Abstract
Agricultural sector plays a key role towards achieving healthier diets that are deemed critical for improving health and nutritional outcomes. To what extent the current food supply systems support healthy diets remains unknown. Using annual and nationally representative data on crop and livestock production in Ethiopia, we assess the national agricultural sector from a nutrition lens and its role in supporting healthy diets in the country. We do so by converting the agricultural production into energy and nutrients for the period of 2011–2015. These data show that the national food production has increased dramatically over the 5-year period to supply more than 3,000 calories per capita in 2015. Moreover, nutrient production gaps have substantially decreased (2011–15), but deficits in energy (5%), vitamin C (16%), and calcium (9%) production remained in 2015. However, this production growth–coming primarily from the cereal sector and at the expense of other food groups–led to a decrease in production diversity as reflected by a drop in the Shannon index between 2011 and 2015. Together these findings imply that the production increases in Ethiopia would need to be sustained to feed the rapidly growing population but more emphasis should be given to diversification to support healthy and nutritionally diversified diets.
Highlights
One in three people worldwide is affected by one or more forms of malnutrition
This production growth– coming primarily from the cereal sector and at the expense of other food groups–led to a decrease in production diversity as reflected by a drop in the Shannon index between 2011 and 2015. Together these findings imply that the production increases in Ethiopia would need to be sustained to feed the rapidly growing population but more emphasis should be given to diversification to support healthy and nutritionally diversified diets
The data for this study come from the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia
Summary
One in three people worldwide is affected by one or more forms of malnutrition. 800 million are undernourished, 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese [1]. About two billion people worldwide are anemic and suffer from micronutrient deficiencies [2]. Three billion people have poor quality diets. Poor diets are considered as the leading causes of morbidity and mortality putting people at a greater risk than unsafe sex, tobacco, drug and alcohol use combined [3]. What constitutes a healthy diet is context-dependent, there is a strong evidence that diverse diets which include nutrient-dense foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts along with moderate consumption of animal source
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