Healthy diets from sustainable food systems in Zambia

01st February 2016
by secretary

Paepard

Uploaded 15 January 2016. A 3-year research-for-development initiative in the Barotse floodplain, Zambia, supported by the CGIAR research programs Aquatic Agricultural Systems and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, brought scientists and community members to improve food and nutrition security all year round.

Activities included assessing seasonal food availability, dietary intake patterns of the population, nutrient gaps across seasons and how to increase the use of seasonally available foods. Find out more in the report below, and virtually meet the community members who took part, courtesy of two new videos about the initiative.

Bioversity International, working closely with partners and local communities, has been carrying out a 3-year project to look at food availability across different seasons and find locally acceptable and culturally appropriate food resources to improve diets. The area is rich in biodiversity and natural resources that could be better used by local communities to diversify local agricultural production, livelihoods and diets to increase the availability of nutrient-rich sources of food all year round such as seeds, nuts and legumes, and strengthen the resilience of farming systems in the challenging local environment.

As Sharon Akufuna, Community Facilitator says in the video: “This programme of nutrition brought us together, sometimes we sit together, discuss with the other women, even men have joined the group – they now like cooking more than in the past, as in the past they thought cooking was only for women”.

For more information, contact: Gina Kennedy

Watch the videos:
Cooking together in Zambia (7:14)
Putting diversity on the plate (9:44)

See photographs from the Barotse Floodplain

Source: PAEPARD FEED

Healthy diets from sustainable food systems in Zambia

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