The development community increasingly recognises the many links between human health and the practice and products of agriculture. Some policymakers and practitioners are now pursuing opportunities for using these links to achieve both more productive agriculture and better health.
The global health community is bracing for the possibility of a pandemic of avian influenza, or bird flu — a disease that has to date been transmitted to humans through contact with infected poultry. The anxiety over bird flu highlights the previously often-overlooked link between agriculture and human health.
In fact, agriculture is tied to human health at the most basic level. Agriculture produces food, fiber and medicine and provides livelihoods to millions of farmers so that they can purchase other necessities of life that contribute to their good health.
Moreover, the chain of cause and effect goes both ways. Good health affects agriculture by boosting people’s capacity for work and thus increasing how much they can produce. It enhances their ability to take risks with new crops or farming methods — risks that might pay off with better production and income. On the down side, when unhealthy farmers are unable to produce enough agricultural goods to earn a decent livelihood, their poverty and consequent malnutrition further worsen their health.
“The fact that there are two-way linkages between agriculture and health poses an opportunity for the two sectors to work together to help solve each other’s problems,” says Corinna Hawkes, an IFPRI research fellow. “Agricultural systems can be developed to benefit health, and the health sector can take steps to help overcome agricultural problems. Although this approach will involve some trade-offs, greater coordination could ultimately benefit both sectors.”
The connections between agriculture and health have been recognised for years, but health and agriculture professionals still tend to continue working within the limits of their own sectors.
Some researchers and development practitioners are now working to direct more attention to these links between agriculture and health and to stimulate more joint action to address them. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), for example, is undertaking an initiative, coordinated by IFPRI, to explore these links. “The CGIAR is well positioned to foster the synergies between health and agriculture. Tapping these synergies, however, requires connecting strong research in both agriculture and the health community.
