Graduation ceremony of RSPs promoting organic agriculture held

Islamabad: Twenty five Rural Service Providers on success completion of their nutrition sensitive micro initiatives have been awarded certificate at the Graduation Ceremony of Nutrition in Mountain Agro Ecosystems (NMA) Project held here on Wednesday, says a press release.

Nutrition in Mountain Agro-Eco Systems (NMA) is a project which in order to have sustainable impact on the nutrition situation of the people/community focuses on nutrition sensitive Agriculture (NSA). This project is conceived by IFOAM Organics International and funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) global. The project is promoting NSA and is being implemented in the five mountainous communities around the globe i.e. Pakistan, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia and Peru through a consortium of IFOAM, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation and FiBL.

The question arises why this project in Pakistan? According to the National Nutrition Survey of 2010-11, over 40% of women in Pakistan are either underweight, overweight/obese, anaemic, iodine deficient or zinc deficient while 40.9 per cent of children under 5 years are stunted, 30.3 per cent are underweight; and 16.8 per cent are wasted. Poor sanitation and hygiene practices and unavailability of safe and clean drinking water particularly in rural areas further exacerbate the nutritional status of women and children with increased morbidity and losses of nutrients from the human body.

The project is being implemented in the Beer Valley of District Haripur and is unique being multidimensional in its approach such as:

The project is promoting organic agriculture; secondly it is focusing on most vulnerable communities such as mountainous rural communities; the ability to connect the project members/stakeholders of all the implementing countries on virtual page called Mountain Agro Action Network (MAAN), this is the platform where all the members are connected through internet and are sharing their experiences.

Generated a cadre of local resource pool in the form of a group of likeminded individuals from different walks of life having interest in the revival of nutrition sensitive agriculture practices. These individuals are called Rural Service Providers (RSPs) and are also the members of MAAN Page.

At the occasion, Shazia Hina, Project Coordinator NMA gave a brief introduction of the NMA Project to the participants. The RSPs have also shared their experiences and achievements in the field.

NMA Story book “Connecting Roots with Soil” was also launched during the ceremony. The book was about the real life stories of the people showing how they have changed their farming practices, nutritional habits and what they feel as they are reverting back from artificial to the natural and organic origins of soil, nutrition and agriculture in mountain agro ecosystems.

She congratulated the 25 graduated RSPs. She declared this pool of 25 individuals as a resource for NMA and has shared that they have still a long way to go and contribute in the advocacy around the cause of Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture.

Aslam Shaheen, Chief Nutrition and Focal Person for SUN was the chief guest of the ceremony. He congratulated the 25 RSPs on successful implementation of micro interventions and applauded the role of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation being the member of SUN CSA and assured that SUN promotes the interventions like NMA Project. He also shared about the value additions of mutual efforts carried out by NMA project and SUN CSA.

Babar Khan, Chief Health and SUN Focal Person KP, Dr. Arjumand Nizami, Country Director HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Pakistan, Konrad, Academy Manager IFOAM and Agha Shabir, Naib Nazim Haripur also spoke on the occasion.