Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8 365 concentration in crops. This type of intervention aims at improving the specific micronutrient deficiencies of a target population [17,21,50]. Early studies have demonstrated some success. In Mozambique, production, access and consumption of biofortified orange fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) was promoted to tackle vitamin A deficiency in young children [35]. Farmers’ access to improved orange-fleshed sweet potato vines and roots increased, nutrition knowledge improved, demand for this product increased, and a stable market for orange-fleshed potato was promoted [37]. Vitamin A intake increased largely due to increased OFSP intake and serum retinol concentrations improved in young children in the rural communities [51]. Recent work has demonstrated that there is a range of variation in the provitamin A carotenoids (pVACs) contents of bananas, Musa fruit (Musa cultivars grown and consumed locally, including e.g., the plantains of West Africa and Latin America, the East African highland bananas in East Africa and the Silk bananas in India), with levels approaching those found in the best-performing sweet potatoes and carrot varieties [52]. Next steps will be to demonstrate their effectiveness in decreasing vitamin A deficiency in populations that consume these fruits. In many food-based programmes, home gardens play an important role in improving access to micronutrient-rich foods. The project ―Integrating Homestead Gardening and Primary Health Care Activities in South Africa‖ is an interesting case study of agriculture, health, and nutrition sector coordination with a goal of improving the nutritional status of the population. The agriculture intervention was only indirectly related to food production since it consisted of vegetable production training [53]. The agriculture component was complemented with an education intervention on the importance of vitamin A in human health, the sources of vitamin A rich foods, and promotion of local production and consumption. The impact included improved nutrition knowledge of mothers, increased consumption of vitamin A rich foods (in particular, carrots, pumpkin, and spinach) amongst children, as well as increased serum retinol concentrations [37]. Another important case study is the homestead food production program implemented by Helen Keller International in four countries characterized by high levels of hidden hunger—Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, and Philippines. This program, which integrates home gardening with animal husbandry, has led to a substantial increase in dietary diversification, in consumption of animal food, and has reduced the prevalence of childhood anaemia [54]. When thinking of food based approaches, animal source proteins are critically relevant. The Nutrition Improvement Project in Vietnam was a community-based project, with two main interventions [43]. The first established a system of productive activities in household gardens consisting of horticulture, pond culture of fish, and small-animal husbandry, while the second activity aimed at increasing mothers’ knowledge of nutrition-related information and practices [55]. The project had success with an increase in production and intake of several micronutrient-rich foods, an improvement of women’s nutrition knowledge and children’s nutritional and health status [55,56]. Traditionally and most commonly, food approaches to addressing food security have been limited in scope. The first limitation is the assumption that production of more diversified foods will lead to higher intake of micronutrients and consumption of more types of food. A local food culture abundant in sources of micronutrient rich foods is essential in these production systems. However, there are many other factors influencing the access to micronutrient-rich foods and people’s dietary choices beyond simply ―staple production followed by consumption.‖