Nutritionally friendly agriculture technology practices are very important in diversifying the household food and nutrient intake and also ensure that at least each meal the family is served has a protective, body building and energy giving food groups.
Nutritional well-being requires access to enough nutritious and safe food to meet the dietary needs of all members of the household throughout the year. Attaining better food supplies and nutritional well-being is more than just producing enough food locally. It also requires sufficient resources (such as land and labour), tools, skills and knowledge. Roads and transport to markets are necessary so that food and other essentials can be traded. Also, household members can find employment as well as have access to other commercial and government services. For enhanced nutrition, agricultural practices that promote increased production and access of highly nutritious foods are emphasized in the community. Likewise, quality and safety of food produced should be maintained throughout the entire value chain.
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) prevent foodborne diseases attributed to livestock and crops. To enhance nutrition, agricultural practices that promote the increased production and accessibility of highly nutritious foods are emphasized within the community. Furthermore, maintaining food quality and safety throughout the entire value chain is paramount. Implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Hygiene Practices (GHP), and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) helps prevent foodborne diseases associated with livestock and crops. Zoonotic diseases such as salmonellosis are from eggs, brucellosis and tuberculosis from milk and meats and aflatoxin from maize and groundnuts should also be prevented.It is therefore important to have built-in nutrition consideration that ensures access, safety and stability of nutritious foods.51 Food and Nutrition Handbook for Extension Workers
Nutrition-friendly agricultural practices can be divided into three broad areas:
A) PLANNING FOR NUTRITION FRIENDLY AGRICULTURE: NEEDS IDENTIFICATION: The process of identification of farmer needs is the first entry point for integration of nutrition services. Farmers should be provided nutrition information and facilitated to articulate nutrition sensitive requirements during this process.
Keys considerations
⦁ Quality of farming inputs: Encourage farmer group to plan for diversified inputs which are nutrient rich including fruits and vegetables; biofortified foods; animal source products.
⦁ Ensure Male and female involvement in participatory planning (farmer group discussions): In Uganda women provide the majority of the labour force in agriculture and are basically the caregivers in homes including all aspects of child feeding and home management. Therefore they need deliberate targeting to increase farm productivity and adaption of positive childcare practices. However, they also need support of their male counterparts to ensure home harmony and sustained change.
⦁ Involvement of the most vulnerable farming households: Traditional extension had ignored these categories because they don’t easily adapt the technologies being promoted. This further increases their vulnerability to malnutrition. They need consideration and deliberate targeting.
⦁ Labour saving technologies: Provision of agriculture labour has a direct effect on childcare practices within the agricultural households. Usually caregivers in agriculture households leave children under the care of older siblings; may have one meal a day which contributes to the poor nutrition status of children. Planning should focus on adoption of labour saving technologies to free time for provision of child care.
⦁ Involvement of the youth: Uganda has a younger population and the youth are the majority in most communities. This same group typically rejects careers in the agriculture and food system. Involvement of the Food and Nutrition Handbook for Extension Workers 52 youth is critical in building the next generation of agricultural leaders and thus creates sustainable change in the community.
⦁ Nutrition and agriculture information sharing: During planning ensure that farmer groups provide a forum to discuss nutrition issues; groups can set rules ensuring all members practice essential nutrition actions (refer to chapter 3). Groups can buy labour saving technologies to address the issues of labour and child care; and empower farmers to demand for appropriate nutrition advice and information. Extension workers should train farmers to identify and articulate their nutrition needs.
⦁ Selection of enterprise mixes that have a high nutrition impact: Thereis a tendency to focus of high yielding and profitable products in farmingnas a business. The prioritization and allocation of enterprises (zoning) across Uganda has emphasized food availability and commercialization with minimal emphasis on nutrition security. Extension workers should encourage and ensure farmers’ enterprise selection provides for both nutrition and income generation benefits.
B) NUTRITION SENSITIVE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION PRACTICES
There are 6 Sensitive Agriculture Production Key Practices:
1. Production of a variety of crop and animal source foods for nutrient dense diet.
2. Adoption of farming systems that conserve the environment and promote nutrition.
3. Promote use of labour saving technologies.
4. Control diseases, agricultural chemical and veterinary drug residues associated with food production systems.
5. Integrate gender consideration in agricultural production practices.
6. Design enterprise mixes or farming systems with inbuilt risk mitigation (market and natural/environment risk) especially for the vulnerable groups.
Producing variety of crop and animal source foods for nutrient-dense diet. The farmers should be encouraged to provide land for raring animals/small livestock and for crop productions of home crops such as fruits and vegetables which are high in nutrients yet require limited agriculture inputs. Fruits and vegetables are high yielding, require limited space and can be used for a variety of cropping systems selected by the farmers.
⦁ It is advisable that food be grown on fertile soils that are rich in nutrients.
⦁ Proper timing of planting, weeding, irrigation, pests and disease control and other important farming practices.
⦁ Foods rich in protective nutrients (vitamins and minerals) should be produced: These include orange fleshed sweet potato varieties(OFSP which is rich in vitamin A), iron rich beans, carrots rich in vitamin A, pumpkin seed rich in zinc, dark green leafy vegetables and fresh fruits rich in vitamins.
⦁ Foods rich in protein from crops source such as high quality protein maize (QPM) and legumes especially soya bean. Foods rich in protein from animal source (those which can easily be kept by women or children for consumption or sold in the market to earn cash for household health expenditure without exciting men to resist). These include: poultry, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish farming, goats and pigs.
⦁ Foods rich in proteins such as insects (grasshoppers, white ants,caterpillars, termites) should be promoted.
⦁ Encourage kitchen gardens and growing of fruits as part of local government bylaws. Integrate nutrition along the strategic agricultural
value chains by promoting the production of biofortified food variet-food and Nutrition Handbook for Extension Workers varities for the selected strategic enterprises, e.g., vitamin A and protein rich maize, iron rich beans, vitamin A rich bananas and cassava.
Adoption of farming systems that conserve the environment and promote nutrition. Intercropping or crop rotation is one of the farming systems that has soil health and nutrition benefits. Legumes are ideal for intercropping with other crops because they fix nitrogen in the soil resulting in high yields from improved soil health. Others include:
⦁ Agroforestry
⦁ Integrated farming systems (animal & plants)
⦁ Soil and water conservation practices
⦁ Organic/sustainable agriculture
3) Promote use of labour saving technologies. The use of labour saving technologies such as rain water harvesting; use of animal traction (ploughing, carrying manure/ mulch, water, firewood and harvest), improved cooking stoves, planting of woodlots, minimum tillage (use of pesticides and herbicides) will reduce women workload and allow ample time for child care.
4) Control diseases, agricultural chemical and veterinary drug residues associated with food production systems. These diseases can be broadly classified as follows:
⦁ Water-associated/waterborne diseases caused by use of contaminated water from faecal material (cholera) and chemical intoxication. In addition, diseases caused by vectors living in stagnant water and or storage systems (Malaria, schictosomiasis/bilharzia worms,River blindness).
⦁ Zoonoses diseases are diseases transmitted from animals to human being. Examples include: tuberculosis, brucellosis, salmonellosis, rabies, SARS/avian influenza and ebola. Control of these diseases is important because they can be transmitted to human beings, imposing on them poor health and attendant undesirable nutrition related effects including the disease burden.
⦁ Occupational disease and drug resistance as a result of exposure to range of antibiotics used in animals leading to drug resistant bacteria in humans.
⦁ Foodborne diseases such as diarrhoea, toxins and chemical hazards associated with food are also important health threats, and in many cases can be prevented only by farm-level intervention.
5) Integrate gender consideration in agricultural production practices
It is important that both men and women of working age and of all categories, including youth and persons with disabilities participate in agricultural processes to ensure.
⦁ Production decisions are made in a participatory manner and selection of enterprises addresses both commercial and nutrition needs.
⦁ Land is made available for both commercial and nutrition oriented production.
⦁ Equitable sharing of roles to ensure women are freed from overburdening work load.
⦁ Dialogue on what and how much to sell and how much to keep for household consumption.
⦁ Dialogue on how to utilize agricultural income in a manner that contributes to better nutrition while not ignoring competing needs.
6) Design enterprise mixes or farming systems with built-in risk mitigation (market and natural/environment risk) especially for the vulnerablegroups. This will include enterprise diversification producing a product that has markets in domestic, regional and if possible international market:
⦁ Promotion of crops and animals that are resistant to adverse effects of climate change.
⦁ Promotion of urban farming for the vulnerable households in the target areas.
⦁ Establishment of school, and home orchards and gardens.
⦁ Integrating community based food security information system as part of agricultural extension programs design to track food availability and access for the vulnerable groups.
⦁ Design of agricultural enterprise mixes or value chains that ensure table food availability throughout the year, more active participation of the vulnerable groups and/or more frequent flow of incomes or those households.
C) NUTRITION CONSIDERATIONS IN HARVEST AND POSTHARVEST HANDLING
Agriculture produce in Uganda can be classified into three categories based on their degree of perishability:
1. Durable produce (cereals, legumes, coffee)
2. Semi-perishable (roots and tubers, bananas)
3. Perishable produce (meat, milk, fruits and vegetables)
Harvest and postharvest handling practices for cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables in Uganda are characterized by traditional practices that result in considerable deterioration in the physical and nutritional qualities of the harvested produce resulting in high losses. Promotion of market oriented agriculture has resulted in increased production; however limited emphasis has been placed on reducing postharvest losses and increasing shelf life to ensure availability during lean periods. Postharvest losses in quality and quantity may be attrib- Food and Nutrition Handbook for Extension Workers 58 utable to absence of adequate processing and preservation facilities among farming households; poor handling during loading and unloading at market points; bruising, puncturing, and crushing due to improper packing; absence of grading especially for fruits and vegetables and inadequate knowledge among farmers on cottage processing. Retention of physical and nutritional qualities of agricultural produce can be ensured by developing appropriate and improved postharvest handling, storage and cooking. This keeps consumers healthier and improves the marketability of farm produce.
Promote harvesting at the correct maturity stage
⦁ Harvest food at the right stage of maturity to ensure maximum nutrient availability, e.g., most fruits and vegetables have greater vitamin content if they are picked ripe from the plant, rather than being picked before they have fully ripened.
⦁ Over ripening of fruits will reduce the nutritional quality of fruits.
⦁ Avoid physical and mechanical damages during harvesting to ensure longer storage and safe food following the harvest.
⦁ Early planting prevents nuts from maturing during periods of low rainfall, which stresses a plant and encourages growth of the fungus on ripening crops.
Discouraging Microbial Contamination in Agricultural Processing
⦁ Ensure crop is not left on the ground or on bare soil during drying, shelling and threshing, where fungal spores develop. The practice of moistening the unshelled nuts to make them easier to shell results in higher contamination from aflatoxin and should therefore be strictly discouraged. 59 Food and Nutrition Handbook for Extension Workers.
⦁ Clean and sort to remove broken kernels, foreign matter, and diseased and rotten foods (grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables); these attract moisture and pests leading to spoilage and/or fungal growth.
⦁ Ensure crops are properly dried immediately after harvesting; however, drying will not reverse the effect of poison in the already contaminated foods, but it may inhibit further growth of moulds and other microbes.
Promoting Effective Food Storage Practices
⦁ Proper storage spaces should have clear pathways to allow good airflow; ensure timely pest control interventions; ensure that grains are bagged in natural fibre bags for storage (not plastic). Improved storage and storage techniques can increase availability of nutritious foods during the lean season, reduce food safety concerns such as aflatoxin and increase marketability and trade in nutritious foods.
Distribution
⦁ Distribution should also ensure that risks of contamination are reduced. For example, containers should be clean and dry.
Household agroprocessing and value addition
⦁ Household or on-farm processing gives food security and nutrition benefits in addition to higher, potentially stable and regular incomes.
⦁ Simple/hand coffee processing tools will ensure that coffee husks remain and act as manure for crop enterprises.
⦁ Many foods that are transported to the urban centres and other markets in their very fresh forms result in considerable soil nutrient mining of the production areas and burdening of the waste disposal systems in the target markets. A case in point is the banana market in Uganda.
