In a bid to help in eradicating malnutrition, a youth-led organisation in Dedza has distributed vegetable seeds and grafted fruit tree seedlings to 200 households in the district.
Youth Initiative for Community Development (YICOD) has distributed these in a quest to ensure that the beneficiaries practice Integrated Homestead Farming for improved dietary diversity in the areas of group village heads Kachere and Fosa in traditional authority Kachere in the district.
In an interview, YICOD Project Coordinator, Reonard Emiliyo, said that the distribution of the agriculture inputs of vegetable seeds and fruit seedlings wants to ensure dietary diversity, especially among women between 15-49 years of age.
“These seeds and seedlings distributed here will help that there should be dietary diversity among the targeted beneficiaries in particular women of reproductive age, We are sure that after some time we’ll see that matters of nutrition are improving here,” said Emiliyo.
One of the beneficiaries, Selepia Mkokamasa, said the inputs will help her to increase the consumption and utilization of vegetables and fruits in her household thereby contributing to improved food security and nutrition in her family.
“Let me thank them for providing us with these inputs, I will now have a vegetable garden at home which will help to beat malnutrition among my family members,” she said.
YICOD is implementing a food and nutrition security project entitled “Improving the nutrition of women through Integrated Food Security and WASH” in Dedza district with funding amounting to €50,000 from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development Cooperation (BMZ) through Welthunger Hilfe in collaboration with Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) and Tilitonse Foundation.
