The overall objective of the Integrated Horticulture and Nutrition Development Project (IHNDP), Bangladesh was to improve the efficiency of the horticultural system and associated support services in the project areas using modern technologies to ensure food and nutritional security. The central aim was to create conditions for diversified food production for consumption by providing rural farmers with necessary knowledge, technology and skills to make nutritious food available to their community and improve household dietary quality.
An immediate objective of the project was to “increase the nutritional awareness among the beneficiaries and develop a comprehensive food-based nutrition programme to reduce malnutrition in the target groups comprising mainly women and children”. The nutrition component of the project aimed to diversify the food habits of the target groups by promoting consumption of horticulture-based food as a sustainable solution to the problem of micronutrient malnutrition. Food preparation and dietary practices were improved at the household and community level while strengthening prevalent nutritional practices that were beneficial.
The project’s Nutrition Education Strategy set up community-based nutrition education programmes to create nutritional awareness among various groups such as women, farmers and schoolchildren. Mass media educational messages and programmes on the advantages of consuming vegetables and fruit were developed and disseminated.
Vegetable and fruit consumption in project areas has increased while programmes on food intake methods and young child feeding have promoted changes in nutritional behaviour among children. Nutritional improvement also resulted from simple agro-processing technologies such as dehydration, pickling, bottling, pulping and preparing preserves and relishes from a variety of vegetables and fruits. This built synergies between nutrition and food processing by reducing micronutrient losses, increasing shelf life, supplementing daily nutrient intake and adding value to some products.
Food consumption surveys found project households consuming between 46 to 64per cent of vegetables and fruits produced in home gardens while 9 to 20 percent of the produce was sold. This was significantly higher than among non-project households. Project intervention improved consumption of leafy, yellow and orange vegetables such as carrot and yellow pumpkin as well as vitamin C-rich fruits in project households. Over 60 percent of project households started complementary feeding with infants between five to seven months old along with breast feeding as compared to only a third of non-project households.
Substantially higher intakes of energy, protein and micronutrients were noted among project households compared to non-project households even after adjustments for differences in farm sizes in the two categories. In the former, there were significantly higher intakes of iron by adult women; vitamin A by children, adolescent girls and adult women; vitamin C by children and adult women; and calcium among adolescent girls. Case studies show families eating at least two types of vegetables and a fruit every day and women or mothers using correct food preparation procedures.
Participatory nutrition education activities show the project strengthening nutritional knowledge with a growing number of women including horticultural food recipes in their diets. A significantly larger number of project households were washing vegetables before cutting, using
coriander leaves for cooking and eating fresh carrots, tomatoes, lemons or sour fruit, and green chili in daily meals. The diets of project households also appeared more diversified than those of non-project households.
Evaluations of the School Nutrition Programme show definite improvement in the children’s nutritional knowledge. According to quarterly food frequency data, over three-fourths of the children eat leafy vegetables at least every other day while about half the children have fruit two to three times per week. Nutrition gardens are being established in the schools and providing practical and experimental learning opportunities to both children and the school system. There has been active participation by the teachers, children and the school management. A child-to-family approach is being strengthened by which children share school nutrition education experiences with parents and the community.
The dietary assessment also illustrates how proper collection of semi- and quantitative data can combine with practical experience and technical expertise to provide a sound basis for a nutrition education programme. Recognizing that nutritional well-being is a key component and contributor to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there is a need to consider consolidation of efforts to combat non-income poverty and related undernutrition issues.
Although adapted to the conditions of Bangladesh, the project, by successfully integrating horticulture-based diversification of food production with improvement of household and community nutritional standards, has shown its wider regional applicability, particularly in South and Southeast Asia.
The IHNDP’s food-based nutrition component can be part of national agricultural extension and nutrition programmes implemented by the agriculture and health ministries. The School Nutrition Programme can also be included in multi-sectoral programmes of ministries of education, agriculture and health. This practical food-based nutrition model and approach can be considered for integration into the broader framework of agricultural policies and poverty reduction strategies.
