More plants, wild edibles and herbs identified and documented in Jaintia Hills
Society of Urban and Rural Empowerment (SURE) in collaboration with North East Slow Food and Agro biodiversity Society (NESFAS) organized Agro Biodiversity Walk cum Nutrition campaign for children at Ïooski village under Laskeñ Block, West Jañtia Hills on Thursday.
The program is part of the ‘No one shall be left behind initiative’ project which is supported by REC and implemented in some villages in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
The main purpose of conducting the ABD walk cum nutrition campaign is to help the children of the village learn and appreciate the rich biodiversity of the area, to improve the nutrition of children through increased consumption of diverse local foods and the importance of protecting Mother Nature and its richness. School children of the village took part in the ABD walks. A total number of 20 children and 5 interns who are students from Assam Don Bosco University Guwahati and Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong took part in the walk to identify edibles which start from the kitchen garden and end at the nearby forest.
Two knowledge holders of the community CP Tangliang, Headman of the village and Zion Sutnga guide these walk and introduce the group to the various local plant, wild edibles and medicinal herbs.
The local knowledge holders shared with the group their knowledge about the local plants which the community has been cultivating and used for many generations. Along the way and in the forest they identifies wild edibles, fruits and shared with the group the different ways of how these wild edibles were cook and used and the benefit of medicinal herbs. This ADB walk helped identify and documented 21 local plants, 4 wild edibles and 5 herbs.
After the walk a cooking demonstration was held in the forest by including the 5 food groups.
Earlier in the program, Daka Bareh Field Coordinator SURE, welcome the entire group and highlighted about Agrobiodiversity and food groups training. For a better understanding of how to include 5 or more food groups for a balanced diet, a Dietary Diversity Score Survey (DDS) exercise was done with the children. DDS is conducted by helping the children recalling the food that they had consumed in the last 24 hours.
A food group hunt was another exercise that carried out with the children in which they were divided into groups and asked to look for food plants and place them into the 10 food groups. Because of the pandemic, schools have been closed for months now. While children may be missing formal education, this also provides the children from the local communities to reconnect with their indigenous food system. It is also an opportunity to build their knowledge of sustainable food habits and help them to choose and practice healthy food habits to improve their nutrition, she said.
CP Tangliang, Headman expresses his gratitude to the organization for organising different programme in the village before pandemic. The programme helped him to learn about nutrition campaign and how to consume the 10 food groups in a day.
With regard to Agro-biodiversity (ABD) walk, Zion Sutnga said Mother Nature provide us many food which make our body healthy if we consume them. There is no need to spend money in buying them from the market. In the month of April – May varieties of wild edibles are found in the forest. About 80% of the people in the village during this season consume them. He urges the children of the village to protect and preserve the Mother Nature.
Defender Tyngkan, 11 years of age, Student said that through this programme he came to know how to consume or include 5 food groups in the food that he eat in a day.
Philapynkmen Sumer, Student said that we need to protect and preserve the Mother Nature that supplies us with abundant food and provide all that we need.
The entire program was held in open space which is in the garden and the forest as well as following the SOP.
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