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Report 3 of 5:
Eat
Your Greens - Vietnam
Introduction
Still one of the poorest countries in the world with a GNP per capita of about US$300, Vietnam is in the early stages of industrialisation. With a population of approximately 78 million, it is still largely agricultural with 80% of the population living in rural areas, and with two thirds of its population still dependant on agriculture for a living.
Despite being a major exporter of rice (3.5 million tonnes in 1997), national food security remains one of the main concerns of the Government of Vietnam (GOV). Although the country produces more than its requirements, distribution is not equitable and food insecurity remains a common problem among poor families.
Vietnam has a very high child malnutrition rate, estimated at between 40 and 45%, compared with other countries at a similar economic level. Malnutrition amongst women of childbearing age is also a major cause for concern. It is estimated that up to 40% of women suffer chronic energy deficiency due to low body mass index (BMI). In addition there is a high prevalence of micro-nutrient deficiencies reported including vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc.
Causes of child malnutrition
- inadequate care
- inadequate dietary intake (both quality and quantity)
- poor feeding practices for young children
- poor household food security
Household food security
Household food security depends on the ability to grow or buy (or both) food adequate for the diet of all family members. This in turn depends on household income, food prices, family size, food and nutrition knowledge, availability of agricultural land as well as knowledge of how to maximize the use of land and household resources to ensure food security.
People were being encouraged to grow rice for export to improve economic production but this was at the expense of other kinds of food and crops that they used to grow traditionally for their own consumption. Persuading people to return to vegetable gardening required an army of volunteers and trainers.
Constraints to improved nutrition and household food security
- Poverty
- Lack of suitable food at household level
- Poor nutrition knowledge, feeding and care practices
Improving nutrition through home gardening
A family's nutritional well being depends on adequate food supplies, especially for the healthy growth and development of children. Food is made up of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins and micro-nutrients (minerals and vitamins). Nutrients are needed for energy (for activities such as working and playing) and for growth (building and maintaining the body) and for protection against infection.
The home garden is traditionally a very important piece of land for rural households in Southeast Asia and covers an area of about 500 to 1,500 m2. The home garden is the most direct way of providing daily food for a family. A well-developed home garden is a complete farming system and can provide:
- enough nutritious food, including some staple foods, for all the family year round
- the most direct means of supplying families with the majority of the non-staple foods they need year round, for example, fruit, vegetables, coconuts, root crops as well as spices, tea, coffee, medicines
- a source of income from the sale of home garden produce for the purchase of other foods
- important farm development activities, such as plant propagation, raising and housing draught animals, making or repairing tools
- a place for trying out new crops and farming techniques
- a means to produce non-food items, such as medicinal plants, herbs, spices, fuelwood and building materials
Snack foods from the home garden can be an important source of nutrients, for example, cooked or fried root crops, banana, mango, papaya, roasted groundnuts and soybeans. A home garden containing a wide variety of crops for snack foods helps to maintain good nutritional levels in the family.
The Nutrition Improvement Project
Financed by AusAID and executed by FAO, the Nutrition Improvement Project began in February 1997 and was completed in June 2000. The Project was a preventative, educative, food based approach for reducing child malnutrition in rural Vietnam where about 4.9 million children are malnourished. The approach combined clear targeting of households vulnerable to food insecurity with home gardening for food and income, as well as nutritional education.
The Nutrition Improvement Project sought to address problems of child malnutrition through the introduction of a comprehensive approach of horticultural production at household level. This, together with, the promotion of consumption of nutrient rich foods from home gardens was aimed at providing a diversified and more healthy diet.
The four major components of the project were:
- nursery garden development and home garden promotion;
- nutrition education;
- monitoring and evaluation;
- food analysis.
Objectives and activities
Consolidate and extend service delivery to target families through a community-based network, involving the following activities at community level:
- training community volunteers in nutrition and home gardening;
- community-based monitoring of household food systems and nutrition status;
- establishing a communication strategy for promoting household food security to the general public;
- establishing revolving credit funds;
Develop provincial capacity to implement and manage nutrition improvement and home garden programmes, involving the following activities:
- establishing district and province steering committees;
- developing and implementing a training of trainers programme;
- strengthening provincial seed and plant supply;
- building technical assistance capacity in home gardening and nutrition
Consolidate and expand an effective and sustainable national programme for promoting nutrition and home gardening adaptable to different agro-ecological zones and cultural contexts, involving the following activities:
- forming a multi-disciplinary technical advisory unit to guide household food security for nutrition improvement programmes;
- expanding the model into other districts and provinces;
- developing a strategic plan for GOV to encourage provision of a national programme for nutrition improvement and home gardening.
Results
As a result of activities undertaken in this project, children in targeted households in the four pilot communes improved their nutritional status. The Project established that, with low levels of inputs at community level (US$18 per household), rural households would improve the level of their children's nutrition using diverse foods produced in their own home gardens. Implemented in 100 communities in four Provinces in north, central and south Vietnam, some 10,500 households with malnourished children have benefitted. The Project showed that 60% of malnourished children can be fully rehabilitated within 18 months, and over 80% of households were able to establish home gardens with year-round food production. Of those children not fully rehabilitated, the severity of malnutrition was greatly reduced in 80% of cases.
The Training of Nutrition and Agricultural Trainers Project
The Training of Nutrition and Agricultural Trainers Project was intended to establish a national training of trainers programme in nutrition education and home gardening for commune volunteers.
Training materials
Training of trainer's manual
Commune collaborator's handbook
Home garden handbook
Technical leaflets (food production and nutrition)
Posters (fruit and vegetables)
Picture flip charts (food production and nutrition)
Radio resource package (cassette recordings, food and nutrition text, poems, songs)
Regular airing of food and nutrition messages on the radio
Nutrition knowledge and skills transferred
Basic concepts of Food and Nutrition
Caring for pregnant and nursing women, breast feeding and weaning food
Growth monitoring
Nutrition rehabilitation treatment
Food hygiene and safety, preventing food poisoning
Caring for a sick child
Food production technology transfer
The role of the home garden in the farming system
Home gardening techniques for year-round availability of diverse foods
Food legumes in the farming system
Seed saving and plant propagation
Farm-household economics, budgeting and marketing
Assessing the household farm system and planning action
For further information, please contact:
Anne De Lannoy
Liaison Officer
UN Food & Agriculture Organisation
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome
Italy
Tel: +39 06 5705 5967
Fax: +39 06 5705 3729
E-mail: anne.delannoy@fao.org
Website: http://www.fao.org/ |
ITDG would like to acknowledge the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in particular Anne De Lannoy, for providing the original material on improving nutrition through home gardening.
This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the DFID.
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