Despite rapid economic growth in South Asia, its rates of child undernutrition remain the highest in the world, with nearly half of children stunted or underweight. Progress to reduce these rates is extremely slow. Ironically, most people in the region make their living from farming, which researchers say, offers great potential for improving nutrition.

An ambitious new research program of the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA), consortium, which includes IFPRI, aims to tap this potential. The six-year program, funded by the UK government, will examine and make recommendations for agriculture- and food-related interventions to improve agriculture for nutrition.

“The aim of LANSA is to tackle undernutrition in South Asia through an innovative evidence-based and gender-sensitive marriage of nutrition and agriculture,” explained Professor M.S.Swaminathan, chair of LANSA’s Consortium Advisory Group, and renowned for his leading role in India’s Green Revolution.

The program will first examine existing agriculture policies and activities, looking at India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. It will then propose new initiatives to link agriculture and nutrition in the region, working closely with key decisionmakers to ensure the research meets their needs. The goal is to promote cooperation throughout the region, given the trans-border nature of many of the region’s food- and nutrition-related issues. According to LANSA CEO Prakash Shetty, the program plans to build on existing regional partnerships and networks, to “emerge as a powerful regional hub.”

The LANSA consortium is led by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in India. Partners include BRAC (Bangladesh), the Collective for Social Science Research (Pakistan), the Institute of Development Studies (UK), the International Food Policy Research Institute (USA), and the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (UK).