Muni University, Omia Agribusiness Development Group (OMADG) and Arua District Health Department, together with other horticulture value chain actors, are implementing a project entitled ‘Development of innovative horticulture technologies for improved income and livelihood among small scale women farmers in Uganda,’ subsequently referred to as ‘Horticulture Project.’ The project is funded by USAID under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture and is implemented in the West Nile region of Uganda. The project is developing innovative horticulture technologies for improved income, nutrition, and livelihoods among small-scale women farmers in Uganda, using the Embedded Research Translation (ERT) approach, targeting both refugees and the host community. It is important to note that the West Nile region hosts 60% of the 1.5 million national refugee population in Uganda. The project places particular emphasis on nutrition to combat the immense malnutrition burden in the West Nile region and the country at large.
Nutrition problems predominantly manifest among infants and women of reproductive age (15-49) especially the expectant and nursing mothers. The project baseline, conducted in 2023, showed significant nutritional problems with many cases admitted to different health centres across the project sites due to malnutrition. However, we noted that health facilities majorly addressed nutrition problems through curative measures without integrating preventive measures. As such, there was a high rate of reoccurrence of the malnutrition cases among children leading to re-admission of discharged cases. Therefore, we embarked on implementation of preventive measures in partnership with the regional referral hospital. The major objective of this partnership was to train the mothers and caretakers of admitted children in vegetable production, processing, and preparation. We, therefore, set up three demonstration gardens: one at the regional referral hospital, another in one secondary school, and the third is hosted by a women group within the community.
At the demonstration plots, the mothers, caretakers and students are taken through all good agronomic practices necessary for production of quality vegetables. The training addresses pre- and post-harvest constraints, namely soil fertility management, pests, and short shelf-life. In line with the embedded research translation methodology, the demonstrated vegetables were co-selected by the project team, the mothers, and the caretakers, as well as staff of the nutrition department. The selection consisted of a mixture of early maturing vegetables, such as cowpea leaves and amaranth, and longer-duration vegetables, including tomatoes and cabbages. This was done to provide an extended period of staggered piecemeal harvest that ensures continuous supply that is desired at home. Upon maturity of the short period crops, we demonstrated harvesting and food preparation. At this point, emphasis was made on frugal harvest to reduce post-harvest losses. Relatedly, we encouraged the mothers to cook and serve reasonable rations that can provide the daily nutrient requirement without post-serving losses. It was also important to avoid over-salting the food due to rated risks of too much salt. The cooking session was attended by over 70 participants mainly consisting of mothers/caretakers of the nutrition patients (42). Others included student interns, staff of the nutrition department, and city health management officers. We expect that these interventions will complement the usual curative approaches, and that mothers and caretakers will implement this at home to reduce recurring malnutrition. Going forward with project implementation, we will hold multistakeholder feedback sessions and other behavior change campaigns and nutrition counseling, proper use of agricultural inputs, proper food safety, better post-harvest practices that can maintain nutritional quality of crops.
