This systematic review examines the impact of women’s work in agriculture on maternal and child nutrition in South Asia. Building on previous reviews supported under the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) consortium, and recent published literature, it includes findings from new LANSA research. It maps literature on the gender-nutrition pathways linking agriculture to nutrition and points to conceptual and methodological directions for further exploration. Key amongst these are a focus on seasonality, poverty, and gender relations, moving beyond both an exclusive focus on women as a unified and homogenous group, and agriculture as an unchanging and common set of activities and production processes. The analysis suggests the need for a more contextualised approach, and for a richer cross-disciplinary framework for effectively addressing the ways in which women’s work mediates agriculture’s role in improving child and maternal nutrition in South Asia.
Highlights:
- Need to move beyond homogenised views of both women and agricultural systems
- Women’s work mediates household socio-economic status and its food security
- Policies must recognize women’s work contributions and ensure adequate support
- Cross-disciplinary research frameworks are needed to generate robust evidence