Nutritious Food Portfolios for targeting year-round food harvest and nutrient gaps - Mwingi West

Abstract

The food tree and crop portfolios are location-specific recommendations for cultivating a greater diversity of foods that could address month-on-month food harvest and micronutrient gaps in local households’ diets. The identification of location-specific portfolios involves the following: • Determining food production diversity and seasonality. • Mapping harvest months of foods against periods of food insecurity. • Capturing individual-level food consumption data, to identify dietary gaps. • As well as filling food harvest gaps, addressing nutrient gaps by matching prioritized foods with food composition data. The portfolios provide an example of how agriculture may be used to promote nutritionally rich diets, particularly for rural smallholders who rely predominantly on foods from their own farms