Deputy Director

5 Color Agricultural Approach is a color-based cultivation and consumption of vegetable and fruits in an integrated way so to address the issues of malnutrition in the province of Sindh especially stunting and wasting among children. Malnutrition is a critical issue for the country including Sindh Province that contributes significantly to the vicious cycle of poverty in which many families are caught. Starting with malnourished mothers who give birth to malnourished children, the problem shadows people throughout their life—leading to more health problems throughout their lifetime, lower economic productivity and lower lifetime earnings. International research estimated that 4% to 11% of National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could be lost due to the impacts of malnutrition. The malnutrition mainly stunting and wasting in long run is expected to affect the labour productivity, and those who have been in the state of stunting and wasting will face difficulties in decent labour of the digital world in future.
The subject approach is food-based approach to agricultural development that puts 5 colors; Red, Green, Blue / Purple, White & Yellow / Orange in the fruits and vegetables (rich in nutrition) at the focus to address the issues of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. The approach helps communities in identifying and consuming 5 Color based variety of foods, recognizing the nutritional value of food. This approach also stresses the importance and social significance of the food and agricultural sector for supporting rural livelihoods. This approach helps farmers and the poor households to get maximum benefit from market for surplus production.
According folk wisdom and scientific studies it has been proved that white color vegetable and fruits benefit the immune support, while red/brown colors are good for heart health. Similarly, green helps in detoxification, purple/ blue strengthens the memory & promotes longevity and yellow / orange have benefits in terms of beauty, digestion and cancer prevention. Therefore, it is urgently needed to popularize the approach for awareness of communities around this subject through modern and effective extension systems and promote cultivation of such fruits and vegetables.
“N4VegFruit” cultivation model is basic tool of this new and innovative 5 Color Agricultural Approach which has a potential to reduce malnutrition, improve diet and income of farming families in order to improve their health, working efficiency and agricultural productivity. It also helps to reduce cost of production and enhance almost 3 times more productivity of irrigation water, land, labor etc.
Based on global experiences and researches, the new and innovative approach “5 Color Agricultural Approach” is developed by the author (Mustafa Nangraj) and tested in three districts of Sindh through male and female farmer groups at their field sites in 2018. The approach has further been expanded and scaled up during year 2019 in 10 districts of Sindh. This approach is being replicated by other farmers in the province based on extension work and diffusion of technology.
N4VegFruit has increased the availability of a nutritious diet targeting poor, rural families and particularly households at highest risk for stunting by introducing diverse food production systems and by increasing income through the sale of surplus food from the production. It has and can use behavior change communication to shift attitudes towards food and diet so that nutrient consumption increases.
Under N4VegFruit cultivation Model, four different vegetables and fruits could be grown on the same bed at the same time. Commonly, farmers are growing cucurbit (sweet melon, watermelon, bottle gourd, tomato, bitter gourd and round gourd) crops on the 5 feet wider ridges / beds with plant to plant distance 2 to 2.5 feet. Under this traditional method of cultivation, the space between plants and the space under water channel remain unutilized and in addition to that inputs shared by the unutilized space are wasted and increase cost of production of crops. New N4VegFruit cultivation method gives solution to utilize the wasted plant to plant space and reduce cost of production. N4VegFruit cultivation method has modified the above-mentioned common cultivation practice to achieve the objectives of efficient use of land and water resources. For that purpose, under N4VegFruit in addition to commonly cultivated one crop, three more crops can be cultivated using same piece of land and same inputs. Under this model one Cucurbit crop (Bitter gourd etc) on beds / ridges, second crop that grows erect such as Okra or Cluster bean, Chillies or Egg plants etc. can be grown in the space 2 to 2.5 feet (the space mentioned above that is commonly left unutilized by the farmers), third crop such as green Onion , Garlic, Coriander , Spinach etc can be grown as second row, while fourth crop Falsa can be grown in bottom of water channel of the ridges / beds. In this method of cultivation vegetables and fruits can be selected for cultivation from all five colour fruits and vegetables on the bases of seasons. Different patterns of 5 colour cultivation are developed and demonstrated in different areas of Sindh.