Researchers assessing climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa are calling for farmers in the region to diversify their agricultural production toward climate-smart and micronutrient-rich crops such as soybeans, cassava, millet and sorghum in a bid to improve health outcomes.

The research paper outlines that relying on fewer crops would likely increase the risk of obesity and associated non-communicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer.

“Transformative (or transformational) adaptation often involves growing new crops in new areas, rather than making changes (such as planting date shifting) to how the current suite of crops are grown,” Dr. Stewart Jennings, study lead and research fellow at the University of Leeds, UK, tells Nutrition Insight.

Researchers highlight the need for greater diversity of staple crops and greater fruit and vegetable production to ensure nutrition security.“Growing a range of crops means that if some go badly in a given year, others may fare better. We need a greater diversity of staple crops (such as millet, sorghum, cassava) and greater fruit and vegetable production to help ensure nutrition security.”

The study published in Nature Food emphasizes the need for local stakeholders to take the lead in ensuring the transformative adaptation of food systems.

Impacting nutrition security
Over 50 researchers took part in the study, involving policymakers and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture sectors in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

“Stakeholders co-designed the scenarios that were the focus of the analysis. Climate change risks were seen as the main challenge to the future food system in all countries. The extent of adoption of new agro-technologies and how transformative adaptation to climate change is were seen as key challenges and opportunities that had substantial impacts on future nutrition security,” Jennings explains.

Discussing examples of successful transitions to more diverse food systems in the countries studied and the resulting impact on nutrition security, he points out that “soybean is a crop on the diversification agenda in Zambia.”

The study spotlights the Zambian National Agricultural Policy (2004), its Second National Agricultural Policy (2016) and the Zambia Soybean Strategy and Investment Plan (2022), which aim to provide a framework for crop diversification with the specific goals of improving food and nutrition security and agricultural transformation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported on pathways to create positive outcomes in climate and food by integrating actions. These actions can help reduce malnutrition, mitigate drivers of climate change and adapt to current conditions.

Nutrient groups’ production expansion
The report highlights soy legume as a crop with expansion potential across the continent for its nutritional benefits.

“Soybean can be used as a source of livestock feed as well as a cash crop to help benefit nutrition security, and there is evidence that it is more resilient to climate change impacts than maize,” explains Jennings.

The study further mentions the potential improvement in food security in the region by increasing the production and consumption of animal-based products.

“Striking a balance between nutritional benefits and the potential rise in greenhouse gas emissions associated with increased animal product production is indeed difficult,” Jennings admits. “We are currently working on ways of measuring this important trade-off and expect results to be published later this year.”

“Early results support the case for saying that of all the regions of the globe, sub-Saharan Africa is the area with the greatest justification for increased emissions. Emissions there are low to begin with and increasing them a little could benefit the people who live there significantly.”

The iFEED allows decision makers to assess how domestic agriculture decisions could impact food security.Agricultural policy assessment
To explore stakeholders’ food security and climate change-informed policy options, researchers made use of the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED) assessment framework, developed under the UK Global Challenges Research Fund’s Agricultural and Food System Resilience — Increasing Capacity and Advising Policy program to facilitate decision-makers in delivering resilient food system policies.

“An important feature of iFEED is that it allows decision makers to assess how different possible domestic agriculture decisions — whether to expand agricultural land, or whether to diversify crops — interact with possible international trade dynamics (will food imports be available or not?) to deliver (or not) future nutrition security in the face of climate change,” explains Jennings.

“Decision makers can weigh up the risks associated with domestic decisions — for example, they can assess what food imports will be required by mid-century to achieve nutrition security given a certain expansion of agricultural land. There are inevitable trade-offs involved, making such comprehensive data crucial for decision making.”

Jennings states that it is currently uncertain how such agricultural transitions might impact smallholder and large-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. “For changes to the food system to be equitable, policies will need to account for both groups. For example, they need to ensure both smallholders and large-scale farmers have access to new crop varieties and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and irrigation.”