiversity within food production systems and to provide nutritionally rich food sources that contribute to dietary diversity and, potentially, to better nutrition and health.

Working with smallholder farming communities, in at least 18 of the 36 countries where priority attention needs to be given to combat child malnutrition, our research will aim to provide much needed evidence to help improve nutrition in more sustainable agricultural systems. There will be a particular focus on the role of local and traditional foods as well as neglected and underutilized species.

By sharing that evidence with our partners, governments and development organisations, we aim to mainstream the role of agricultural biodiversity into  public health and nutrition policy and practice.

Our objectives:

• 1: To strengthen the empirical evidence of agricultural biodiversity's role for nutrition and health

• 2: To ensure that the production of more nutritious foods through commercial pathways reflects agricultural biodiverse practices and cultural and consumer preferences

• 3: To determine best practices and delivery systems of agricultural biodiversity in nutrition and health development programmes

• 4: To mainstream the role of agricultural biodiversity into public health and nutrition policy and practice by sharing evidence and providing local solutions