Acting National Epidemiologist, Dr. Shalaudin Ahmed, says the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture has seen the need for backyard gardening in La Plaine.
A Backyard Gardening Project or Farmer Field School was implemented in 2013 following a study by the Ministry of Health in 2011 which revealed that anemia is a pressing issue in that area.
“Through this study we were able to identify the prevalence of an iron deficiency anemia in the La Plaine district and we found that people especially women 17-49 showed the highest prevalence of anemia followed by children 1-4 years old…
“Following that, the Ministry of Health developed an intervention through an inter-sectoral approach of the Ministry of Education, the Environmental Health department and the community itself,” he reported.
He says backyard gardens are indispensable.
“Backyard gardening provides the meals and the knowledge to sustain the nutrition to mitigate anemia in the community.”
Dr. Ahmed says participants of the Farmer Field School Backyard Garden Project also learn about anemia and meal planning.
Residents of Laronde and Cas O’Gowrie are currently engaged in the training.
This project is just one component of the One Health Project.
“It’s a small scale national project [led] by participants of the National One Health Leadership Series. This series is an activity of the One Health, One Caribbean, One Love Project funded by the European Union and managed by the University of the West Indies in collaboration with CIRAD, the Ministries of Agriculture of Guyana, Grenada and St. Kitts and IICA.
“The goal of the leadership series is to create a sustainable network of One Health Practitioners of leaders in the Caribbean.”
Backyard gardening is encouraged islandwide as a cost-effective way of eating healthy.
