Analyzing Interventions Affecting the Development of Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Production using the Analytical Network Process (ANP)

Nutrition is recognized as both an input to and a result of sustainable development, where agricultural production also plays an undeniable role. Alborz, one of the major provinces of Iran, faces several issues that have been adversely affecting its food security over the years and the implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture been has deemed to be a necessity to alleviate these problems. The research in hand investigates the interventions affecting the implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture production in Alborz Province and structures a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) analysis to prioritize these interventions, as well as identifying the best implementation strategy to be followed in the area of the study. To achieve this goal, the Analytical Network Process (ANP) has been employed. Based on library and documentary studies and interviews with experts and authorities, the structure of the ANP model has been developed and pairwise comparisons have been made. Results indicate that income generation for nutrition was the most important intervention, followed by nutrition-sensitive post-harvest handling, storage and processing. Decision makers and authorities should dedicate more attention to these aspects in the implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Alborz Province. Also, a long term (6-20 years) implementation strategy has been found to be a better alternative to target and plan for by the decision-makers and authorities.