IITA to Publish State of Malnutrition
By Crusoe Osagie
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is to release the first comprehensive na-tional data ever available on food consumption and nutrition in Nigeria.
According to an IITA statement, the report gives a graphical report of the widespread malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency among the most vulnerable groups in the country.
Conducted in 2001, the Food Consumption and Nutrition Survey gathered information from 6480 households across the country in order to determine the nutritional status of women and children in rural and urban populations. The survey was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and UNICEF.
Discussions with interviewees revealed an overall decline in food security from the humid south to the drier areas in the north, with households in rural areas the most severely affected. Most families depend primarily on starchy staples such as cassava, rice, and yam, while eating very little meat or leafy green vegetables. While this diet may be filling, it is low in nutrients necessary for good health�and it shows.
An interviewer speaks with respondents during the survey.
The survey found a significant incidence of poor nutrition in mothers and pregnant women, but children under 5 showed the bleakest results. Approximately one out of every three children suffered from vitamin A and iron deficiency, and one out of every five from vitamin E and zinc deficiency. All three forms of malnutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) were found in a large proportion of children, with almost a quarter of the children studied suffering from underweight. Malnutrition is one of the major causes of child death in developing countries.
"The numbers are alarming when you consider that we're talking about the most heavily populated country on the African continent," says principal investigator Dr Bussie Maziya-Dixon. "Nigeria has over 133 million people, with a quarter of that being children under five. The situation begs for action."
Now that current and accurate baseline information is available, it will be easier to target interventions and to design integrated projects for nutrition for development, especially when linking nutrition with agriculture. IITA is already moving forward in this area as one of the main partners of HarvestPlus, a new project aimed at improving the nutritional value of starchy staple crops by increasing their content of key nutrients.
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