Farming communities in coastal areas of India are in a vulnerable condition and nutritional security in India is a issue. So enrichment of the dietary pattern of the people with low-cost available protein or micronutrients can help in gaining nutritional security. I want to intervene a suitable design for nutria-smart village in coastal India.
Dear Dr. Roy,
The first step is to identify the nutritional status of the population. In what micro-nutrient their food is deficient. If they are eating fish but not other fruits and vegetables, gaining access to such foods may be important either through education or supplementation. Depending on which part of coastal India we can design nutrition interventions by bringing in growing of vegetables in the off shore areas in collaboration with the villagers who can exchange fish for vegetables. Also one can think about nutrition education based on the nutrient in which they are deficient.
Dear Dr. Roy,
The first step is to identify the nutritional status of the population. In what micro-nutrient their food is deficient. If they are eating fish but not other fruits and vegetables, gaining access to such foods may be important either through education or supplementation. Depending on which part of coastal India we can design nutrition interventions by bringing in growing of vegetables in the off shore areas in collaboration with the villagers who can exchange fish for vegetables. Also one can think about nutrition education based on the nutrient in which they are deficient.
Thanks for your interest. Do you mean farming community as fishing community or fish/shrimp farming communities? To me in coastal areas both fish farming community and fishermen communities are predominant and of these fish farming communities are billionaires and are over nourished. While fishing communities are poor and need your nutritional security. As everyone knows fish is the cheapest source of animal protein and these people are not deprived of that as I believe. At least they have rice and fish to eat. In addition you have to look into the nutrient (macro/micro) deficits and its degree. Again to develop Nutri-smart village in true sense I mean real scientific intervention you need to have a multidisciplinary approach and lots of ground work and designing. I believe I could satisfy to a small extend. But the key message you can take
1. Field survey 2. Holistic approach 3. Real scientific intervention not just height and weight ratio study.
Thank you Dr. Shaoo.
Farming community includes agricultural farmers, dairy farmers, livestock farmers and fish farmers. As in the coastal region due to geo-climatic reason less numbers of people are involved in dairy farming and livestock farming. So, in Indian coast area farming community is dominated by agri and fish farmers. Even fishers are also doing agriculture to some extent.
My the target group is over all farming community with some specific criteria (land holding, yearly income etc.).
So, pls specify the components of 'holistic approach' .
Once again thank you for your kind answer.
Dr. Roy,
Design of your experiment to achieve Nutritional Security should be in the line of the component that I proposed. I would be happy to involve in your designing which is paramount to hit the goal.
Regards,
Sahoo
Dear Aparna Roy,
Please review the mixed fish and crop systems used around the world.
Hawaiian culture was expert at some of these fish and paddy systems.
It seems to me that cultivation of macro algae and sea plants in sea level fields in brine water would be something that could work.
Algae and sea plants could be very nutritious but they may have no tradition of using them. The estuary environment is a very rich on and opportunities for improving nutrition should be available.
A thought for U.
Hellow Roy
I think Integrated fish-vegetable-rice-fruit culture will be helpful to improve their nutritional status. This type of culture in coastal area also very profitable with low cost. Some model we already practiced in Bangladesh coastal are and succeed are given below.
Best wishes
Julfiker
http://www.slideshare.net/Julfiker
Dr. Aparna. I wish to add one more dimension to the parameters suggested by other scholars. You should explore some unutilized and underutilized food sources of your study area. Including such cheap options are highly valuable for acheiving nutritional security.
Interesting topic. Intervention can be made through bio-fortified intake of fooditems prevailing in the study area. Else a diversified food basket like fish-cereals-fruit & vegetables-dairy products would serve the purpose.
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