Value Chains and Diet Quality: A Review of Impact Pathways and Intervention Strategies

Bradley Ridoutt, Jessica R. Bogard, Kanar Dizyee, Lilly Lim-Camacho and Shalander Kumar
Additional contact information
Bradley Ridoutt: Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Private Bag 10, Clayton South, VIC 3169, Australia
Jessica R. Bogard: Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Kanar Dizyee: Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Lilly Lim-Camacho: Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Shalander Kumar: Innovation Systems for the Drylands, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502324, Telangana, India

Agriculture, 2019, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Low and middle-income countries increasingly face a triple burden of malnutrition encompassing undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and excessive energy consumption contributing to overweight and obesity. Food systems are also becoming more complex, supported by investments in food processing and retailing. Traditional approaches addressing hunger, typically based on agricultural development, are deemed insufficient alone to address the problem and attention is now being directed to food value chains, although experience is currently limited. To assess the state of science and identify knowledge gaps, an integrative review of the broad topic of value chains and diet quality was undertaken, with particular focus on interventions and their related impact pathways. Interventions were classified according to their primary orientation: to increase the availability, accessibility, or desirability of nutritious food. We identified 24 separate interventions associated with 10 different impact pathways, demonstrating the numerous entry points and large potential for value chain interventions to influence diet quality. However, case study evidence regarding effectiveness remains scant. Most studies addressed individual nutrient-rich commodities that could address a nutritional deficiency in the community of interest. Rarely was overall diet quality assessed, and future studies could benefit from taking a wider perspective of dietary patterns and food substitutions. The value chain analytical approach was deemed valuable due to its consumer orientation that seeks to understand how food products are used and what motivates their choice. The systems perspective is also important as it considers the roles of actors involved in food production, distribution, marketing, and regulation. However, few studies directly engaged with the subject of the local food environment as the bridge connecting food production and food choice. The challenge is to combat the increasing prevalence of processed foods of low nutritional value through interventions that lead to nutritious food becoming more conveniently available, affordable, and desirable.

Keywords: dietary diversity; food environment; food landscape; food system; nutrition-sensitive agriculture; triple burden of malnutrition; United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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