SUN BENEFICIARIES ELATED BY GOVT-INSPIRED INTERVENTIONS
SCALING Up Nutrition (SUN) beneficiaries in Imalyo agricultural camp of Mongu have expressed gratitude and embraced the interventions from the Ministry of Agriculture under the MCDPII programme.
Speaking in an interview in Imalyo camp, Ms Inonge Kalumiana, a lead farmer under the programme and breastfeeding mother, said she has learnt a lot from the post-harvest information and cooking demonstrations under the programme, which has improved the livelihood status at her household.
Ms Kalumiana said she has benefitted various types of crops, including vegetables and orange maize from the Ministry of Agriculture, and chickens from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, as well as knowledge empowerment through good agricultural practices trainings and cooking demonstrations.
“From the various crops that I received from the ministry of Agriculture, other than feeding our home, we have been able to grow enough
food to sell, thereby earning some income which has been used to buy other essential needs in the home,” Ms Kalumiana said.
Another beneficiary, Ms Mwangala Mushiba, a farmer and breastfeeding mother, said the crops they have been growing under this programme are very nutritious and important to both the mothers and the breast
feeding babies, as well as the whole household.
“Through the various vitamins found in these vegetables and crops, we as mothers are able to have enough nutrients in our bodies which make our bodies produce enough breast milk for our babies, making them grow steady and healthy,” Ms Mushiba said.
Ms Mushiba said the information acquired from the
cooking demonstrations especially was very helpful to many as beneficiaries learned other ways of preparing nutritious meals from foods which they grow locally within their own home gardens.
One of the facilitators of the cooking demonstrations, Mr David Sikambwe, a nutrition technologist under the Ministry of Health, emphasised that the cooking demonstrations under this programme are not meant to teach beneficiaries how to cook their food, but just enhance on their food preparation and preservation knowledge.
Mr Sikambwe said this exercise was meant to help beneficiaries make proper nutritious meals from locally grown and produced foods which is less costly in order to reduce malnutrition and stunting in children within the 1, 000 most critical days.
“We are encouraging the beneficiaries to practice diversification in their gardens so that they should not only be food secure, but be nutrition secure as well, so as to achieve the main objective of the programme of zero stunting and malnutrition amongst children below the age of two,” he said.
Mr Sikambwe stated that gardens do not have a specific period of cultivation hence beneficiaries can have availability of nutritious foods throughout the year as vegetables and many other crops can be grown at any time, provided there is availability of water and fertile land.
The Ministry of Agriculture in-conjunction with the National Food and Nutrition
Commission in the district procured and distributed assorted vegetable seed varieties and equipment to the 17 SUN wards in the district, and have since been equipped with knowledge and information on garden management and food preparation and preservation techniques.
The programme is aimed at reducing stunting levels among the targeted beneficiaries such as the pregnant women, lactating mothers, children under two years and the adolescent girls, and the beneficiaries have appealed to the implementors to continue with the programme as the nutrition status in the district will be improved.