Tropentag, September 16 - 18, 2015 in Berlin, Germany "Management of land use systems for enhanced food security – conflicts, controversies and resolutions"

Diversified Agriculture for a Balanced Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa – Projects Supported by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, BMEL

¹Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), Germany
²Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), International Cooperation and Global Food Security 323, Germany

Abstract

Focus on Nutrition – Research funding of German-African Consortia
With the funding instrument “Research Cooperation for Global Food Security and Nutrition” BMEL strengthens the contribution of Germany's agricultural and nutritional research to the development of an efficient food system in partner-countries, by building long-term partnerships between agricultural and nutritional research institutions in Germany and in Africa.

The first call for proposals “Diversified Agriculture for a balanced nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa” was launched in 2013. The selected research projects deal with the nutrition-sensitive food production in the target region. Research consortia contribute approaches of a diversified agriculture to combat malnutrition and favour a balanced nutrition in eastern and southern Africa.
Funding Agency of BMEL is BLE.

Session II / 7.4 at the Tropentag 2015 seeks to present the consortia and their projects funded within the frame of this call:
1. Agriculture and Dietary Diversity in Africa (ADDA), coordinator: Georg-August-University of Göttingen.
2. Crops for Healthy Diets: Linking Agriculture and Nutrition (HealthyLAND), coordinator: Justus-Liebig University Giessen (JLU). Participation: University of Hohenheim.
3. Diversifying agriculture for balanced nutrition through fruits and vegetables in multi-storey cropping systems (NutriHAF), coordinator: The Center for Development Research (ZEF).
4. Scaling-Up Nutrition: Implementing Potentials of nutrition-sensitive and diversified agriculture to increase food security (Scale-N), coordinator: Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). Participation: University of Hohenheim.

Outlook
These four research consortia involve relevant partners from research, governmental institutions, NGOs and also large numbers of farmers. With this research cooperation BMEL wants to contribute approaches and findings to regional development processes. In future, BMEL aims to enlarge this network of researchers improving nutrition and to develop interfaces to further existing engaged actors.

Keywords: Diversification, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, research cooperation, Sub-Saharan Africa

Contact Address: Henning Knipschild, Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), International Cooperation and Global Food Security 323, Deichmannsaue 29, 53179 Bonn, Germany, e-mail: henning.knipschildble.de