The short answer is: a lot. Fish from capture fisheries and aquaculture
is estimated to provide more than half of the world population with 15 – 20 %
of their total intake of animal protein.
In some low-income countries such as Gambia, Sierra Leone and Ghana, the
share is more than 50 %. Fish also
provides several of the micronutrients that are essential for healthy living
and a large share of those who benefit are poor. Fisheries and aquaculture, including the
related value chains, are also very important sources of income for low-income
people and the interaction with natural resource management is very
significant.
I expect that those working in or with the
fisheries and aquaculture sectors know that.
Unfortunately that knowledge does not appear to have penetrated the food
and nutrition security deliberations. If
you do not believe me, think about how many of the last 100 articles, books or
briefs about food and nutrition security you have read included a significant
section on fish? In fact my guess is
that most of them did not even mention fish.
The current debate and the many papers written recently about how
agriculture can be made more nutrition sensitive also miss the point. We should talk about how the food system,
including fisheries and aquaculture and the total supply chain, can be made
more nutrition sensitive. If we limit
the discussion and policy recommendations to agriculture, we are foregoing some
very big opportunities for improving food security and nutrition. This is much more that semantics. Ignoring fish in efforts to improve diet
diversity and reducing micronutrient deficiencies is particularly
troubling. The CGIAR does include
research and development for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors but the
World Fish Center has the lowest budget of all the 15 centers and accounts for
only 2-3 % of the total CGIAR budget.
As a food policy analyst I am as guilty as
the next guy. It was not until a few
years ago that I began to include fish in my food and nutrition security work,
and it was not until I started interacting with the team who worked with the
High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security (HLPE), that I fully realized what
I had been missing. The HLPE report No.
7 (Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition) just
completed, is a powerful reminder to all of us, that fisheries and aquaculture
and what they produce, are critically important to any debate and action to reduce
poverty and improve food security and nutrition. The report, which is available at www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe or in
hardcopy from cfs-hlpe@fao.org , is a
goldmine of policy-related knowledge about the fisheries and aquaculture
sectors, their importance, sustainability issues, governance and recommended
policies for consideration by governments, the private sector, civil society
and international organizations. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the
interaction between the fisheries and aquaculture sector and food and nutrition
security. The report is a must-read for
those of us interested in food policy.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Graduate School Professor, Cornell
University and Chair, HLPE Steering Committee.
