Bringing agriculture and health back together

Health problems related to agriculture are particularly acute in low and middle income countries.
Image: Richard Nyberg/USAID

Agriculture and health experts must work together to tackle disease, poverty and malnutrition, says development expert Jeff Waage in an editorial for SciDev.Net.

The relationship between agriculture and health may seem intuitive and simple — grow more crops and people will have more food and live healthier lives. But because agriculture and health policies are rarely coordinated, the reality is far more complex. 

The truth is that despite a huge increase in agricultural productivity and food availability over the past 50 years, and falling food prices, about a billion people remain chronically undernourished.

At the same time, production of cheap refined cereals, sugars and fats is contributing to urban diets that are energy dense and nutrient poor, leading to rapidly growing rates of obesity and diabetes, and associated chronic diseases. This dietary transition is now being seen in countries like China, India and Mexico.

Developing nations also have the greatest food safety threats from chemical and biological contamination in the food chain, such as pesticides, mycotoxins and zoonotic disease, as well as threats from wildlife and livestock, such as the Ebola virus and avian flu.

Most of the poor in these countries are farmers and farm workers, who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, including the income needed to buy health services. Threats to agriculture become threats to health.

The key to tackling these problems lies in better integration of health and agricultural interventions and policy.

• Read the full article on SciDev.Net