Role and contribution of vegetables in mitigating malnutrition through a sustainable food reserve program

ABSTRACT

Consumption patterns in Indonesia are unbalanced resulting in malnutrition. A government-initiated intervention program called sustainable food reserve was designed to increase consumption of vegetables by developing a model of garden vegetable production for home consumption. This study analyzed the role, and contribution, of vegetables in the program to estimate available nutrition and determined the value of vegetables in the program. A structural equation model was used. Many types of vegetables were grown by program-participants. Vegetable consumption increased and provided contributions to balanced food consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Balanced food pattern
• desirable dietary pattern
• home garden farming
• Indonesia
• nutritious contents
• structural equation modeling
• vegetable consumption

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mr Saiful Hosni, Mr Krisnadi, Mr Putu B. Daroini, Ms Hanik A. Dewi and Dr Evy Latifah of the Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology East Java and Ms Ida of East Java Province Food Security Agency, as well as household groups of sustainable food reserve program for providing useful information. The authors acknowledge the Food Security Agency and Institute for Agricultural Technology, East Java, for providing data in this study. Any errors and shortcomings in the results of analysis and interpretations are the responsibility of the authors.