Kasama District Commissioner Kelly Kashiwa has urged staff in health facilities to heed to government’s call to promote food production activities as a means of improving the nutrition and health of people in communities.
Mr Kashiwa said health workers have a duty to educate people on maintaining healthy diets and growing of locally available nutritious crops, hence the need to have gardens at their facilities for demonstration purposes.
He said government through the Ministry of Health has realized that the provision of medical care alone is not enough in the fight against malnutrition and stunting.
Mr Kashiwa added that the gardening initiative is also aimed at reducing the dependency on funding for feeding of in-patients receiving medical treatment in health facilities.
He said this when he graced a training for health workers being held at Musa Farm institute and organized by Scaling-up Nutrition Technical Assistance (SUN-TA) Project.
The District Commissioner has since hailed SUN-TA for supplementing government’s efforts in reducing malnutrition and stunting.
And SUN-TA Northern Province Regional Coordinator McDonald Mulongwe said the health workers are a key partner who should encourage people to maintain gardens for improved nutrition levels at household level.
Earlier, Food and Nutrition Commission Provincial Coordinator Fanwell Kapila noted that a multi-sectorial approach is important in dealing with nutrition matters.
