Analysing the Scope of Kitchen Gardens in Achieving Dietary Diversity and Food Security in Rural Households for Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems

Aim: The study aims to identify the scope of kitchen gardens or nutrition gardens in rural households in Tamil Nadu in achieving dietary diversity and food security. Currently, only a few existing studies analyse the link between kitchen gardens and dietary diversity. The study aims to address this gap.Study Design: Exploratory study.Place of Study: Tiruvallur and Coimbatore districts, Tamil Nadu, India during December 2022.Methodology: The study was conducted among 270 rural household heads selected through a stratified random sampling method. An index validated by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and FANTA was used to measure Household Dietary Diversity.Results: The results show there was a significant decrease in dietary diversity among the households. It was also identified that promoting kitchen gardens among poor households can improve food security.Conclusion: The study suggests suitable policy measures tailored to the local agricultural system to scale up kitchen gardening as a viable model for a resilient food system. Future research could be done to assess the impact of nutritive gardens on household food consumption patterns and food security.

Role of mother’s knowledge and feeding practices in improvement of children from severe acute malnutrition

Background: Under nutrition is significant health problem in India as well as in Chhattisgarh, recent NFHS 4 data shows that there is increase in number of children who are severely wasted from 5.6% in NFHS 3 to 8.4% in Chhattisgarh. Literature shows appropriate feeding practices and break in malnutrition infection cycle help malnourished child to recover, so present study was planned with the objective to find out the role of mother knowledge regarding feeding practices and management of minor ailments related to improvement of severe acute malnourished children discharged cured from nutritional rehabilitation centres in Chhattisgarh.Methods: A community based study was planned among children discharged as cured from NRC between March to December 2017. They were followed in community to find out socio-demographic factor, feeding practice after discharge, mother knowledge score, household dietary diversity using 24 hour recall method & anthropometric measurements.Results: Out of 156 children discharged as cured from March to December 2017, total 132 children were covered during the survey from January to June 2018. It was observed that improvement in nutritional status after discharge was significantly associated with increasing knowledge score for mother regarding nutrition and children who were separately feed after discharge from NRC.Conclusions: Mother knowledge regarding nutrition and management of minor ailments and feeding practice to child after discharge are important factors associated with the improvement of children from SAM

Validity of household dietary diversity score as a measure of food insecurity among households in Lucena City, Quezon

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE</strong>: Food security is a multifaceted issue experienced by nations worldwide. A trend currently being explored in recent studies in measuring food security at the micro level is the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS). Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), a type of DDS, obtains a snapshot of the economic ability of a household, making it an effective food insecurity indicator. The objective of this study was to assess the validity of the HDDS as a tool for measuring food insecurity.<br /><br /><strong>METHODOLOGY</strong>: The study employed a cross-sectional analytic design with 368 study households in Lucena City, Quezon Philippines. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Household Mean Adequacy Ratio (HHMAR), being two of the most frequently used methods in measuring household food insecurity, were used as reference standards to assess the validity of the HDDS in identifying food insecure households. Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) Analysis was done to determine the appropriate HDDS cut-off for identifying food insecure households.<br /><br /><strong>RESULTS</strong>: The areas under the curve (AUC) obtained (0.618, 0.70, 0.701, 0.743), classified HDDS as a "fair indicator" of food insecurity. HDDS of 6 was identified as the optimal score when evaluating food insecurity withconsideration of sensitivity and specificity.<br /><br /><strong>CONCLUSION</strong>: In this study, HDDS was proven to be a valid measure of food insecurity. It shows the great potential of this quick assessment tool in identifying population-at-risk, which is crucial in the design of a timely and appropriate intervention to alleviate food insecurity and other nutrition and health-related problems whichmay arise.</p>

Dietary diversity of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiary and non-beneficiary households in selected barangays in San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>OBJECTIVES:</strong> The study aimed to analyze the household dietary diversity of beneficiary and non-beneficiary households of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in selected barangays in San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines and determine the nutritional status of children (6-60 months old) within these households.<br /><strong>METHODS:</strong> Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was used as an indicator for the households' dietary diversity. The nutritional status of children was determined using anthropometric data from the Barangay Health Centers. A total of 270 households was randomly selected through stratified random sampling with equal allocation.<br /><strong>RESULTS:</strong> Findings showed that beneficiary households had higher HDDS compared to the non-beneficiary households. The results also suggest that beneficiary households with larger household size, higher income, who were living in rural areas and who have female as well as more educated financial managers, tend to have a more diverse diet. On the other hand, a higher prevalence of malnutrition was observed among children in beneficiary households.<br /><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> Beneficiary households of 4Ps had better diet quality in terms of diversity than non-beneficiary households. However, the advantage of having a more diverse diet has not fully addressed the malnutrition problem among children as it was still widely prevalent in beneficiary households.</p>