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Exploring agrobiodiversity for nutrition: Household on-farm agrobiodiversity is associated with improved quality of diet of young children in Vihiga, Kenya

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Title Exploring agrobiodiversity for nutrition: Household on-farm agrobiodiversity is associated with improved quality of diet of young children in Vihiga, Kenya
 
Creator Oduor, F.O.
Boedecker, J.
Kennedy, G.
Termote, Céline
 
Subject human nutrition
diet
trace elements
household consumption
children
agrobiodiversity
 
Description Due to their limited access to the external productive inputs and the dependency on rain-fed agricultural production, small scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to face undernutrition despite the significant advancements in agriculture. They however often live in areas endowed with high agrobiodiversity which could contribute, if explored, to improved diets and nutrition. Few studies have linked the contribution of agrobiodiversity to the micronutrient adequacy of the diets of young children among smallholder farmers. The study explored this relationship and contributes to the growing body of literature linking agrobiodiversity to nutrition of young children. Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted as part of baseline assessment for an intervention study, one in the lean and a second in the plenty season in Vihiga county, Kenya. Household level interviews were administered to 634 households with children 12–23 months. Agrobiodiversity was defined as the number of crop species cultivated or harvested from the wild and the number of livestock maintained by the household across two agricultural seasons. Dietary data were collected using two-non-consecutive quantitative 24-hour recalls and analyzed using Lucille software. Diet quality was assessed using dietary diversity score based on seven food groups and mean probability of micronutrient adequacy computed for eleven micronutrients. A total of 80 species were maintained or harvested from the wild by the households. Mean household species richness was 9.9 ± 4.3. One in every four children did not meet the minimum dietary diversity score. The average mean probability of micronutrient adequacy was 68.11 ± 16.08 in plenty season compared to 56.37± 19.5% in the lean season. Iron, zinc and calcium were most limiting micronutrients in the diet, with less than 30% average probability of adequacy in both seasons. Household agrobiodiversity was positively associated with both dietary diversity score (r = 0.09, p = 0.029) and micronutrient adequacy (r = 0.15, p
 
Date 2019
2019-09-26T13:44:05Z
2019-09-26T13:44:05Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Oduor, F.O.; Boedecker, J.; Kennedy, G.; Termote, C.; (2019) Exploring agrobiodiversity for nutrition: Household on-farm agrobiodiversity is associated with improved quality of diet of young children in Vihiga, Kenya. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0219680. ISSN: 1932-6203
1932-6203
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103766
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219680
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher Public Library of Science
 
Source PLOS ONE