Agricultural and food policies. Some concerns regarding their nutritional relevance.

In recent times, nutrition analysts have been emphasizing the fact that the most critical nutritional unfulfilled need in underdeveloped countries is energy or quantity of food. This has prompted some leading food economist and agricultural policy makers to promote the extensive cultivation of high field inexpensive staples, including starchy roots and tubers. A typical example is cassava in many African countries and Indonesia. These foods not only have very little and poor quality protein, but also lack other essential nutrients. Interestingly, underdeveloped populations seem to select the nutritionally poorest staples under condition of extreme economic constraints, for example cassava or sorghum. But as their economic level improves they switch to nutritionally better staples, like wheat or rice. The people seem to be able to <> the need for quality rather than simply quantity as soon as an improved economic status allows them more choices. Some examples are given to support this contention. The present analysis emphasizes that the goals and objectives of nutrition scientists must be integrated with those of food and agricultural economists for the design of agricultural policies with increased relevance to human nutrition in a comprehensive way. Rather than proposing the cultivation of one inexpensive staple, these policies should consider a variety of complementary foods which would allow the people to chose diets providing sufficient quantities and balance of all essential nutrients in addition to energy.