“NUTRITION EDUCATION AS AN INTERVENTION FOR LOCALLY AVAILABLE INDIGENOUS PLANT CROPS FOR RURAL WOMEN”

The present study was carried out with the objectives to assess the nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the selected rural women regarding the utilization of indigenous food items, developing the nutrition education materials for the intervention to increase the utilization of indigenous food items and to find out the impact of intervention on nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices of the selected rural women. A total number of 160 women beneficiaries aged 25-40 years were randomly selected from chaka and jasra blocks of Allahabad district for the study. To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of selected rural women regarding consumption and utilization of locally available underutilized green leafy vegetables data was collected using a developed questionnaire which lead to the fulfillment of the objectives of this study. To motivate benificiaries to develop skill and confidence to adopt positive and lasting attitude and practices towards consumption of underutilized green leafy vegetables Documentary Film was prepared as it is audio visual method of imparting nutrition education. Recipe Book consisted of 25 nutritious recipesproviding information about cooking directions and recipes of indigenous food items. The prepared recipe book and documentary film provided nutrition education related to utilization and consumption of locally available indigenous food items and their utilization in various traditional recipes were successfully projected in front of rural women. Regular visits were made once a week for 30 days. From the study it was found that mean percentage of knowledge rose from 43.12 at pre exposure stage to 85.15 at post exposure stage. Significant rise in attitude was seen i.e. 28.24 percent at pre exposure stage to 91 percent at post exposure stage after imparting nutrition education. Practices regarding consumption of locally available indigenous food items changed from 45.63 to 83.5 percent. Thus recipe book and documentary film proved out to be an effective tool for educating the rural women and bringing out a change in their Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding locally available indigenous food crops.