Tanager, a non-profit firm, today launched “e-Wadi program” an initiative to digitise Anganwadi Centres and spread awareness on the importance of nutrition in Srikakulam and Anantapur districts of Andhra Pradesh as part of its ongoing Andhra Pradesh Farmer Market Readiness Program II (APFMRP II) supported by Walmart. As part of the initiative, 16 Anganwadi Centres are adopted in the project area. They are given a facelift with wall paintings and messages on nutrition and IEC materials are provided to attract children and parents to these centres.
These Anganwadi centres are further digitised with the availability of computer and internet connection, nutrition and educational videos for women and children. This initiative will provide a platform for the dissemination of nutrition messages to adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers. The team further intends to impart training to the women farmers to grow crops with high nutritive value in their kitchen gardens and provide training on cooking simple nutritive recipes using minimal ingredients in the second phase of the initiative.
Talking about this initiative, Amit Kumar Singh, Country Representative, Tanager said, “Nutrition plays an important role in growing children and pregnant mothers for overall development. So as part of the programme, it is essential for us to educate our project beneficiaries on the importance and inclusion of nutritive food in their diet. This activity will not only educate the community on nutrition but benefit the generations to come”.
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The team has conducted a food environment analysis to understand and analyse the food habits, dietary diversity, accessibility, affordability, availability, and food security in the programme area for developing a social behaviour change strategy for improved nutrition amongst programme participants. The results of the survey indicated several parameters ranging from accessibility, affordability, convenience, lack of nutrition knowledge, food availability and acquisition affect their ability to include nutritious food in their daily diet. The households under survey showed eagerness to know more about nutrition and learn through actors in their agricultural work.
What is APFMRP II?
Andhra Pradesh Farmer Market Readiness Program (APFMRP) II is a 2-year project in continuation of the APFMRP I program of Tanager supported by Walmart Foundation which ended in February 2020 and the second phase commenced in March 2020. The new phase is targeting 19,238 farmers and 13 farmer producer organisations (FPOs). The goal of the project is to improve farmer incomes by providing farmers with the knowledge, resources, and services for getting market-ready and reaching diverse markets for their produce. The goal will be accomplished by capacity building of FPOs and supply chain actors to address supply and demand constraints in targeted value chains. Tanager has also partnered with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) and is working with existing FPOs formed under Andhra Pradesh Rural Inclusive Growth Programme (APRIGP). Tanager also is working with ITDA in the tribal areas covering districts of East Godavari, Srikakulam, Anantapur and Vishakhapatnam for farmers growing cashew, peanut, coffee, millets, turmeric, pulses, sago, pepper and vegetables.
