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Integrated community-based growth monitoring and vegetable gardens focusing on crops rich in β-carotene: project evaluation in a rural community in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
BACKGROUND: Cultivation in β-carotene vegetables was promoted in a crop-based intervention in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The project also included nutrition education and community-based growth monitoring, and focused on technology transfer and mobilization of local organizations. Three years after initiation of the project, participating (n=219) and non-participating (n=223) households were compared in terms of child morbidity, nutritional knowledge, dietary intake and gardening practices.
RESULTS: Compared to control households, more caregivers from project households thought that yellow fruit and vegetables were good for their children (73% vs. 45%; P<0.001), were familiar with the term vitamin A (89% vs. 63%; P<0.001), knew that vitamin A is a nutrient in food (83% vs. 53%; P<0.001), and could name three food sources rich in vitamin A (56% vs. 27%; P<0.001). Fewer 1-5-year-old children in the project households reportedly experienced vomiting (6% vs. 13%; P=0.012), fever (30% vs. 42%; P=0.008), sores on the skin (6% vs. 19%; P<0.001), continuous runny nose (20% vs. 33%; P=0.002), diarrhoea (2% vs. 7%; P=0.026) and poor appetite (7% vs. 14%; P=0.016). Children from project households consumed carrot (P=0.008), butternut (P=0.002), spinach (P=0.004) and orange-fleshed sweetpotato (P=0.028) more frequently than children from control households.
CONCLUSION: The agricultural intervention, combined with nutrition education and community-based growth monitoring, showed a favourable effect on child morbidity, nutritional knowledge and dietary intake of β-carotene-rich vegetables. Agricultural interventions can therefore contribute significantly towards nutritional outcomes.