5 investments that will help nourish the world

In a world of 8.2 billion people, we grow enough food to feed 10 billion. So why is it that a third of the world’s population can’t afford a healthy diet?

The straightforward answer is that global food systems are not working. What we grow, and how we grow and consume it, isn’t working – both for the 148 million children under 5 who are stunted due to chronic undernutrition, and for the 390 million aged 5–19 who are overweight or obese. More than half the global population doesn’t get enough micronutrients for a healthy life. 

What can be done? Let’s explore the answers.

Why invest in nourishing the world?

The answer may seem obvious, as the right to food is a universal human right. We owe it to each other to make sure everyone in the world has enough nutritious food, not only to survive, but to thrive. 

Better nutrition also leads to better health, educational achievement and earnings for individuals and communities. Every US$1 invested in nutrition generates US$23 in returns.

Getting these returns isn’t just a matter of cultivating more – we need diverse, high-quality and nutritious food.

This means producing food now in a way that doesn’t harm the planet in the future. It means rethinking our food systems to respect and conserve water and soil, the building blocks of nutritious food. And it means building sustainable, productive and equitable food chains, in which producers are fairly recompensed and food travels safely from farm to plate.

How can we nourish the world – now and in the future?

The solution is local. Investing in small-scale agriculture and local food systems in low and middle-income countries is the best way to create nutritional security for all. That is why nutrition is at the heart of IFAD’s rural investments, and that is why 60 per cent of our projects for 2025–2027 are nutrition-sensitive.

Here are five crucial investments we have identified, through our work with rural people in low and middle-income countries, to support sustainable nutrition.

There are about 5,000 food crops, yet more than half of our calories come from rice, wheat or maize. By cultivating neglected and under-utilized species like millet, fonio or teff, small-scale farmers can supply diverse and nutritious foods. These are sometimes called forgotten foods – or, as we prefer to call them, foods of the future. 

In Malawi, farmers are growing millet, cowpeas and sorghum using local seeds. These nutritious staples mature early and provide food during the lean season.

Small-scale farms are hotbeds of biodiversity. Using agroecology, smaller farms conserve natural resources while maintaining more biodiversity than larger ones, with richer soil and water leading to more nutritious crops. They often integrate animals, from livestock to fish, so that nutrients are not wasted.

Sixty per cent of IFAD projects completed between 2018 and 2023 implemented agroecological practices, strengthening food systems while adapting to climate change.

By accessing value chains and connecting to markets, farmers earn better incomes to feed their own families. As part of nutrition-sensitive value chains, small enterprises provide inputs and technology, enhance the availability, affordability, diversity, safety and acceptability of nutritious foods, and reduce food losses. When small and medium-size rural enterprises (SMEs) flourish, so do rural producers and consumers.

Over a quarter of IFAD project finance is invested in value chains, strengthening and integrating nutrition at every step, from production, processing and packaging to transportation, markets and consumers. In Nigeria, IFAD support enabled women like Cynthia to produce vitamin-A-fortified cassava seed and set up plants to process the cassava into garri for the local market. 

School meal programmes can be designed to prepare locally grown nutritious food for children. From Tajikistan to Guatemala, IFAD supports schools in sourcing nutritious foods from local farmers and cultivating school gardens, coupled with nutrition education, to give children the best possible start to life.

Obesity and overweight are growing faster in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Amid the ever-increasing availability of cheap but unhealthy foods that are highly processed and high in fat, sugar and salt, nutrition education helps people make the right food choices. In Laos, IFAD-supported Farmer Nutrition Schools are teaching parents to prepare healthier and tastier food for their children.

Investing in small-scale agriculture in low and middle-income countries is an investment in nourishing, sustainable food systems for generations to come. Yet nutrition accounts for under 1 per cent of overseas development assistance, and agriculture for 5–6 per cent. There is a food systems funding gap of US$300–400 billion a year.

It's high time that low and middle-income countries receive the support they need to boost nutrition and agricultural production alike – and one of the best ways to achieve this is through concessional financing, coupled with technical assistance, from international financial institutions like IFAD.

Innovative financial instruments can help minimize risks while pooling public, private and philanthropic funds. In Uganda, private investors in the IFAD-supported Yield Fund supported SMEs like Pristine Foods Ltd., the first producer of high-protein egg powder in East Africa, which sources eggs from small-scale chicken farmers.

Nutrition bonds can also channel private sector investment. In 2024, IFAD issued its first nutrition bond, raising US$50 million.

As the extent of the global nutrition crisis becomes clear, governments, private actors, rural communities and development agencies are coming to realize that the solution is in our hands. To nourish the world, we need to invest funds, knowledge and empowerment in rural people and small-scale producers, who are the key to the sustainable food systems of the future.