The role of nutrition-sensitive agriculture in food and nutritional security

Food security is one of the most important issues that has been considered by development planners and policy makers in recent years. Given that poverty and food security are a concern for a number of the world's population and climate change is causing the greatest damage to the most vulnerable people. Hence, it is clear that human beings in this situation need agricultural approaches to investigate and explain the place of agriculture in food security. The study was conducted using a method based on review of theoretical literature. In this article, while giving a brief overview of the concepts of food security, nutritional security, nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food-agriculture-nutrition linkage, strategies to improve nutrition through agriculture are discussed. The results showed that the realization of food security depends on various approaches, including the approach of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which at the same time due to increasing the quantity and variety of food, helps to achieve access to higher food quality and health to eliminate malnutrition. The goal of nutrition-sensitive agriculture is to produce healthy and safe food containing essential nutrients and affordable access for rural and urban populations. In order to implement this approach, human and organizational capacities must be strengthened at all levels and throughout the formal and informal sectors. Therefore, the development of nutrition-sensitive agriculture as an approach to supporting food security should be on the agenda of development programs.