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Appendix 01

Synergies and trade-offs in supporting nutrition through climate-smart agriculture, sustainable healthy diets and reduction of food loss and waste

A1.1 Synergies and trade-offs in climate-smart agricultural strategies

Adopting climate-smart agricultural practices	Synergies	Trade-offs	Supporting actions to address trade-offs
Improved seed or fertiliser access	● Close yield gaps, offsetting up to 25% of emissions from agricultural expansion. ● Reduce vulnerability to climate shocks, limiting price increases and safeguarding food security by retaining food supply. ● Can increase availability of diverse foods where improved inputs support diversified production, improving dietary quality and micronutrient intake.	● Higher fertiliser demand may cause price spikes and supply disruptions. ● Equity risks: benefits may concentrate among well-resourced farmers with access to credit, irrigation and markets, leaving smallholders more vulnerable. ● Increased fertiliser use can increase nitrate contamination of drinking water where runoff is poorly managed, raising health risks in exposed communities.	● Stabilise supply and prices through public procurement buffers, predictable import rules and targeted transport/storage support. ● Provide input subsidies and credit access for low-income farmers. ● Promote soil testing and site-specific nutrient management. invest in extension services. ● Monitor water quality in agricultural areas (health system role).
Crop rotation	● Implement natural pest control and biological nitrogen fixation to lower emissions by reducing demand for synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. ● Diversify on-farm food production, potentially improving household dietary diversity. ● Reduce vulnerability to climate shocks, limiting price increases and safeguarding food security.	● Greater knowledge and planning requirements for farmers. ● Additional operations (multiple planting/harvesting windows) increase labour demands and may reduce off-farm work opportunities. ● If rotation crops are less preferred or harder to prepare, households may sell them and continue eating staples, limiting dietary diversity gains despite production diversification.	● Provide extension schools and planning support for farmers for field rotation design and timing. ● Support labour-saving equipment, shared services or coordinated planting and harvesting to reduce time burdens. ● Promote locally acceptable, nutrient-dense rotation crops and behaviour change support so production gains translate into dietary improvements.
Livestock production efficiency	● Improve carcass size or milk yield to reduce methane emissions per unit output by decreasing herd size needed. ● Increase availability of animal-source foods that provide high-quality protein and micronutrients (iron, zinc, vitamin B12). ● Raise farm incomes when efficiency gains are retained by producers.	● Lower costs per unit may increase demand and total production, offsetting emissions reductions (rebound effect). ● Increased feed demand diverts crop land to feed production, exacerbating environmental pressures and reducing land for human food crops. ● Smaller producers may be less competitive and exit markets, concentrating production and increasing rural poverty.	● Link efficiency support to emissions intensity benchmarks and caps/guardrails on herd expansion to prevent rebound effects. ● Prioritise crop residues, by-products and forage crops on marginal land for feed rather than dedicating prime crop land. ● Provide grants and credit to smallholder farmers for improving fodder quality, animal health and housing. ● Health system role: provide dietary counselling on balanced animal-source food consumption; monitor and treat diet-related non-communicable diseases as consumption patterns shift.
Land-based practices (minimum tillage, cover cropping, agroforestry)	● Increase soil carbon sequestration and build resilience to erosion and water stress. ● Improve long-term soil fertility and productivity. ● Can diversify farm outputs (e.g. fruits, nuts from agroforestry), improving dietary diversity.	● Lower yields in early years as soils adjust, reducing food availability and farm incomes during transition. ● High initial labour demands may reduce time for off-farm work or caregiving, affecting household welfare.	● Provide time-bound transitional payments, concessional credit and insurance products designed for early-year yield variability. ● Establish custom-hiring centres for appropriate machinery; provide training on timing and residue management to reduce labour intensity. ● Ensure social protection programmes maintain household food access during the transition period (health system role).
Holistic grazing or regenerative agriculture	● Increase soil carbon stocks through improved pasture management. ● Build resilience to drought and maintain forage quality under climate stress. ● Can improve livestock health and productivity.	● Maintaining stocking rates while improving pasture quality may push expansion into new land or displace environmental pressure elsewhere. ● May reinforce continued livestock expansion and reduce incentives for diversification towards lower-emissions production systems. ● Rotational grazing requires infrastructure (fencing, water points) and active management; upfront costs can exclude smaller herders.	● Align grazing support with land use planning and monitor land conversion to prevent expansion-driven emissions. ● Provide subsidised or collective infrastructure (fencing, shared water points, mobile troughs) and community-managed systems for small herders. ● Set clear limits on herd expansion and link grazing support to diversification and emissions targets.

A1.2 Synergies and trade-offs in sustainable healthy diets

Adopting sustainable healthy diets	Synergies	Trade-offs	Supporting actions to address trade-offs
Plant-based diets and health	● Reduce premature mortality by 20% (10 million deaths prevented) through reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. ● Reduce food systems emissions by 50% (flexitarian) to 75% (fully plant based). ● Reduce health system burden from diet-related non-communicable diseases.	● Risk of inadequate intake of some micronutrients for specific population groups, if dietary change is poorly designed. ● Access to diverse nutrient-dense foods remains uneven across settings. ● Behaviour change may be slow where prices, food environments and social norms favour less healthy diets.	● Create demand for selected nutrient-dense foods (e.g. increasing consumption of green leafy vegetables) through food-based dietary guidelines and nutrition education. ● Link dietary transition support with direct health system interventions: micronutrient supplementation, fortification programmes and vitamin A supplementation. ● Integrate nutrition counselling into antenatal care, child health services and non-communicable disease prevention programmes. ● Provide behaviour change communication through community health platforms. ● Use procurement standards and healthcare delivery platforms to provide or prescribe nutritious foods for priority groups.
Making plant-based diets affordable and accessible	● Increased consumption of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes and nuts fosters sustainable production and provides critical health benefits for populations. ● Reduced consumption of sugar, red meat and processed meat reduces mortality and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.	● Affordability remains a major barrier: as of 2021, 58% of the global population could not afford a healthy diet, the majority of whom (over 75%) live in Africa. ● Sustainable healthy diets are 18–29% more expensive than current diets in low-income countries, requiring careful transition planning. ● Subsidy reform may face political resistance from affected industries.	● Reduce food loss and waste to lower production costs and food prices. ● Promote socioeconomic development to raise household purchasing power. ● Implement full-cost accounting of environmental impacts to adjust relative prices. ● Integrate nutrition into social protection design; ensure food assistance programmes (school feeding, maternal/child nutrition) provide diverse, nutrient-dense foods, not just staples (health system role). ● Use taxes on unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to help fund subsidies for nutrient-dense, plant-based foods.
Ensuring dietary transitions support climate adaptation and mitigation	● Reduce demand for emissions-intensive animal-source foods, achieving up to 50% average emissions reductions. ● Build resilience by diversifying diets and reducing dependence on climate-vulnerable animal-source food systems. ● National food-based dietary guidelines can guide population-level dietary shifts.	● Food-based dietary guidelines show modest emissions reduction potential (12% to 13%) when guidance on meat and dairy is not specific. ● Dietary recommendations to increase animal-source foods for specific nutrient needs could increase emissions substantially.	● Strengthen food-based dietary guidelines with explicit, specific guidance on limiting meat and dairy intake. ● Implement climate-smart agricultural practices that support production of diverse, nutrient-dense plant foods while reducing emissions. ● Coordinate food environment policies (labelling, marketing restrictions, retail placement) with dietary guidance.

A1.3 Synergies and trade-off strategies focused on reducing food loss and waste

Reducing food loss and waste	Synergies	Trade-offs	Supporting actions to address trade-offs
Improvements in post-harvest storage, processing and distribution systems	● Reduce losses from heat, humidity and pests, which are intensifying within climate change. ● Stabilise food supply and reduce seasonal price spikes, improving year-round access to nutritious foods.	● Increased refrigeration and energy-intensive storage systems can raise greenhouse gas emissions, potentially offsetting gains from reduced food loss and waste. ● Infrastructure investments may not be affordable for smallholder farmers and small enterprises. ● Benefits may accrue for larger operations with capital access widening inequities.	● Prioritise low-emissions storage technologies: hermetic bags, improved ventilation, solar-powered cooling and climate-controlled silos, rather than energy-intensive refrigeration. ● Provide subsidised or collective infrastructure for smallholders: state-subsidised food reserves, shared storage facilities. ● Support portable, scalable technologies appropriate for small-scale producers.
Trade expansion	● Redistribute surplus food from regions with excess to regions facing production shortfalls, improving food access during climate shocks. ● Diversify supply chains and increase the number of exporting regions, reducing vulnerability to localised climate extremes.	● Increased emissions from transport if fossil fuel–dependent logistics are used. ● Over-reliance on imports from a small set of countries heightens risk if climate extremes strike multiple suppliers simultaneously. ● May undermine local food production and farmer livelihoods if not managed carefully.	● Invest in low-emissions transport infrastructure and logistics systems. ● Establish diverse trading partnerships to avoid over-reliance on limited suppliers. ● Harmonise food safety and quality standards to facilitate efficient cross-border distribution. ● Balance trade expansion with support for local food production and regional food systems.
Improvements in the food supply chain	● Reduce waste at stages where products carry the full emissions burden from production through processing. ● Increase efficiency and lower costs throughout the food system, potentially improving affordability.	● Economic feedback effects, such as lowered food prices and political and practical barriers.	● Implement consumer education campaigns, awareness-raising and behavioural nudges to improve household storage and reduce plate waste. ● Link food loss and waste reduction to food assistance programmes: redirect recovered food through school feeding, emergency food distribution and nutrition programmes.

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