Bridging the agriculture-health gap for improved farm productivity and efficiency: A review

Abstract

The thrust of this paper is that there exists a bi-directional causal relationship between agriculture and health, such that agriculture influences health, and vice-versa. On the basis of this bidirectional link, it becomes quite imperative that health-agriculture issues should be integrated at some levels, especially in rural development planning where agriculture and primary healthcare ought to be at the forefront of policy formulation. It is also important to understand this relationship properly in order to see how certain variables in farm economics may be reviewed further for more empirical relevance. To achieve these cardinal objectives, the paper takes on a general but brief review of status to highlight the interconnections of health and agriculture. It further draws parallels from some empirical evidences of effects of illnesses and labour losses arising from malaria and HIV/AIDs across different climes including the burden of care giving and resort to child labour as a labour compensation strategy. Based on these, some policy and empirical interventions are put forward to strengthen the bi-directional health-agriculture synergies and improved research in farm economics.