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The aim of the project was to implement, monitor, establish and assess
the impact of vegetable gardening combined with a household-based
nutrition education in rural areas in Tanzania on nutritional status and dietary
diversity. The objectives of the intervention were to increase production and
consumption of green leafy vegetables as well as increasing participants’
knowledge of nutritional aspects. Nutrition training covered various gaps
observed in a preceded nutrition survey (baseline). Gardening practical
demonstrations and hand on implementation skills were carried out to the
participating 360 households. Data on demographics, vegetable consumption
patterns, dietary diversity and nutritional status were collected at baseline
and endline periods. Pearson’s chi square tests were conducted to compare
the baseline to endline results for each section of the questionnaire. Results
indicated that 75.8% of the caregivers had never heard about pocket/bag/sack
vegetable gardening at baseline but at endline all the caregivers (100%) had
heard about this type of gardening whereas 77% of the caregivers had never
received any kind of nutrition education and 85.2% did not know anything
about food groups at baseline, but during the endline study, 82% had ever
heard about nutrition training and 95% knew about food groups. At baseline
only 27% of households had a high Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) as
compared to 52% at endline. For the vegetable types that were introduced in
the kitchen gardens, daily and weekly consumption rates increased by 10-
50% from baseline to endline periods. Water shortage, pests, diseases and
insects were reported by a significantly (p<0.05) percentage of households in
the end of the intervention than at the beginning of the intervention. The
intervention increased consumption of green leafy vegetables, dietary
diversity and participants’ nutrition knowledge in the topics covered. The
project recommends progressing this type of intervention further by selecting
foods containing high vitamin A amounts to be included in the pocket/sack
gardens. |
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