Vegetable nutrition training July2017

Matufa, Seloto and Shaurimoyo in Babati District - Tanzania

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Objectives of the meeting

1. Train participants about the need to consume a healthy diet through increased consumption of vegetables
2. Demonstrate different traditional African vegetables recipes (Black Jack with Coconut Milk, Nightshade Relish and African Eggplant with Okra) to participants .

Summarized report

• This nutrition training was organized together with Friends in development (FIDE) as a partner Africa RISING project and was attended by a total of 125 small holder farmers (42% males and 58% females).
• The course content consisted of a detailed introduction of nutrition concepts and human nutrition with focus on the six food groups that are locally available food types in the villages and why it is important to include all food groups in daily meals.
• Four nutrition messages were promoted during training:

What foods to eat, How much of each food group do I need?, Weekly plan with recipes for Traditional African vegetables (TAVs), and General Food Based Dietary Guidelines

• The relationship between human nutrition and plant nutrition were with discussed the trainees to easily understand that human beings need good management as plants need for health and good yield as well. Human beings need to produce diversified crops such as vegetables to get diversified nutrients for good health.
• In participatory manner, training participants were taken through practical demonstrations on how to group different foods by selecting the card with one or two food types and stick them on right place of food cycle followed by discussions as to why those food types falls under various categories (Figure 1).
• Three cooking demonstrations including food safety and hygiene were conducted (one in each village) whereby three recipes (amaranth, Nightshade and African eggplant with okra) were prepared and participants eaten as lunch with other food types from different groups (energy-giving foods, body building foods and fruits) (See figure 3-4)
• Based on the pre-evaluation done before the training, only 2% of 125 participants were aware about food types based on food groups for healthy eating. Post training evaluation showed that 95% of the participants were aware of the 5 food groups and their importance in improving their health.
• One farmer from Seloto village said that " the nutrition messages we have learned from the training are very important and need to be distributed to all farmers in rural areas so that everyone can change eating habits/behaviors in order to improve their health because unhealthy person cannot be productive”.