Vegetable Gardening, Native Chicken Rearing, and Pond Fish Culture
February 2016
Farmer Nutrition School (FNS) is a community-based learning approach that promotes the Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) and the Essential Hygiene Actions (EHA) by teaching the production and consumption of vegetables and animal source foods and the installation and use of tippy taps for handwashing at the household level. These interventions support high-quality, micronutrient-rich diets for pregnant and lactating women and children 6 to 24 months old.
The Farmer Nutrition School Technical Guide is one of the three documents SPRING/Bangladesh has developed to implement the FNS approach. The other two documents are the Farmer Nutrition School Session Guide and the Farmer Nutrition School Advocacy Guide. The Technical Guide is a companion resource offering more detailed background information and more specific content for FNS trainers and leaders to support the Session Guide. Basic and refresher training on these documents, particularly on the Farmer Nutrition School Technical Guide and the Farmer Nutrition School Session Guide, in addition to regular supportive supervision, are critical to the successful implementation of the FNS approach, especially as it relates to increased food production and the adoption of ENA and EHA practices.
This technical guide—
- should be used by FNS session leaders and supervisors as a primary reference manual to support and enrich FNS training sessions
- will increase the technical competency of FNS facilitators/trainers and their supervisors in the areas of FNS training and in the conduct of follow-up visits
- provides key technical information on vegetable gardening, native chicken rearing, and pond fish culture to be adopted by mothers, fathers, households, and communities to improve the nutrition and health of women and children through increased and year-round production
- can be used for both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive activities.
The Farmer Nutrition School Technical Guide includes modules on the production of three nutrient-rich foods. School facilitators/trainers are expected to lead the training session as per the Farmer Nutrition Session Guide, and conduct regular follow-up at households of FNS members. This follow-up will ensure that members are practicing what they have learned. It also provides backstopping support for better production and consumption of nutritious food. The three food production modules are:
- Vegetable Gardening
- Native Chicken Rearing
- Pond Fish Culture
Download the rest of the Farmer Nutrition School Technical Guide for more information.