Artikel

The forgotten agriculture-nutrition link: farm technologies and human energy requirements

In the quest to reduce global under- and malnutrition, which are particularly high among smallholder farmers, agriculture-nutrition linkages are receiving increasing attention. Researchers have analyzed the link between the quantity and diversity of food that farmers produce and nutritional outcomes but paid limited attention to a third agriculture-nutrition link: the link between how food is produced and nutritional outcomes. This neglect persists despite the majority of smallholder farmers relying on hand tools for farming, which implies heavy physical work and, thus, high energy requirements. To address this research gap, this study compares the energy requirements of farm households in rural Zambia that are characterized by three different levels of mechanization: hand tools, animal drought power, and tractors. 1638 days of detailed time-use and nutrition data were collected from 186 male and female adults and boys and girls during different seasons (land preparation, weeding, and harvesting/processing) using an innovative picture-based smartphone app called "Timetracker". This data served to calculate different proxies for physical activity and energy requirements using "Ainsworth's Compendium of Physical Activities". The results suggest that detailed time-use data offers great potentials to study physical activity and energy requirements. The findings show strong linkages between farm technologies, physical activity levels, and energy requirements, suggesting that this agriculture-nutrition link deserves more scientific and political attention to reduce under- and malnutrition among smallholder farmers.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Journal: Food Security ; ISSN: 1876-4525 ; Volume: 14 ; Year: 2021 ; Issue: 2 ; Pages: 395-409 ; Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands

Klassifikation
Landwirtschaft, Veterinärmedizin
Thema
Food systems
Time-use
Africa
Nutrition-sensitive agriculture
Agricultural mechanization
Caloric requirements

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Daum, Thomas
Birner, Regina
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Springer Netherlands
(wo)
Dordrecht
(wann)
2021

DOI
doi:10.1007/s12571-021-01240-1
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Artikel

Beteiligte

  • Daum, Thomas
  • Birner, Regina
  • Springer Netherlands

Entstanden

  • 2021

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