2019’s Women’s Day focusses on the health and nutrition of women for a secure future.

A woman’s health today
A secure tomorrow!

On celebrating the International Women’s Day 2019, NESFAS has initiated the campaign on Nutrition for women and children since March 1st Week. The campaign emphasizes the importance of consumption of wild edibles and local food.

On this occasion, a radio talk on AIR by Ms. Laribha Dohtdong, Faculty of the Dept. of Allied Health Sciences, MLCU was also given, on the importance of the health of women and to enhance the awareness of using local food for food and nutritional security.

Simultaneously, Custodian farmers from Meghalaya are presently delegating at the 10th Edition Biodiversity festival organized by North East Network (NEN) Nagaland from the 7th to 8th March 2019, at their Resource Centre in Chizami, Nagaland. This year’s theme is “Strengthening Local Food Systems for a Resilient Future”.

Custodian farmer, Ms Jeblin A Sangma from Durakantragre community, West Garo Hills was amazed by what the Deccan Development Society had shared at the workshop on Local Food Systems. Ms Jayshree, Director of Deccan Development Society, Telangana shared about the Women Sangam and that there is autonomy over seeds, markets and food. Ms Jeblin said, “We need support on marketing in our region. There should be advocacy for policy support for small producers and vendors like us to access to markets.”

Dr. Bhogtoram Mawroh, Sr. Associate at NESFAS, had also presented research on “Relationship of Agrobiodiversity and Dietary Diversity”, which focussed on the importance of biodiversity for nutrition. Through this study it was shown that there is a lot of agrobiodiversity in the surveyed villages, the number of food plants ranges from more than 180 to almost 300 items. However, it is learned that less than half of the people in the surveyed villages had consumed less than 5 food groups. For good health, one must consume 5 or more food groups. The presentation, thus, looked at the gap that exists between agrobiodiversity and local diet. In this regard, NESFAS is working in creating awareness to enhance food diversity through local food consumption in daily diets.