3. THE NUTRITION EDUCATION STRATEGY

The project’s nutrition component aimed to diversify food habits of the target groups and promote horticultural food consumption as a sustainable remedy for malnutrition. This was done by improving food preparation and dietary practices at household and community level, and strengthening prevalent nutritionally beneficial methods.

3.1. Components

The main components of the Nutrition Education Strategy were:

1. development of community-based nutrition education programmes to create nutritional awareness among various groups such women (farmers) and schoolchildren;
2. mass media educational messages and programmes on the advantages of incorporating vegetables and fruits in the diet;
3. promotion of behavioural change related to food intake and feeding of young children; and
4. development of food-based nutrition programmes to encourage intake of vegetable and fruit as part of the strategic nutrition interventions.

3.2. Nutrition outputs

The two nutrition outputs of the project were:

• community-based nutrition education programmes established to create awareness among schoolchildren, household women and elders; and
• programmes on food based nutrition initiated to encourage consumption of horticultural commodities and allied products as a nutrition intervention strategy.

The following success criteria or indicators provided benchmarks for the nutrition strategy:

• increased per capita consumption of fruits, vegetables and spices through availability at affordable prices;
• a better balanced diet incorporating more vegetables and fruits; improvement in the nutritional status of children, women and elders;
• behavioural change towards use of new food recipes incorporating fruits, vegetables and spices;
• better child weaning food formulations incorporating cereal, fruit pulp, and mashed vegetables; and
• reduction in vitamin and iron deficiencies; improvement in child growth rates and overall socio-economic status through increased productivity and literacy.

3.3. Targeting for nutrition education

The project specifically targeted the landless, marginal and small farmers from selected villages surrounding the 15 HDTCs of the project which were deliberately located in areas of high potential for horticultural development. The term “landless” in Bangladesh does not necessarilymean being entirely without land and a household in this category can have up to 0.49 acres (approx 2 000 sq m) (see Table 1). 

Table 1. Landholding criteria used for classification of farmers in project

The main beneficiaries of the project included landless women horticulture farmers from five to seven villages within the vicinity of the HDTCs. The project also provided support to other people in the community associated with horticultural production and disposal.

The target beneficiaries of nutrition education included:

1. landless, marginal and small farmers, especially disadvantaged and impoverished women
2. adolescent schoolgirls
3. NGO women farmers and workers
4. district officers and Upazila level staff
5. rural schoolteachers

3.4. Location of the project

Fifteen HDTCs¹⁴ of the Department of Agricultural Extension and four to five villages within the vicinity of the HDTC area were covered by the project (Figure 1).

3.5. Implementation strategy

Project activities were planned, administered and coordinated from the project headquarters at DAE. Khamarbari, Dhaka. The HDTC officers were responsible for implementation of all project activities at field level. The Assistant Horticulture Officers, Agriculture Overseers, Sub Assistant Agriculture Officers and other staff assisted the HDTC officers and were closely engaged in the day-to-day implementation of field-level activities.

3.5.1. Social mobilization

A group approach was adopted to provide extension services to the farmers under the project, in keeping with the key principle of DAE’s approach to working with groups. This offered the opportunity for a more effective use of extension resources for problem identification and solution, sharing of information and a cost-effective choice of extension methodology.

The groups were formed with the participation of the landless, marginal and small farmers, particularly disadvantaged and impoverished women engaged in horticultural production. Of

the total farmer beneficiaries targeted, 48 percent were landless, 41 percent were marginal and 11 percent were small farmers. Each group was managed by a three-member committee. A total of 1 292 groups were formed with 17 802 farmers, 14 657 of them being women (82 percent).

Figure 1. Map of Bangladesh showing Project Locations

¹⁴ Gaital (Kishoreganj), Kewatkhali (Mymensingh), Jamalpur Sadar, Burirhat (Rangpur), Natore Sadar, Tebunia (Pabna), Baradi (Meherpur), Kallayanpur (Chapai Nawabganj), Rajbari Sadar, Daulatpur (Khulna), Rahmatpur (Barisal), Pachgachia (Feni), Ramgarh (Khagrachari), Banarupa (Rangmati) and Balaghat (Bandarban).