Nutrition, Consumption, and Agricultural Change

D EVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IS INTENDED, typically, to . . enable the poor . . . in developing countries to meet their basic human needs on a sustainable basis (USAID 1978). One of the most basic needs of the poor in less developed countries is adequate nutrition (see World Bank 1978). Most programs of agricultural and rural development are intended, directly or indirectly, to improve the nutritional status of disadvantaged populations (see USAID 1977), but the gap between intent and accomplishment is often wide. Although there is some evidence that direct health and nutrition interventions can significantly improve the nutritional status of the poor at minimal cost (Gwatkin et al. 1979), there is growing uncertainty about the impact of indirect means of raising nutritional status. Such indirect approaches-including employment generation, development of infrastructure, land reform, and raising the productivity of smallholder agriculturalists-have, in the past, been thought to have a generally positive effect on nutrition among the poor majority by raising income and improving food consumption. But Berg (1973), Reutlinger and Selowsky (1976), and others have suggested that, because of maldistribution, certain aspects of can persist-especially among the poor-in the face of otherwise successful general development programs. These findings imply that currently there is insufficient awareness of the malnutrition problem. Too little attention has been directed to the ways in which specific development programs affect community-level social and economic conditions, which, in turn, may affect nutritional status. Thus, there is no general understanding of how specific development programs, apart from direct interventions, may affect consumption patterns and therefore nutritional status. As an initial, perhaps oversimplified illustration, consider the following sets of circumstances under which consumption-related may arise:' (1) Food production is inadequate, due to lack of land, labor, capital, or any one of these; (2) Food production is adequate, but some people cannot afford enough food, or the