GIZ’S COWPEA INITIATIVE BOOSTS DIETS IN EAST

A BALANCED diet entails consuming a mixture of foods that provide complete nutrients as well as supplies carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and fibre, in their normal proportions.

Experts proclaim that adequate nutrition especially in a child’s early years, is essential for survival, growth, optimal development, and long-term good health.

Regrettably, the diets of most Zambians, especially those in rural areas, are heavily reliant on maize.

This is because, although agriculture remains their main source of livelihood, the majority of them produce maize, which also contributes the major part of the food energy supply.

This lack of dietary diversity, coupled with fluctuating market prices and changing climatic conditions, has left many households’ food insecure and have succumbed to malnutrition.

Women of child bearing age and children below the age of five are most vulnerable to malnutrition.

According to the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey, 35 percent of children under the age of five are stunted in Zambia, while 31 percentage of women aged between 15 and 49 were found to have anaemia, a condition caused by a deficiency in iron.

For this reason, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), has since 2019, been working with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Ministry of Agriculture to promote the production and consumption of nutrient rich foods like legumes and vegetables among 7,000 beneficiaries in Petauke and 5,000 in Katete district, through the Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience (FANSER) project.

The FANSER project is implemented under the “One World – No Hunger” Initiative (SEWOH), of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and aims at improving the nutritional situation of deprived people, particularly women aged between 15 and 49 years, and children below the age of two.

According to GIZ’s Advisor-Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture, Richard Lilamono, the FANSER project seeks to improve the food and nutrition security, and dietary diversity of pregnant and lactating women, and children under the age of two, so as to tackle malnutrition during the first 1,000 critical days of a child’s life, and end the vicious cycle of stunting.

“The FANSER project has been working in Katete and Petauke mainly because these two districts have high levels of malnutrition and stunting compared to the national statistics,” he said.