New Delhi, Aug. 22 -- Sabi Bera Zakari didn't appear to care much how tall his children would grow. The farmer said he only sometimes wished they could gain more weight.

"For me, height is not a problem," Zakari said. "It's mainly their weight that sometimes worries me."

Aboudou Salamatou, the farmer's wife, seemed to disagree, as did development sociologist Boris Gloni, who shook his head as he listened. He believed two of the family's young daughters suffered from stunted growth.

As a former representative of The Hunger Project, an international organization working to combat hunger across Benin, Gloni spent years trying to convince men like Zakari that stunting in children was a rampant issue that needed to be addressed by families ...