Nutrition Promotion and Collective Vegetable Gardening by Adolescent Girls: Feasibility Assessment from a Pilot in Afghanistan

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the feasibility of collective vegetable gardening into an existing development programme for adolescent girls as a means of improving awareness about health and nutrition and increasing vegetable consumption in Afghanistan. A one and half year pilot study tested the feasibility of layering an intervention that combined agricultural training and input support in Kabul, Parwan and Kapisa regions on an adolescent programme implemented by a non-government organisation. The study included 400 adolescent girls for survey and qualitative tools to understand the local context of adolescent girls` participation in vegetable cultivation. The assessment demonstrates the evidence that despite of the challenging situation and traditional culture in Afghanistan the pilot had successfully engaged almost all of the adolescent girls in collective vegetables cultivation by making them aware about health, nutrition and the usefulness of vegetables consumption while the bad effects of not intake those. And the cultivation proved itself financially viable and very much effective for the community though there were little challenges. The pilot would be feasible and scalable to address the malnutrition and girls` marginalization if those challenges were taken into consideration carefully.