Bioversity International Project

Funding agency: Bioversity International
Participating agencies: Bioversity International, HealthBridge (Canada), CARES (Vietnam), Ghent University, IFPRI
CARES leader: Dr. Pham Van Hoi

During the innovation period with rapid economic reform in the 1990s, Vietnam has seen significant improvements in living standards including more diverse food sources, increased incomes, and reduced rates of poverty and undernutrition (Mishra & Ray, 2009; Thang & Popkin, 2004).

Although recent trends are that the rate of stunting, stunting and underweight children have all decreased, it is estimated that more than 3 million children under 5 years old are malnourished. The proportion of children under 5 years of age with stunting, underweight and wasting are 27%, 16% and 7% respectively and the proportion of children aged 6-23 months who are not provided with a varied nutrition is at least 13%. In addition, 16% of women of childbearing age suffer from chronic lack of energy (National Institute of Nutrition, 2012a).

Moreover, Vietnam is still going through a nutritional transition and bears the triple burden of malnutrition; includes the coexistence of protein/energy malnutrition and micronutrient malnutrition as well as the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity with a national prevalence of 5% (Khan & Hoan, 2008; National Institute Nutrition, 2012). As a result, traditional foods and especially foods consumed outside the home, including nutritious, dark green vegetables, sesame and tofu are becoming less and less important in the diet, although many of these traditional foods play an important role in dietary, nutritional and cultural (Khan & Hoan, 2008; Lachat et al., 2009).

Nutritional poverty is more noticeable in poor rural households, and in particular those belonging to ethnic minority groups with lower living standards and less food consumption than the majority ethnic groups (Baulch, Chuyen, Haughton, & Haughton, 2007; Thang & Popkin, 2004). It is possible that ethnic minority groups also own less fertile land, have less access to finance, and own assets of lower quality and value (Thang & Popkin, 2004).

Vietnam is rich in natural and agricultural diversity and ranks 16th among countries in terms of biodiversity (S. de Queiroz, Griswold, Nguyen, & Hall, 2013) and has over 800 different plant species recorded cultured in diversified agro-ecological production systems (Sen & Trinh, 2010). However, over the past decade, natural resource and biodiversity management, illegal logging, trade in protected-list animals, the construction of more and more hydroelectric dams, and increasing direction of monoculture (S. de Queiroz et al., 2013; Sen & Trinh, 2010).

As part of CGIAR’s Humidtropics Program, Bioversity International is currently leading the “Nutrition” team in the Global Cross-cutting Flagship program, which serves as a pilot for participatory approaches in Vietnam and Kenya. The objective of this study was to assess the biodiversity of local foods and to identify opportunities to improve the quality and diversity of food diets for women of childbearing age and children aged 12-23 months through marketing, producing and using locally available food in a way that is locally appropriate and sustainable while improving systemic factors such as markets, productivity and natural resource management, etc. The results of this descriptive study will form the basis for identifying the needs of the intervention research that will be carried out within the framework of this program.

2. Reasons for conducting the research
The role of agriculture in nutrition is still poorly understood (Masset et al) and even the role of agricultural biodiversity in improving diet diversity, quality and Nutritional outcomes for women of childbearing age and for children aged 12-23 months are also less well understood. There is little evidence of ways to improve nutrition through diversification of food production using full, participatory cycles (from baseline survey, identification of interventions, as well as monitoring and evaluation).

Agricultural biodiversity plays an important role in improving the variety, quality and nutrition of feed diets, and is considered the cornerstone of the food and nutrition value chain (Frison, Smith). , Johns, Cherfas, & Eyzaguirre, 2006). Locally available levels of agricultural or natural biodiversity have the potential to increase production, making more available food for consumption if people are allowed access to that food sources (Fanzo, 2011). However, previous food safety interventions have shown that increasing production and supply of staple crops alone is not sufficient to improve food safety or nutritional status (Shaw, 2007; Termote et al., 2012). Accessing nutrition through an agro-ecological system perspective can increase the diversity of both species, and at the same time the diversity of functional food groups produced and consumed also increases.

However, while agricultural diversification is an important component, agricultural diversification alone cannot improve food diversity. Other systemic factors include women’s education and knowledge (Dreze & Murthi, 2000; Glewwe, 1999), household dynamics and women’s status (Smith et al., 2003) and Cultural beliefs and practices that improve children’s health and nutrition, that is vitally important to ensure that biodiversity is critical to the success of improving the variety and quality of diets..

This study will describe the households participating in the study in a full research cycle, community-based participatory efforts to diversify production through a systems perspective and improve nutrition knowledge can help improve the variety and quality of diets for women of childbearing age and children aged 12-23 months. The community-based participatory research cycle is a method that promotes the sharing and learning of knowledge by research professionals with the research and knowledge of members of the community. The participatory research cycle ensures that the results obtained in a research project are drawn from the process itself and that the benefits are delivered directly to the community for direct application to achieve expected outcomes (Working Group for Community Health and Development, University of Kansas, 2013).

The study will also determine the current status of dietary diversity and nutrient intake among women of childbearing age and children aged 12-23 months, and examine the relationship between existing local biodiversity status in Thai villages in Mai Son.

3. Output

• A series of quantitative tools to assess local food diversity and biodiversity’s potential to contribute to improved nutritional quality and dietary diversity
• An investigative tool to assess nutrition-related knowledge, practice, and behavior
• A series of qualitative and participatory tools for experimentation with local communities to identify barriers and opportunities to diversify diets and to identify options that are likely to succeed (starting point) to diversify diets (through a combination of farm diversity, processing, nutrition education messages, etc.)
• Report on approach assessment for selected sites.
• New food composition data for selected local foods.

4. Participating members
– The research team includes:

• Jessica Raneri and Dr. Gina Kennedy (Bioversity International)
• Dr. Le Thi Nga and Dr. Hoang The Ky (HealthBridge Canada)
• Dr. Pham Van Hoi (CARES, Hanoi Agriculture University).

– Inputs received for the development of a research protocol:

• Dr. Celine Termote and Dr. Gudrun Keding (Bioversity International)
• Dr. Carl Lachat (Ghent University)
• Dr. Aulo Gelli (IFPRI)