Integrated aquatic and terrestrial food production enhances micronutrient and economic productivity for nutrition-sensitive food systems.

Integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA) is a form of crop diversification where aquatic and terrestrial foods are grown together on a single parcel of land. We compare economic and nutrient productivity per hectare for 12 distinct IAA combinations, identified from a representative survey of 721 farms in southern Bangladesh. Just under half of households integrate agriculture into their aquaculture production. Regression analyses show positive associations between the integration of terrestrial foods into aquatic farming systems and nutrient productivity, but that nutrient productivity is partly disconnected from economic productivity. However, we find that production of specific combinations of aquatic foods and vegetables can simultaneously improve nutrient productivity and economic productivity, thereby promoting nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA). The approach demonstrated here can be applied to the design of NSA programmes that are important for realizing nutrition-sensitive food systems.

Dietary inadequacy in Tanzania is linked to the rising cost of nutritious foods and consumption of food-away-from-home.

This study contributes to the growing literature on dietary quality and accessibility in the Global South. We analyze the nutrition implications of changing dietary patterns between 2008 and 2019 in one of Africa's largest and fastest growing economies, Tanzania, and compare patterns at national and sub-national scales. We find that: (1) Rising incomes have not been associated with marked increases in the diversity of food consumed at home; (2) Consumption of food away from home has increased dramatically; (3) Most food consumed in Tanzanian homes is purchased instead of self-produced; (4) There have not been clear improvements in the adequacy of micronutrient consumption obtained from food eaten at home; (5) The most affordable sources of key micronutrients, including nutrient dense foods such as dried fish, have become more expensive. Our findings indicate that in Tanzania the amount and diversity of nutritious foods eaten at home have not improved with rising incomes, but consumption of energy-dense processed foods eaten away from home has increased rapidly, likely reflecting differences in convenience and relative prices. To improve Tanzanian diets in coming years, coordinated nutrition-sensitive policy actions will be required on both the supply- and demand-sides.

Measuring the potential for sustainable intensification of aquaculture in Bangladesh using life cycle assessment.

Food production is a major driver of global environmental change and the overshoot of planetary sustainability boundaries. Greater affluence in developing nations and human population growth are also increasing demand for all foods, and for animal proteins in particular. Consequently, a growing body of literature calls for the sustainable intensification of food production, broadly defined as "producing more using less". Most assessments of the potential for sustainable intensification rely on only one or two indicators, meaning that ecological trade-offs among impact categories that occur as production intensifies may remain unaccounted for. The present study addresses this limitation using life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify six local and global environmental consequences of intensifying aquaculture production in Bangladesh. Production data are from a unique survey of 2,678 farms, and results show multidirectional associations between the intensification of aquaculture production and its environmental impacts. Intensification (measured in material and economic output per unit primary area farmed) is positively correlated with acidification, eutrophication, and ecotoxicological impacts in aquatic ecosystems; negatively correlated with freshwater consumption; and indifferent with regard to global warming and land occupation. As production intensifies, the geographical locations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, acidifying emissions, freshwater consumption, and land occupation shift from the immediate vicinity of the farm to more geographically dispersed telecoupled locations across the globe. Simple changes in fish farming technology and management practices that could help make the global transition to more intensive forms of aquaculture be more sustainable are identified.