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Abstract
Many developing regions have excellent potential agricultural resources. However,
historically population has become so concentrated on such small holdings that acute poverty
and malnutrition now predominate. The food scientists’ response to the chronic nutritional
problem has often been subsidized bio-fortification with nutritional supplements or more
recently cultivars with higher nutrient levels. Where much of the population is in this
inadequate nutrition category as in highland Ethiopia, the supplements are neither financially
feasible nor sustainable. The cultivars can provide a few critical nutrients but are not a
comprehensive solution. To improve nutrition, it is necessary to increase income so that an
increased quality and quantitative diet can be obtained. Here we evaluate a strategy to
introduce new agricultural technologies where a central aspect of evaluation is combining the
nutritional and income goals. This analysis is undertaken in the Qobo valley, Amhara state,
Ethiopia. Using behavioralist criteria for decision making defined by the farmers, the effects
of different potential combinations of technologies and supporting agricultural policies on the
household nutritional gaps and farmers’ incomes are analyzed. An integrated approach
involving the combined technologies of water harvesting, fertilization and Striga resistance
combined with improved credit programs has the potential to increase income by 31% and to
eliminate malnutrition except in the most adverse state of nature (10% probability). Both the
treatment of the nutritional deficits and the decision making criteria defined by farmers are
expected to be useful techniques in other developing country technology and policy analysis
as well.