• Productivity Alone Is Not Enough: Despite significant agricultural growth in Africa, malnutrition remains widespread, proving that higher yields do not automatically translate into improved nutrition. Intentional integration of nutrition into agricultural systems is essential to close this gap.
• Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture as a Systems Solution: Through IGNITE+, Tanager and Ikore are embedding clear nutrition goals, measurable indicators, and targeted actions into agricultural programming addressing not only food production, but also income constraints and gender inequality to improve household nutrition outcomes.
• Practical Tools to Turn Strategy into Action: The Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention Selection (NSIS) tool helps food system actors identify tailored, evidence-based nutrition interventions, bridging the gap between program design and implementation for more sustainable impact

Africa’s agricultural sector is making measurable progress. Between 2015 and 2020, agricultural productivity grew by an average of 13% annually, driven by improved practices, technology adoption, and increased investment. Yet despite these gains, malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity remain widespread, particularly among women and children. This underscores a critical reality: higher yields alone do not guarantee better nutrition and intentional nutrition integration is therefore essential.

Addressing this gap requires intentionally designing agricultural interventions that embed nutrition objectives at their core. Through the Impacting Gender and Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture Plus (IGNITE+), Tanager in partnership with Ikore International Development Limited is advancing nutrition-sensitive agriculture, an approach that integrates dietary diversity, nutrient-rich food production, women’s empowerment, and measurable nutrition outcomes across the agricultural value chain.

Unlike nutrition-specific interventions alone, which address immediate causes of malnutrition, nutrition-sensitive agriculture tackles underlying drivers such as food insecurity, income constraints, and gender inequality. IGNITE+ operationalizes this approach by embedding clear nutrition goals, measurable indicators, and targeted actions into agricultural programming. The project aligns with three key agriculture outcomes to nutrition pathways which includes improving food production and diversity, increasing household income, and strengthening women’s empowerment.

One of Tanager’s flagship resources, the Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention Selection (NSIS) tool, is an interactive, practice-oriented tool designed to help users identify tailored nutrition interventions across diverse food system actors  including producers, aggregators, processors, and consumers.

By bridging the gap between program design and implementation, the NSIS Tool enables stakeholders to embed evidence-based, context-specific nutrition actions into agricultural initiatives from the outset supporting more impactful and sustainable nutrition-sensitive programs.

Read the full blog: https://shorturl.at/3F6Ji