A Review of Dietary Zinc Recommendations

Background. Large discrepancies exist among the dietary zinc recommendations set by expert groups. Objective. To understand the basis for the differences in the dietary zinc recommendations set by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group, and the European Food Safety Agency. Methods. We compared the sources of the data, the concepts, and methods used by the four expert groups to set the physiological requirements for absorbed zinc, the dietary zinc requirements (termed estimated and/or average requirements), recommended dietary allowances (or recommended nutrient intakes or population reference intakes), and tolerable upper intake levels for selected age, sex, and life-stage groups. Results. All four expert groups used the factorial approach to estimate the physiological requirements for zinc. These are based on the estimates of absorbed zinc required to offset all obligatory zinc losses plus any additional requirements for absorbed zinc for growth, pregnancy, or lactation. However, discrepancies exist in the reference body weights used, studies selected, approaches to estimate endogenous zinc losses, the adjustments applied to derive dietary zinc requirements that take into account zinc bioavailability in the habitual diets, number of dietary zinc recommendations set, and the nomenclature used to describe them. Conclusions. Estimates for the physiological and dietary requirements varied across the four expert groups. The European Food Safety Agency was the only expert group that set dietary zinc recommendations at four different levels of dietary phytate for adults (but not for children) and as yet no tolerable upper intake level for any life-stage group

Créer et diriger un jardin scolaire : Manuel destiné aux professeurs, parents et communautés

Les jardins scolaires peuvent contribuer à l’offre de repas sains à l’école tout en générant des revenus pour l’établissement. Ce manuel propose des leçons destinées à accompagner et compléter les activités de jardinage à l’école. Les premières leçons fournissent des informations générales sur le jardinage et l’amélioration des sols. Les leçons suivantes abordent la qualité des semences, la préparation du sol, le semis et le repiquage, la culture des plantes vivrières, le désherbage, le maraîchage et la préparation des aliments

Youth and agriculture: Key challenges and concrete solutions

With older farmers less likely to adopt new technologies, the need to re-engage youth in agriculture is vital if productivity is to be increased sustainably. This publication provides real-life examples of how this can be done. It shows how tailor-made educational programmes can provide rural youth with the skills necessary to engage in farming and adopt environmentally friendly production methods. Clearly laid out, with numerous case studies, photos and examples, topics covered also include accessing land and finance, connecting to markets and ‘green’ jobs

Joint statement for the ECOSOC side event on “Innovation Systems for Family Farming”

CGIAR, FAO, GFAR and IFAD, by convening this side event on “Innovation Systems for Family Farming” during the High-Level Segment of the ECOSOC Substantive Session 2013, wish to draw the attention of the ECOSOC members to the crucial importance of innovation in family farming and of agricultural innovation systems

Proposal for a Global Initiative on HIV/AIDS, Agriculture, and Food Security

Proposal for a CGIAR Challenge Program on the impacts of HIV/AIDS on agriculture in developing countries presented at the stakeholders' meeting of the 2001 CGIAR Annual General Meeting

Reducing the costs of GHG estimates in agriculture to inform low emissions development: Report from an international workshop

Sixty practitioners, policy makers and scientists reviewed and shared knowledge on the available robust and low-cost methods and data for GHG emission estimation in agriculture in a CCAFS/FAO workshop in Rome, October 2014. The participants emphasized that iterative interaction between data collection, data quality assurance and modelling is needed as well as protocol development for GHG estimation in agriculture. Emission factor development is also key, including in regional, national and sub-national levels. Easily accessible platforms where to store data and models would enhance sharing and better coordination. The country level coordination is also important in order to harmonize data collection practices, tools and methods. As countries are at different level in terms of GHG inventories and access to data, capacity need assessment will help providing right type, targeted support for capacity development. It is also important to ensure the policy level awareness raising, engagement and commitment. Linking adaptation and mitigation will reduce data needs and provide incentives for action. New tools for estimation are being developed, including remote sensing and crowd-sourcing, modeling and utilizing the national surveys and agriculture censuses that can help reduce data costs

Generating political commitment for ending malnutrition in all its forms: A system dynamics approach for strengthening nutrition actor networks.

Generating political commitment for ending all forms of malnutrition represents a key challenge for the global nutrition community. Without commitment, the policies, programs, and resources needed to improve nutrition are unlikely to be adopted, effectively implemented, nor sustained. One essential driver of commitment is nutrition actor network (NAN) effectiveness, the web of individuals and organizations operating within a given country who share a common interest in improving nutrition and who act collectively to do so. To inform new thinking and action towards strengthening NAN effectiveness, we use a systems dynamics theoretical approach and literature review to build initial causal loop diagrams (CLDs) of political commitment and NAN effectiveness and a qualitative group model building (GMB) method involving an expert workshop to strengthen model validity. First, a "nutrition commitment system" CLD demonstrates how five interrelated forms of commitment-rhetorical, institutional, operational, embedded, and system-wide-can dynamically reinforce or diminish one another over time. Second, we present CLDs demonstrating factors shaping NAN effectiveness organized into three categories: actor features, resources, and capacities; framing strategies, evidence, and norms; and institutional, political, and societal contexts. Together, these models generate hypotheses on how political commitment and NAN effectiveness could be strengthened in future and may provide potential starting points for country-specific conversations for doing so

Guidelines for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture

These Guidelines include step-by-step guidance to formulate qualitative and quantitative indicators of gender transformative change to help gender experts and food security, agriculture and nutrition programme specialists in their efforts to design, implement, monitor and evaluate gender transformative interventions. These indicators should be distinctive from and a complement to other reach, benefit and empower indicators intended to contribute to gender equality outcomes in food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture. The Guidelines also present an overarching framework for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, including key dimensions and a socio-ecological model for identifying spheres of influence within which gender transformative change can be measured. Additionally, the Guidelines bring attention to other important issues to consider when to implement the framework and when to develop context-specific indicators of gender transformative change, such as the incorporation of insider perspectives and consideration to intersectional forms of discrimination