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Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India

Farming is the main livelihood of a majority of people in India. The country is also home to a large population of undernourished people. This indicates potential for mainstreaming the nutrition dimension in the farming system to impact on nutrition outcomes. A Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) stu...

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Autores principales: Pradhan, Aliza, S., Raju, D. J., Nithya, Panda, Akshaya Kumar, Wagh, Rupal D., Maske, Mahesh R., R. V., Bhavani
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7971902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33735281
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248698
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author Pradhan, Aliza
S., Raju
D. J., Nithya
Panda, Akshaya Kumar
Wagh, Rupal D.
Maske, Mahesh R.
R. V., Bhavani
author_facet Pradhan, Aliza
S., Raju
D. J., Nithya
Panda, Akshaya Kumar
Wagh, Rupal D.
Maske, Mahesh R.
R. V., Bhavani
author_sort Pradhan, Aliza
collection PubMed
description Farming is the main livelihood of a majority of people in India. The country is also home to a large population of undernourished people. This indicates potential for mainstreaming the nutrition dimension in the farming system to impact on nutrition outcomes. A Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) study was conducted in two agro-ecologically different locations from 2013–2018, to explore the feasibility of nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions. The baseline survey in 2013–2014 revealed that the population in the study area was largely undernourished and that household diets were cereal-dominated. The FSN model was designed in consultation with community members, to increase availability of nutrient-dense cereals and pulses, by enhancing production and crop diversification at the farm level, promoting cultivation of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables in nutrition gardens and supporting interventions to promote access to animal foods. Nutrition awareness initiatives were undertaken to build capacity at the local level and translate production diversity to consumption diversity. An endline survey was conducted in 2017 (July-October), following three years of intervention. Crop, vegetable and animal food production and food consumption was compared with the baseline data. There was evidence of higher production and consumption of nutrient rich foods, improved household dietary diversity; and understanding and acceptance of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. The number of items consumed under each food group, frequency of consumption of food and average per capita intake of nutrient-rich foods were found to have improved. The results provide evidence regarding feasibility of location-specific FSN models to promote sustainable and healthy diets, using locally available plant and animal food resources, to address nutrition deficiencies in farm families.
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spelling pubmed-79719022021-03-31 Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India Pradhan, Aliza S., Raju D. J., Nithya Panda, Akshaya Kumar Wagh, Rupal D. Maske, Mahesh R. R. V., Bhavani PLoS One Research Article Farming is the main livelihood of a majority of people in India. The country is also home to a large population of undernourished people. This indicates potential for mainstreaming the nutrition dimension in the farming system to impact on nutrition outcomes. A Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) study was conducted in two agro-ecologically different locations from 2013–2018, to explore the feasibility of nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions. The baseline survey in 2013–2014 revealed that the population in the study area was largely undernourished and that household diets were cereal-dominated. The FSN model was designed in consultation with community members, to increase availability of nutrient-dense cereals and pulses, by enhancing production and crop diversification at the farm level, promoting cultivation of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables in nutrition gardens and supporting interventions to promote access to animal foods. Nutrition awareness initiatives were undertaken to build capacity at the local level and translate production diversity to consumption diversity. An endline survey was conducted in 2017 (July-October), following three years of intervention. Crop, vegetable and animal food production and food consumption was compared with the baseline data. There was evidence of higher production and consumption of nutrient rich foods, improved household dietary diversity; and understanding and acceptance of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. The number of items consumed under each food group, frequency of consumption of food and average per capita intake of nutrient-rich foods were found to have improved. The results provide evidence regarding feasibility of location-specific FSN models to promote sustainable and healthy diets, using locally available plant and animal food resources, to address nutrition deficiencies in farm families. Public Library of Science 2021-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7971902/ /pubmed/33735281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248698 Text en © 2021 Pradhan et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pradhan, Aliza
S., Raju
D. J., Nithya
Panda, Akshaya Kumar
Wagh, Rupal D.
Maske, Mahesh R.
R. V., Bhavani
Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title_full Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title_fullStr Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title_full_unstemmed Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title_short Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India
title_sort farming system for nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: evidence from india
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7971902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33735281
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248698
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