Introduction
The world is faced with the challenges of securing nutritious and safe foods that are of high quality as well as health for all, and environmentally sustainable 1. However, unresolved global issues like population growth and urbanization, ecosystem and biodiversity, climate change, social conflict, malnutrition and extreme poverty makes it hard for the global food system to effectively cope with food security challenges. Malnutrition represents a major public health problem of infants in poor countries. Worldwide, about 192 million children are stunted, while 51 million and 99 million are respectively wasted and underweight 2. In the national surveys of 2006 and 2008, the prevalence of stunting among children <5 years was 43.1% …show more content…
Many developing countries have difficulty meeting the minimum standards of dietary quality, especially in poor resource households, with usually low quality monotonous diets. These diets are mostly made of large portions of starchy foods including cereals and tubers with very low or no animal proteins and few fruits and vegetables 6. Studies on young children’s feeding practices in Africa have demonstrated evidence that seasonal variation also has an impact on nutritional status and dietary diversity of children. Changes in anthropometric indicators, including weight loss were identified with food shortage seasons in Benin and Ethiopia 7-10. Other studies reported low birth weight or insufficient weight gain during pregnancy 11-13. In addition, the declining agricultural biodiversity through degrading natural habitats, extinction of species, intensive modern agriculture that is based on a few breeds of animals and plants, are also important risk factors that could compromise meeting essential nutrient requirements needed to promote growth of young children …show more content…
The study hypothesizes that diet quality, measured by dietary diversity score does not correlate with on-farm biodiversity, children’s nutritional status and household food security. It is further hypothesized that there is no seasonal influence on dietary diversity, nutritional status and/or household food security. Secondary outcome measures will include assessment of dietary and nutrient intake patterns in the subjects; assessment of the nutritional status of the children’s caregivers; comparison of subjects with respect to dietary diversity, household food security and agricultural biodiversity; comparison of the primary outcome indicators between two sampled districts and between the two phases. The results of the study are expected to show evidence of utilising local agricultural biodiversity as one of the best strategy that guarantees better diet and health for infants and young children, and where appropriate, recommendations to strengthen the nutrition requirement in child health
The world is faced with the challenges of securing nutritious and safe foods that are of high quality as well as health for all, and environmentally sustainable 1. However, unresolved global issues like population growth and urbanization, ecosystem and biodiversity, climate change, social conflict, malnutrition and extreme poverty makes it hard for the global food system to effectively cope with food security challenges. Malnutrition represents a major public health problem of infants in poor countries. Worldwide, about 192 million children are stunted, while 51 million and 99 million are respectively wasted and underweight 2. In the national surveys of 2006 and 2008, the prevalence of stunting among children <5 years was 43.1% …show more content…
Many developing countries have difficulty meeting the minimum standards of dietary quality, especially in poor resource households, with usually low quality monotonous diets. These diets are mostly made of large portions of starchy foods including cereals and tubers with very low or no animal proteins and few fruits and vegetables 6. Studies on young children’s feeding practices in Africa have demonstrated evidence that seasonal variation also has an impact on nutritional status and dietary diversity of children. Changes in anthropometric indicators, including weight loss were identified with food shortage seasons in Benin and Ethiopia 7-10. Other studies reported low birth weight or insufficient weight gain during pregnancy 11-13. In addition, the declining agricultural biodiversity through degrading natural habitats, extinction of species, intensive modern agriculture that is based on a few breeds of animals and plants, are also important risk factors that could compromise meeting essential nutrient requirements needed to promote growth of young children …show more content…
The study hypothesizes that diet quality, measured by dietary diversity score does not correlate with on-farm biodiversity, children’s nutritional status and household food security. It is further hypothesized that there is no seasonal influence on dietary diversity, nutritional status and/or household food security. Secondary outcome measures will include assessment of dietary and nutrient intake patterns in the subjects; assessment of the nutritional status of the children’s caregivers; comparison of subjects with respect to dietary diversity, household food security and agricultural biodiversity; comparison of the primary outcome indicators between two sampled districts and between the two phases. The results of the study are expected to show evidence of utilising local agricultural biodiversity as one of the best strategy that guarantees better diet and health for infants and young children, and where appropriate, recommendations to strengthen the nutrition requirement in child health