An Ecoregional Perspective on Malnutrition

Based on the 2020 brief of the same title by Manohar Sharma, Lynn Brown, Aamir Qureshi and Marito Garcia

To date, poverty and malnutrition have been tracked according to their presence within national borders. But scientists think that regional climates--or "ecoregions"--which often cross national boundaries, might be better indicators of poverty.

In agrarian developing countries, the natural environment is a key determinant of both poverty and nutritional status. Climate, terrain, and soil characteristics drive the agricultural system, influencing, in large part, cropping patterns, choice of crops, yield rates, production potential, and the size of population that an area can support.

Building on earlier work by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is developing a system of nine ecoregional zones based on mean daily temperature during the growing season and the number of days when moisture and temperature permit crop growth. When these zones are superimposed on the prevalence of malnutrition in the four major geographic regions of the developing world--Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and West Asia/North Africa--they are referred to as ecoregions.

Understanding the ecoregional dimensions of poverty and malnutrition will help researchers better pinpoint where antipoverty and malnutrition programs should be targeted and could prove to be a major step forward in alleviating poverty, sustainably, to the year 2020 and beyond.

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