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The sustainability of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention: a case study from urban Senegal

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Abstract

The sustainability of nutrition-sensitive agriculture projects has been identified as a research gap, and there is limited research available examining such initiatives in an urban context. We examine the sustainability of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture project implemented in Dakar, Senegal. It included provision of two “microgarden” tables, a henhouse, chickens, inputs, training, and education on nutrition and hygiene. This study was conducted 18 months after the project's end and sought to assess the intervention’s sustainability via a survey and in-depth interviews with former project participants. The microgarden tables had poor sustainability: only 5% of respondents continued to use them to grow vegetables. Most of those who continued saw it as a hobby, not a main productive activity. In contrast, 75% continued poultry-rearing activities, and 20% had more chickens than provided by the project. Some former participants had switched to more lucrative models of chicken production, with sales being more common than during the project and considerable revenues earned. This ability to earn income from chicken sales was the dominant motivator of continued production. Nutrition knowledge and practices remained at or near project levels. We discuss lessons for the sustainability of nutrition-sensitive agriculture more generally. These include that in the absence of project-provided incentives, some dis-adoption should be expected; in an urban area, improving incomes may be more relevant than improving production; and behavior change communication likely needs to be re-enforced over time to ensure sustainable changes in nutrition knowledge among parents of young children.

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Notes

  1. The micro-gardens could also be cultivated if filled with fertile soil, but this was not the recommended practice.

  2. Production data is based on recall; most harvests would have occurred gradually over time and would not have been weighed or recorded, so recall and estimation issues likely make data noisy.

  3. This compares well to estimated average annual theoretical revenues, 7,000 CFA per table (Sposito 2010).

  4. For comparison, prices of relevant food products in Dakar: kilogram of onions: 300–400 FCFA, kilogram of rice: 300–500 FCFA, 1 dozen eggs: 1100 FCFA, a chicken: 2500–3000 FCFA; a monthly salary for a maid could be as low as 20,000 FCFA.

  5. This four-month period included Korité, a key holiday for chicken sales, whereas it did not in the final project survey.

  6. Overweight prevalence in Dakar is 19%, with central obesity at 26–40% (Macia et al. 2016).

  7. The July 2015 survey was fielded during Ramadan, which may have impacted nutrition practices.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Helen Keller International Senegal team for supporting the work, Malick Diakhate for assisting with data collection, Rolf Klemm and Tom van Mourik for feedback on the methodology and earlier drafts of the paper, two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their feedback, all the participants and CDAs for their engagement, and Global Affairs Canada for funding the research was (award #7059619).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helen Keller International, Regional Office for Africa, Dakar, Sénégal

    Stella Nordhagen

  2. Centre National d’état civil (CNEC), Ministère de la Gouvernance Territorial, du Développement et de l’Aménagement du Territoire (MGTDAT), Dakar, Sénégal

    Khadidjatou Thiam

  3. Centre régional de Recherche et de Formation à la Prise en Charge, Clinique de Fann, Dakar, Sénégal

    Souleymane Sow

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  1. Stella Nordhagen
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Correspondence to Stella Nordhagen.

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Nordhagen, S., Thiam, K. & Sow, S. The sustainability of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention: a case study from urban Senegal. Food Sec. 11, 1121–1134 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00948-5

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