The subject of nutrition and micronutrient malnutrition in particular is a special area of study and the author of this article is not a specialist on the subject but is interested in briefly identifying the positive and constructive contribution that the “Yelemat Tirufat” Campaign can render to the national effort to reduce macro and micronutrient malnutrition in Ethiopia with a special emphasis on micronutrient deficiency among children, the elderly and people of all walks of life in the country.
Nutrition is not just about having enough food to eat. It also refers to the health and general physical and mental development of the population.
Micronutrient malnutrition, also known as hidden hunger, is a significant public health challenge in Ethiopia. Despite improvements in food security and nutrition over the years, many Ethiopians still suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals.
Here are some key points about micronutrient malnutrition in Ethiopia:
Micronutrient deficiencies are widespread across Ethiopia, affecting large segments of the population, particularly women and children. Common deficiencies include vitamin A, iron, iodine, zinc, and folate.
Micronutrient malnutrition in Ethiopia is primarily caused by inadequate dietary intake of nutrient-rich foods, poor food diversity, limited access to fortified foods and supplements, and underlying factors such as poverty, food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare services.
Micronutrient deficiencies can have serious health consequences, including impaired growth and development, weakened immune function, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, anemia, vision problems, and cognitive impairments.
Vitamin A deficiency is a significant public health concern in Ethiopia, particularly among children under five years of age and pregnant women. It can lead to night blindness, increased risk of infections, and childhood morbidity and mortality.
Iodine deficiency is another common issue in Ethiopia, affecting thyroid function and leading to iodine deficiency disorders such as goiter, cretinism, and impaired cognitive development in children.
Iron deficiency anemia is prevalent among women of reproductive age and children in Ethiopia, contributing to fatigue, weakness, impaired work capacity, and poor pregnancy outcomes.
Ethiopia has implemented various strategies to address micronutrient malnutrition, including food fortification programs, supplementation initiatives, nutrition education and behavior change communication, maternal and child health services, and agricultural interventions to promote diverse and nutrient-rich diets.
Ethiopia has made progress in fortifying staple foods such as wheat flour, edible oils, and salt with essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc, to improve population-level micronutrient intake and reduce deficiencies.
Despite efforts to address micronutrient malnutrition, challenges remain, including limited access to fortified foods, inadequate coverage of supplementation programs, insufficient public awareness and knowledge about nutrition, and socioeconomic barriers that hinder access to nutritious foods and healthcare services.
Addressing micronutrient malnutrition in Ethiopia requires a multi-sectoral approach that addresses underlying determinants of malnutrition, strengthens health systems, improves access to nutritious foods, promotes dietary diversity, and enhances public awareness and education about nutrition and health. Sustainable solutions will require continued investment, collaboration, and commitment from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector to ensure the well-being of Ethiopia’s population.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched “Yelemat Tirufat” which literally means basket bounty is four years development campaign, which focuses on nutritional opulence in November, 2022.
The purpose of the campaign is to boost productivity and production of dairy, eggs, chicken, and honey and related products as well as intensify efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency and ensure nutritional opulence at the family and national levels.
The campaign contributes for job creations, increasing exports, and hastening import substitution.
Accordingly, “Yelemat Tirufat” campaign, especially meat, milk, honey and fish production registered great achievements when compared with the previous production rate.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture (2023) “Yelemat Tirufat” development campaign, more than 20,000 villages have been identified and put to work in honey, milk and egg production in all areas of the country.
Monitoring, supplying resources and awareness creation activities have been carried out for the selected villages, she said, adding the production of milk has increased from 5.8 billion liters to 8.6 billion liters.
It is expected to increase to 11.7 billion liters in the coming years.
According to the Ministry, effective work has been done in egg production and distribution of chicken, where the number of chicken has increased from 26 million to 42 million.
The development initiative is also playing a crucial role in creating job opportunities, for 259,000 jobs have been created annually through the development of livestock resources alone.
The campaign is part of the nation effort underway to ensure food security and self-sufficiency in food and to increase exports of agricultural commodities in the area of food.
The author believes that the importance of this campaign is related to the fact that it is a home grown national initiative to be implemented across the country in various agro-ecological arrears. Moreover, the writer believes that mainstreaming the campaign in program components of urban agriculture will help to not only secure balanced nutritional intake across the country but will also contribute to fighting off diseases that result from micronutrient deficiency specially among children and their mothers, lactating mothers and the elderly.
As stated above, the author of this article is not a professional expert on nutrition but is mindful of the fact that children in IDP camps across the country and lactating mothers need a special attention in life saving nutritional and micronutrient deficiency prevention programs. The Seqota Declaration is a special program designed to reduce stunting among children which is brought by micronutrient malnutrition.
Seqota Declaration (SD) is a high-level commitment unveiled by the Ethiopian government in July 2015 to end stunting in children under two years by 2030. Informed by a conceptual framework built around three pathways of change, the 15 years Seqota Declaration Implementation Plan focuses on delivering high impact nutrition specific, nutrition sensitive and infrastructure interventions across multiple sectors including health, agriculture, water, irrigation and electricity, education, social protection and women and children affairs in 40 woredas in Amhara and Tigray region along the Tekeze River Basin. Therefore, the African Development Bank has made a commitment to finance this project to contribute to the government effort.
The project has four components. The first component focuses on climate smart infrastructure development for effective service delivery including community-based water supply infrastructure, community irrigation infrastructures, institutional infrastructure support (nutrition corners at Farmers Training Centers, schools, small scale feed and food processing Centers, health posts, and poultry multiplication center) and implement ESMF and ARS activities. The second, third and fourth components focuses on soft interventions such as promotion of consumption of nutritious foods, strengthening institutional systems and capacity building and coordination and project management.
Macro and micronutrient malnutrition is reportedly far more severe in areas of the country that are recurrently affected by climate change induced drought which exacerbates deficiency in food supply and more particularly lack of vitamin rich vegetables, root crops and fruits.
The production of various types of food in the ‘Yelemat Tirufat” campaign must be supplemented with food preservation techniques that are manageable at household and community levels. Bumper harvests during good seasons must be preserved for periods of food gaps, which is mostly the case in the north, south, and western parts of the country. The writer is of the opinion that food preservation methods like smoking, drying, and grinding are useful as long as they are preserved in a manner that is commonly practiced in rural Ethiopia. For instance, enset or kotcho, which can be preserved in carefully constructed dugout holes, are of critical importance for preserving and utilizing during periods of dry spells accompanied by food shortages.
“Yelemat Tirufat” campaign can bring about far more better results if it is based on area specialization in food production which takes into account agro-ecological variation across the country.
The campaign is useful for combating MN deficiency diseases like night blindness or sight impairments, goiter and mental retardation and a host of diseases which result from lack of essential vitamins that the body would need for normal functioning.
Backyard vegetable gardening accompanied with planting fruit trees can also be a good source for fighting vitamin deficiencies among children in rural Ethiopia. If this is integrated with poultry and bee keeping, milk production, families in outback areas of the country could be able to have diversified food intake and also earn some income to meet their financial needs at household level.
“Yelemat Trufat“ can also serve as a raw material source for the growing agro-industries in Ethiopia which are already on the pipeline to produce value added food products primarily for international markets. This sets another alternative for increasing foreign exchange income that the country needs for enhancing national development programs.
On the other hand, food processing industries in the country that produce fortified baby foods and other types of vitamin rich nutritional products can produce special types of food too be used in therapeutic feeding centers that usually operate in drought affected and conflict infested areas of the country.
Given the demand for fortified foods in the country, there are only very few food processing complexes many of which are concentrated in Addis Ababa. The process of maximizing the benefits of “Yelemat Trufat” demands full public participation in all the cycles of the implementation of the campaign. On the other hand, it is very important to evaluate the results of the campaign in each region of the country and compile all the learning’s obtained over time.
Finally, the author suggests that “Yelemat Tirufat’’ campaign can be upgraded from campaign level to a permanent programmatic intervention throughout the country.
BY SOLOMON DIBABA
The Ethiopian Herald March 31/2024
