Using food diversity to end hunger, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience
Can nutrition outcomes improve by diversifying crop production and diets? This key question took centre stage at a recent workshop convened by the Zero Hunger Coalition, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Madagascar, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, as part of its South-South Dialogues.
Globally, hunger and malnutrition targets remain off-track. While 733 million people suffer from hunger, healthy diets are rare and nearly 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. In Africa alone, stunting affects more than 30% of children under five, while anaemia impacts over 40% of women of reproductive age. As Hesat2030 highlights, addressing hunger without tackling the broader determinants of malnutrition — including micronutrient deficiencies and poor dietary diversity — risks perpetuating cycles of ill health. Ensuring nutrition security, reliable access to affordable, diverse, safe, and nutritious food, must be at the centre of food system transformation efforts.
Against this global backdrop, the dialogue brought together policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from Madagascar, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to examine how food diversification and nutrition-sensitive agriculture can help transform food systems to be more resilient, equitable, and nutrition-driven.
The workshop emphasised that diversified agricultural practices — including the promotion of nutrient-dense crops, aquaculture and small livestock — not only enhance diet quality but also strengthen food system resilience against climate and economic shocks. Participants worked to identify effective public policy measures, share experiences, and build stronger institutional capacities for delivering sustainable solutions to malnutrition.
More than 80 participants from the three countries engaged in discussions centred on food diversification within the broader framework of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, focusing on persistent challenges and emerging solutions.
Promoting food diversification in Madagascar
In his opening, Gaëtan Ramindo, Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Madagascar, highlighted that many African countries remain overly dependent on a few staple crops, such as rice in Madagascar, or maize and cassava in other regions.
“While staples provide essential calories, when consumed alone or dominate the diet, they fail to meet micronutrient and protein needs. This dietary monotony fuels persistent malnutrition, especially micronutrient deficiencies such as iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiencies,” he noted. Food diversification — increasing the variety and nutritional quality of foods produced and consumed — emerges as a strategic lever to boost diet quality, enhance economic and climate resilience, and support local food systems. Diversified diets are associated with better cognitive development, stronger immune responses, and lower rates of stunting and wasting among children.
In Madagascar, good practices are being implemented. According to Ianja Raolisoa, Focal Point for Food Systems at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, interventions include the promotion of short-cycle livestock (poultry, rabbits, small ruminants) to boost household animal protein intake, strengthened collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries to develop inland aquaculture (a source of essential fatty acids and proteins), and initiatives to improve rural entrepreneurship and access to local market especially for women and youth.
Holy Raobelina, Nutrition Specialist at FAO, presented the FAO's ten-point strategy for improving nutrition through food systems transformation. The strategy recommends integrating nutrition indicators into agricultural policies, conducting causal analyses of local malnutrition drivers, targeting nutritionally vulnerable groups (e.g., young children, pregnant and lactating women), ensuring women's participation in food systems transformation, promoting the production and consumption of diverse and nutrient-rich crops (e.g., legumes, fruits, vegetables, biofortified staples), strengthening food and nutrition education, and investing in rural infrastructure.
Nutrition insecurity challenges in Benin and the DRC
The DRC faces major hurdles in improving nutrition outcomes, with diets still largely dominated by starchy foods with low nutrient density. While family farming contributes approximately 80% of national food production, progress is constrained by conflict, recurrent food insecurity, systemic inequalities, climate and health shocks, and under-resourced institutions.
Grace Mbangama, Head of the Division for Supervision and Communication at the Food Security and Nutrition Program (PROSANA), explained how national strategies are focusing on increasing access to animal-source foods (aquaculture, small livestock) and boosting local food production diversification to enhance diet quality and build resilience.
In Benin, agricultural diversification efforts are similarly constrained by poor crop quality, limited varietal diversification, climate risks, governance weaknesses, and infrastructure deficits. However, as Célestin Tognon, Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Expert at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, highlighted, important initiatives are being pursued. These include training programs for women and farmers in diversified food production, integrating nutrition education through school gardens, and the creation of a National Agency for Food and Nutrition to strengthen intersectoral governance.
Still, workshop participants agreed that scaling up food diversification requires addressing both supply and demand-side barriers. Limited availability of diverse foods, poor rural infrastructure, low consumer purchasing power, and ingrained dietary habits remain major challenges. Strengthening food literacy and promoting behaviour change communication are essential to increase consumer demand for diverse, nutrient-rich foods
Food diversification as a climate resilience strategy
Beyond improving nutrition outcomes, food diversification is a powerful strategy for climate adaptation. Monoculture systems dominated by a few crops are highly vulnerable to pests, droughts, and climate extremes. In contrast, diversified cropping systems and diversified food sources can buffer agricultural production against shocks, protect livelihoods, and maintain local food supplies during crises. Building resilience through diversification requires strengthening seed systems, supporting climate-resilient crops and livestock breeds, improving storage and processing capacities, and investing in market access and value chain development for diversified foods. By linking nutrition and climate resilience objectives, countries can maximise the impact of food systems transformation efforts.
The cost of ending malnutrition
Beyond national experiences, the workshop also explored the broader challenge of financing efforts to end malnutrition. As Francine Picard, Director of Partnerships at the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, emphasised, approximately 39% of development assistance still does not sufficiently integrate nutrition objectives, while less than 1% is explicitly allocated to nutrition-specific interventions. Closing this gap and mainstreaming nutrition into broader development aid are urgent priorities for accelerating progress.
According to the World Bank, investing US$130 billion in a package of evidence-based, high-impact nutrition-specific interventions — such as promoting exclusive breastfeeding, vitamin A supplementation, and the treatment of severe acute malnutrition — over the next ten years could generate an estimated US$2.4 trillion in economic returns. This translates into a return of US$23 for every US$1 invested, making nutrition one of the most cost-effective development investments available.
However, nutrition-specific interventions alone are not sufficient. A forthcoming study under Hesat2030, jointly conducted with FAO and CABI, reinforces the need to combine nutrition-specific actions with broader nutrition-sensitive interventions across the agricultural and food value chain — from sustainable production and food safety to market development, consumption behaviours, and social protection systems. Strengthening linkages between food systems and nutrition outcomes is critical for building resilient and sustainable food security.
The session also emphasised the importance of mobilising sustainable financing mechanisms at both national and international levels. Countries must increase domestic budget allocations to nutrition, enhance the efficiency of existing resources, and explore innovative financing tools, such as blended finance and fiscal policies like sugar-sweetened beverage taxes earmarked for nutrition programs.
Fostering country-driven solutions through South-South opportunities
While challenges persist, the workshop highlighted that African countries are building on a strong foundation of local innovation and leadership. By scaling up homegrown solutions and fostering mutual learning, they are laying critical groundwork for a more resilient, inclusive, and nutrition-secure future.
Through its “South-South Dialogues”, the Zero Hunger Coalition is catalysing high-impact collaboration among African countries, promoting mutual learning collective problem-solving, and systemic transformation of food systems. The Dialogues offer policymakers, researchers, and field practitioners from Madagascar, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a dynamic platform to exchange experiences, co-create context-specific solutions, and accelerate progress towards sustainable, equitable food systems.
“The value of this inter-country collaboration is immense.”, emphasised Mr Ramindo, “It allows us to build responses tailored to each of our realities, to amplify each other's successes, and to collectively turn our challenges into shared opportunities for transformation.”
