Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi

Designing decentralized policies has been recently recognized as more appropriate to address the immediate development problems of local communities. In this paper, a knowledge-based system approach is used to generate decentralized policy recommendations of crop choices in order to achieve househol...

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Autor principal: Babu, Suresh Chandra
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 1999
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171524
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author Babu, Suresh Chandra
author_browse Babu, Suresh Chandra
author_facet Babu, Suresh Chandra
author_sort Babu, Suresh Chandra
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Designing decentralized policies has been recently recognized as more appropriate to address the immediate development problems of local communities. In this paper, a knowledge-based system approach is used to generate decentralized policy recommendations of crop choices in order to achieve household food security and nutrition. Using a case study of smallholder Malawian farmers, a decentralized approach to production-oriented policymaking for household food security and nutrition is presented. Based on solutions of farm level optimization models and with the facilities of macro-programming in spreadsheet programs a rule-based system which is easily understood and modified by the local development agents with little or no knowledge of programming languages is developed. It is argued that similar programs could be written for designing and implementing decentralized policies for other rural development sectors. Given the increased use of microcomputers at district and sub-regional levels in sub-Saharan Africa, the approach developed in this paper could be highly practical in designing decentralized food and nutrition policies where experts in these fields are scarce.
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spelling CGSpace1715242025-02-19T14:01:47Z Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi Babu, Suresh Chandra decentralization nutrition policies food security Designing decentralized policies has been recently recognized as more appropriate to address the immediate development problems of local communities. In this paper, a knowledge-based system approach is used to generate decentralized policy recommendations of crop choices in order to achieve household food security and nutrition. Using a case study of smallholder Malawian farmers, a decentralized approach to production-oriented policymaking for household food security and nutrition is presented. Based on solutions of farm level optimization models and with the facilities of macro-programming in spreadsheet programs a rule-based system which is easily understood and modified by the local development agents with little or no knowledge of programming languages is developed. It is argued that similar programs could be written for designing and implementing decentralized policies for other rural development sectors. Given the increased use of microcomputers at district and sub-regional levels in sub-Saharan Africa, the approach developed in this paper could be highly practical in designing decentralized food and nutrition policies where experts in these fields are scarce. 1999 2025-01-29T12:58:18Z 2025-01-29T12:58:18Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171524 en Limited Access application/pdf Babu, Suresh Chandra. 1999. Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi. Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture 38(1): 78-95.
spellingShingle decentralization
nutrition policies
food security
Babu, Suresh Chandra
Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title_full Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title_fullStr Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title_full_unstemmed Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title_short Designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies: a knowledge based system approach in Malawi
title_sort designing decentralized food security and nutrition policies a knowledge based system approach in malawi
topic decentralization
nutrition policies
food security
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/171524
work_keys_str_mv AT babusureshchandra designingdecentralizedfoodsecurityandnutritionpoliciesaknowledgebasedsystemapproachinmalawi