Due to the substantial role which food plays in both the day to day human existence and in the long-term process of development, nutrition has an overarching impact on people's well-being in the course of the entire life cycle. In fact, the popular maxim that “you are what you eat” have some kernel of truth to it. In the sense that, the quantity and quality of food intake, especially in the early stage of human development, determine the long-term health status of individuals. Food intake is an intermediate medium to overall nutritional outcome, and thus lack of adequate food of sufficient nutritional quality is one of the main underlying causes of both chronic and hidden hunger. The food security situation of smallholder farm households is of serious concern because farmers who are under constant threat of food insecurity are constrained in their ability to adopt agricultural programmes. Hence, there is an inherent link between agriculture and nutrition, mainly owing to the fact that agriculture is the sector saddled with the task of food production, but also because as compared to other occupational groups, poverty and food insecurity is more pronounced among smallholder farmers.

Keywords: Food security, Nutrition, Smallholder farmers, Sub-Saharan Africa.