An evaluation of nutrition, culinary, and production interventions on the consumption of African Indigenous Vegetables in Western Kenya

Background and objectives: Food security continues to worsen in sub-Saharan Africa. African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) are yet to be fully exploited to achieve food and nutritional security. The objective of this study was to evaluate the programmatic impact of AIV interventions on food security and diet quality. Methods: Smallholder farmers (18 to 65 years) from five counties in Western Kenya were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: 1. control (Trans Nzoia County, n=61); 2. production intervention (PI), which addressed key bottlenecks such as cultural practices, improved technologies and seeds, integrated pest management, and irrigation and drought tolerance (Nandi and Kisumu County, n=64); 3. nutrition and culinary intervention (NCI), which addressed daily intake guidelines, recipe and meal preparation, nutrition for each AIV and bodily processes supported (Bungoma County, n=55); and 4. NCI and PI (Busia County, n=70). Quantitative baseline and endline surveys were administered in October 2016 and June to July 2019, respectively. The impact evaluation was analyzed by Household Hunger Scale (HHS), Women's Dietary Diversity Score (WDDS), AIV consumption frequency, and AIV market availability. Results: Seasonal differences resulted in an overall decrease in WDDS, HHS, and consumption frequency between baseline and endline. Despite this, postintervention, households that received NCI and PI as well as households that received only NCI demonstrated a protective effect as measured by a higher WDDS and HHS relative to the control: WDDS 5.1 ± 1.8 and 4.9 ± 1.7 vs 4.2 ± 1.5, p=0.01; HHS 0.9 ± 1.5 and 0.8 ± 1.4 vs 0.3 ± 1.0, p=0.029. In addition, between baseline and endline, there was an overall increase in the percentage of respondents that reported an adequate supply of key AIVs, particularly for households that received PI. Furthermore, seasonal effects caused a reported shift in the primary location for purchasing AIVs from the village to the town market. Conclusions: Nutrition and culinary intervention, particularly when coupled with production intervention, provided a protective effect against the seasonal decline of availability and subsequent consumption of AIVs. Applications of such interventions have the potential to improve food security in rural Kenya.