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Coupling of soil regeneration, food security, and nutrition outcomes in Andean subsistence agroecosystems

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Abstract

To sustain the livelihoods of smallholder farmers globally, improved human nutrition must not sacrifice future agroecosystem productivity. We gathered environmental, agricultural management, food security (FS), and normalized child height for age (HAZ; children age < 2y) data from 297 farming households to test whether enhanced FS and nutrition goals can be aligned with agroecosystem maintenance in Andean farming systems that rely heavily on the local environment. Our results demonstrate many expected relationships between environment, agriculture, and nutrition in these communities’ households, for example between ecosystem biomass production and manuring rates, between total household crop production and FS, and between HAZ and child diet diversity. However, increased FS status evaluated by households was unrelated to HAZ as an indicator of nutrition status. By contrast, better child nutrition and feeding practices in some households were associated not with total production but with farming practices that sustain soils and secure higher per-hectare crop yields: longer fallows, greater crop diversity, and smaller cropped areas. These results may be explained by the tendency for agricultural practices correlated with household food insecurity (e.g. reduced manure inputs, greater cropped area) to increase labor and impede appropriate feeding and child nutrition while they accelerate environmental degradation. Crop production imperatives for food supply can thus degrade soils without delivering improved nutrition. Meanwhile, more sustainable practices in households with better child nutrition (e.g. smaller, better-manured crop areas) may address time barriers to effective care and feeding. We discuss challenges and opportunities based on these results for meeting both nutrition and environmental goals.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge generous support from The McKnight Foundation. SV received Fulbright and Fulbright-Hays doctoral research grants. ADJ was supported by T32-DK 07158 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The authors take responsibility for this content, which does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIDDK or the National Institutes of Health. Lastly we acknowledge the essential collaboration from staff and hired enumerators from the non-governmental organization World Neighbors Bolivia in carrying out the surveys, and the contribution of a number of colleagues as reviewers as well as anonymous journal reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil and Crop Science Section, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Steven J. Vanek

  2. Department of Geography, Penn State University, 315 Walker Building, State College, PA, 16802, USA

    Steven J. Vanek

  3. Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Andrew D. Jones

  4. Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Laurie E. Drinkwater

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  1. Steven J. Vanek
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Correspondence to Steven J. Vanek.

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Vanek, S.J., Jones, A.D. & Drinkwater, L.E. Coupling of soil regeneration, food security, and nutrition outcomes in Andean subsistence agroecosystems. Food Sec. 8, 727–742 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0598-2

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