Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa.

Improving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate-food-emissions modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).

A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa : the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Funding statement This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, AFRICAP programme, grant number BB/P027784/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimated energy, macronutrient and micronutrient supply for Zambia 1961 to 2013 – Raw data

The dataset contains Zambia's per capita nutrient supply data for dietary energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine, niacin, folate, riboflavin, zinc, iron and calcium from 1961 to 2013. The data are based on estimated supply data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) food balance sheets, which was linked to food items from the West African and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food composition tables, and adjusted for regional household food waste data, including household food expenditure from a 2015 Living Conditions and Monitoring Survey, and a Zambian price index. The dataset contains information on nutrient supplies for individual food items and food commodity groups per capita. Columns are organised according to food commodity groups as they appear in FAO food balance sheets