and bad, and enable the visions they have for their own families, communities and wider social categories to which they belong.

AKST-related policies. For the IAASTD model of AKST, policy referring to AKST must be understood in a broad sense. Policy can be thought of as a course or principle of action designed to achieve particular goals or targets. The idea of policy is usually associated with government bodies, but other types of organization also formulate policies-for example a local NGO may establish a policy about who is eligible for its programs (DFID, 2001). "Policy analysis" is the process through which the interactions at and between these various levels are explored and articulated. Policy relating to the AKST model is thus understood as the attempt to systematically intervene in the process of shaping and reshaping the interrelationships between the different actors, networks and organizations involved in the processes of coproduction of knowledge for more sustainable and propoor agriculture and food production.

1.2.2 Development and sustainability goals

Reduction of poverty and hunger. Poverty can be defined in different ways, each requiring its own measurement. Poverty can be measured in terms of access to the basic needs of life, such as nutrition, clean water and sanitation, education, housing and health care. An income level of US$1 per day is widely accepted as a rough indicator of poverty although there is general agreement that the multidimensional nature of poverty cannot be captured with this measure. Worldwide, about 1,200 million people live on less than US$1 per day; in percentage terms this is expected to drop from 19% of the world population in 2002 to 10% by 2015 (World Bank, 2006b), although in absolute numbers the difference will be smaller because by then the total population will be larger by about 800 million people. Moreover, many countries, particularly in Africa and South Asia, are not on track regarding achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Global Monitoring Report, 2006) (Figure 1-8). Furthermore, these numbers should be interpreted with caution. Any change from the nonmonetary provision of goods and services to the cash market, such as a shift from subsistence to commercial crops, will appear as an increase in income whether or not there has been a concomitant improvement in standard of living or reduction in poverty. This indicator focuses our attention exclusively on income derived from market transactions and ignores other components of livelihood.

     Approximately 852 million people are unable to obtain enough food to live healthy and productive lives (FAO, 2004a). Hunger is discussed here in the wider sense of encompassing both food and nutritional insecurity (UN Millennium Project, 2005). An estimated 800 million persons, i.e., more than half of the people living in extreme poverty, are occupied in the agricultural sector (CGIAR Science Council, 2005). Their livelihoods are usually derived from small-scale farming. In 1996, around 2.6 billion people, or 44% of the total world population were living in agriculture- dependent households, mostly in Asia and Africa (Wood et al., 2000). Poverty is thus disproportionately rural (poor farmers and landless people) despite ongoing migrachapter

tion from rural to urban areas. Among other factors such as civil wars and diseases, migration has led to an increase in female-headed households and intensified the already heavy workload of rural women (García, 2005).

     Decapitalization (e.g., through sale of livestock and equipment), deterioration of infrastructure and natural capital (e.g., soils), and the general impoverishment of peasant communities in large areas in developing countries (for Africa, see Haggblade et al., 2004) remains a serious threat to livelihoods and food security. The loss or degradation of production assets is linked to the overexploitation of scarce resources (land, water, labor), markets that are inequitable (IFAD, 2003) and difficult to access, competition from neighboring farms, and in some instances the combined effects of competition from the industrialized sector (leading to low prices), and the direct and indirect taxation of agriculture. It may also be a consequence of the barriers to capital accumulation and investment associated with the realities faced by some small-scale farmers (Mazoyer and Roudard, 1997). On the other hand, agricultural growth can, despite this difficult context, lead to important benefits for poverty alleviation (Byerlee et al., 2005). In some cases the beneficiaries are people remaining in small-scale agriculture but there may also be important opportunities for those who work, for example, in agriculture-related product processing activities.

Improvement of livelihoods, human health and nutrition. Even though a large number of people depend entirely on agriculture, off-farm income is important for many households that depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The resulting variety of livelihood strategies can be thought of in terms of adjustments in the quantity and composition of an individual's or household's resource endowment. Different resource endowments and different goals imply different incentives, choices, and livelihood strategies.

     Health is fundamental to live a productive life, meet basic needs and contribute to community life. Good health offers individuals wider choices regarding how to live their lives. It is an enabling condition for the development of human potential. The components of health are multiple and their interactions complex. The health of an individual is strongly influenced by genetic makeup, nutritional status, access to health care, socioeconomic status, relationships with family members, participation in community life, personal habits and lifestyle choices. The environment-natural, climatic, physical, social or workplace-can also play a major role in determining the health of individuals. For example, in most societies, biomass fuel collection is a woman's task. Women often spend hours collecting and carrying fuelwood back home over long distances. Poor women are among the more than two billion people who are unable to obtain clean, safe fuels and have to rely on burning biomass fuels such as wood, dung or crop residues. The time and labor spent in this way limits their ability to engage in other productive activities; and their health suffers from hauling heavy loads and from cooking over smoky fires (Lambrou and Piana, 2006). On the other hand about 50% of the health burden of malnutrition is attributable to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (Prüss-Üstün and Corvalán, 2006). For example, some long-standing problems such as mycotoxins continue