From figure 5 you can see that up to the age of six months the development of weight is quite normal. Most children are in the normal zone, a number of children are in the zone of moderate malnutrition and in occasional cases children have severe malnutrition. (The conceptions normal zone, zone for moderate malnutrition and zone for severe malnutrition are taken from the official forms of Niger used at PMI).
From figure 6 you can see that after the age of 6 months there is an increase of the number of children with moderate and severe malnutrition. The curve gives a picture that the weight of most children is principally stagnating instead of increasing. The same tendency can be seen in some examples of individual children (appendix 5) and this can also be seen in the curve of the average weight with the children (figure 7). The weight development of children born the same month can be found in appendix 6.
According to the inquiry fura was part of the meal at 124 occasions out of 150. Fura was the only dish in 35 of the meals e.g. more than every fifth meal consisted of only fura. In another 20 cases the main dish was fura with some complement as pancakes, peanuts, dough-nuts, grasshoppers or some fruit.
Thus tuwo is a paste which can be compared with thick mashed potatoes or a porridge. You take pieces of the paste, dip them into the sauce and eat them. The sauce has a thick consistency, something that Nigeriens like.
Miya is mainly based on the leaves of baobab and sometimes on ladies' fingers or a mixture of the two. Occasionally miya was based on faku or on cassava. Other ingredients in the sauce are salt and bouillon, normally also daudawa, leaves of onion and fat. Meat is included in the sauce by nearly every second household. Unfortunately I cannot tell anything about the amount, as this was not part of the inquiry. Kalwa which is a "soumbala" like daudawa (see app. 3:A7) was included in one third of the sauces, but often it is not an alternative as both occur simultaneously. All ingredients and their frequency are shown in figure 10 and 11.
The third most common dish (I count tuwo and miya as one dish) is sagai. This steam-boiled dish consisting of leaves is included in 17% of the meals. Normally it was based on pea-leaves (harawa), sometimes on sour-sour (sure) and a couple of times on a mixture of the two. The leaves are mixed with millet flour before they are steam-boiled. Also salt, fat and onion leaves are included. Among other possible ingredients are Spanish pepper, pressed cakes of peanuts, bouillon capsules (all at a frequency of 50%). The ingredients are shown in figure 12 and 13. Daudawa which generally is added to miya, the sauce, nearly never is included in sagai, and when going through the dishes I got the answer that it is not used in sagai.
Sour-sour (sure) was also found in four cases as a dish itself, then cooked with spices. Except for those cases already mentioned, (miya with leaves from the baobab or faku, sagai with leaves from peas or from sour-sour) dishes with leaves were scarce. I found bagai only once! A reason why other leaves were not represented in the inquiry might be that the harvest was finished a few months ago, which means among other things that there was a good supply of dried pea leaves (harawa).
There were eight more dishes in the inquiry that have not yet been mentioned. Manioc was represented 3 times, once raw when it was eaten as a fruit and twice cooked. Koko is a soup or a bouillon preferred by some persons who consider fura a "child dish" and this dish was represented 3 times. Dough-nuts were also made of wheat flour and then called fari, represented twice. Melon was represented twice and yam once in the registered 150 meals.
All dishes, fruits etc. registered in the inquiry are listed in table 1 together with their frequency of use.
Table 1. Dishes, fruits etc. registered in the inquiry and their frequency in % of meals.
% % %
fura 83 rogo 2 kodo 1 Fruit: %
tuwo/miya 33 fari 1 kwaras-kwaras 1
sagai 18 wake 1 muyi-muyi 1 kalgo 7
masa 14 bagai 1 saga-saga 1 goriba 7
kosai 5 beruwa 1 kwalanche 6
nama 5 bisquits 1 aduwa 3
shakku 4 duaya 1 haya 2
sure 3 gabda 1 magarya 1
fara 2 galbi guna 1 dabino 1
koko 3 kalbata 1
The 20 households that gave special food to their children could give anything from a simple gruel to meat, dough-nuts and pancakes. Fura normally is available in most households, so it can be given to the children when needed. In spite of the fact that there were many animals in the village only two households mentioned that they had given milk to the children. Evidently those that can afford it buy pancakes or dough-nuts to give to the children.
At the dispensary the cooking of additional food was demonstrated once a week. This was performed in the following way: 12 measures (about 2,5 dl, i.e. totally about 3 litres) of water was put on the fire (using htree stones, the dispensary has no improved stoves). Afterwards one measure of millet, sorghum or maize (sometimes wheat) which first has been heated/roasted in an empty pot is mixed with 2-3 measures of the water on the fire. When the rest of the water boils the thickening is added as well as two lumps of sugar and a pinch of salt (three fingers).
The gruel should be stored in a pot with a tight lid. When the child has reached the age of 6 months they start to add either a spoonful of kuli-kili, a spoonful of mashed meat or an egg yolk.
Stoves are now also made in metal. This means that a big tin jar is cut into a suitable height, three spikes are fastened for the pot to stand on, and a hole is made in the bottom were wood can be put in. The metal stoves are not as efficient as the clay stoves, but one can take them along and use them anywhere. They can be taken indoors at night, so that the animals cannot tread on them, which sometimes happens with the clay stoves. On the other hand the tin plate stoves are apt to corrode, fire is not a measure of corrosion prevention.
Well over half (that is 29) of the households received the question about stoves or fireplaces. Ten households had working clay stoves. Of these ten households four had at least one broken clay stove. Households had at least two or sometimes three stoves.
Except for these 10 households further 6 households had clay stoves but these were broken. Two of these 6 had two broken clay stoves, 4 had only one clay stove and this was broken. In a broken stove the three stones are still there and often also part of the clay ring. The stove can still be used but not as efficiently.
Half of the households with (whole or broken) clay stoves also had metal stoves. The 13 households which did not have clay stoves had metal stoves, one or two each. The four households that had only one metal stove had the ordinary three stone fireplace as a complement. Further three households, i.e. totally seven households indicated that they used three stone stoves.
Daudawa is an important ingredient in nearly all food preparation in Chikal. Its production is explained in appendix 3:A7 and it is the seeds of the sour-sour that are used. A sample of daudawa has been analysed in respect to protein, fat, water and ash, which gives the following values: protein 15 g, fat 8 g, carbohydrate 24 g, ash 8 g per 100 g. An example of a simple preparation is to use dried leaves from the sour-sour (yakwa) and boil them together with daudawa. On one occasion I was given 150 g of yakwa which was cooked together with 30 g of daudawa in one litre of water for some minutes. Then it was eaten as leaf spinach with a sour taste.
For the local fruits that are included and that also was encountered during the investigations, there are no data of nutrient content available and this is true also for some other foodstuffs. An inquiry at the state-owned organisation in Niamey responsible for nutritional items showed that they had no data available neither for these fruits nor for other foodstuffs specific to the area.
Conclusions and diskussion
From this goal the following objectives can be described (compare with description of methods):
1. to acquire the food (to buy or to sow/cultivate/harvest)
2. to store the food (in silos, warehouses, jars)
3. to process/prepare the food (to ferment cassava, three-stone-stoves)
4. to ingest the food (frequency of meals, bulkiness, size of portions)
1. to carry out a united effort with interdependent activities in order to apply integrated techniques at some local farms,
2. to continue the research programmes from the second phase, and
3. to undertake a social-economic evaluation of the effects of different applied techniques.
The second objective of the pilot tests concerns the research programme. Knowledge has been attained about the behaviour of the different species and varieties of plants. Now the task is to find out how they work in practice. When it comes to the technical side the investigations will continue regarding which windpump is the best etc. It is difficult to improve the nutritional status without knowing anything about the anticipated results of activities and suggestions which have been carried out.
The objective to undertake a social-economic evaluation is already reached. Unfortunately the report was not available, and thus I have not been able to make an analysis of the nutritional aspects of the social-economic evaluation.
1. agriculture
2. protection and maintaining of soil - reforestation
3. applied technique and
4. social activities
The objectives behind the different activities could be described in the following way:
The approach of agriculture (1) consists of
a) activities during the rainy season with the objective to at least maintain the agricultural production with assistance from techniques and new varieties, and
b) dry season activities with the objective to diversify gardening and to exploit the products in order to improve the nutritional status in the area.
The approach to protect and to maintain the soil - reforestation (2) means activities like plant nurseries and plantations - hedges, wind shelters, village forests, with the objective to protect the ground against wind erosion and to secure a supply of wood.
The approach applied technique (3) means activities like
a) building techniques, with the objective to enable building not using wood.
b) to pump water (handpumps, windpumps), with the objective to get the water needed for gardening at drought.
c) improved stoves, with the objective to find stoves that consume less wood.
The approach of social activities (4) includes activities like literacy with the objective to teach the villagers to read and to write in the local language.
When it comes to activities in the dry season with the objective to diversify gardening with the exploitation of products in view, in order to improve nutritional status in the area, this is the only objective with an expressive nutritional aspect (see also the approach social activities below). To be able to realise the importance of these activities, one has to be informed about the food situation in the area. With the aid of the food investigation made in the village one can see that garden products with their nutrients are scarce in the diet in Chikal. This means that it is very important to increase the supply of vegetables.
The objective to protect the ground in approach 2 is important when it comes to the supply of food. An impoverished soil does not provide good possibilities for growing food. The objective to have a supply of wood is one of the most important from the nutritional point of view. This concerns the cooking of the food, which is done using wood. It is evident that a deficiency of wood has negative effects on the nutritional status. A secondary effect of planting forest is the fruit that one gets from the fruit trees, for example juju-berries, which gives an addition of important nutrients to the diet.
Regarding approach number 3, with the goal to build without using wood, the fact is that it is important to save wood, but also houses with such roofs enable an improvement of health status. When the roof is made neither of wood (in whether dirt can hide) nor straw (where insects can dwell) it is much easier to keep the house clean and in such a house it is easier to store food in a good manner.
The objective to supply water for cultivation in the dry season is a support for the production of garden products which gives important foodstuffs. But is it more important to use this clean water from a covered well for the watering of plants than to use it as drinking water or for cleaning?
The objective to supply improved stoves is important when it comes to the cooking of the food. In order to make delicious meals you need a good stove. The fact that one uses less wood for cooking means that the time needed for collecting wood decreases, so the time for gathering or buying food and for cooking it can increase. Moreover, a decreased need of wood means less deforestation and thus a better protection against deterioration of soil.
The objective to teach the villagers to read and to write is of importance for all nutritional objectives, as it facilitates the spreading of nutritional information. Before there was also a nutritional aspect in the approach of social activities, but due to the fact that staff is lacking, this has been postponed.
Table 2. Interdependent activities within PTV.
level: approach | Family | Field | Society |
| 1 agriculture | horticulture | varieties for cultivation | horticulture |
| 2 protect and maintain the soil | tree planting (wind break) | protect and regain soil, stop and take care of water, replanting. (wind break) | larger reforestation projects tree planting foresting |
| 3 applied technique | improved stoves buildings | animals for plowing etc. | bring up water |
| 4 social activities | education: sanitation, hygiene, nutrition | simple descriptions of farming technique | literacy |
During the rainy season the farmers working in the pilot project get access to other varieties, and in a technical "package" they get information about ways to cultivate and about need of manure and chemicals. In this first phase the project supplies the farmers with these. At the same time there is an evaluation of the result and an economic compilation to see if it is practically possible for the farmers to run farming in this way.
In the dry season the activities mean dry season cultivation which takes place in enclosures and with the assistance of pumped subsoil water. Many crops new to the area are cultivated and the project distributes seeds on credit, and gives advice about cultivation.
The approach to protect and to maintain the soil - tree planting (2) means activities such as plant nurseries and the planting of hedges, wind shelters and village forests. Many different varieties of trees are tested, among others fruit trees suitable for dry regions.
The approach applied technique (3) contains many different activities. The building technique that has been elaborated means that houses can be built without using wood. The buildings of the project have been erected with this technique. A house, however, is not anything that one builds very often, so for this reason it has to be considered as a long term project relative to building houses for the local population. This technique has been of great interest to the country, among other things it will be used when building a new mining village in another part of Niger.
The pumping of water (handpumps, windpumps) is done within the project to acquire water needed for gardening in the dry season. In this connection servicing of the pumps is being taught, and a co-operative team is in charge of the pumps. The team collects money for spare parts and for lubricating and maintenance material.
Improved stoves is considered as something that every household should have, and with the assistance of the project these have become very common in just a few years. At present no specific effort is put in this activity.
The approach of social activities (4) means principally literacy. This teaching is done in the dry season when the harvest is done. They are taught to read and to write in Hausa. In this connection the teacher also tries to find suitable material of instruction that describe cultivating techniques, maintenance of pumps etc. in a simple manner.
The second objective, that of storing food, is not yet part of the activities of PTV. The farmers use warehouses for the storing of agricultural products, but the efficiency of the warehouses has not yet been investigated. The question is whether or how the warehousing of foodstuffs can be improved. It issaid that the losses may be up to 50%. As PTV is not working in this field, this study has not made any efforts to investigate this problem. I just want to mention once again that the new building technique introduced by PTV most certainly will improve the quality of storing food at home.
When it comes to the objective of processing/cooking the food, there have been activities towards improved stoves. The introduction of these stoves has managed well, and already after a short time they are common in the village. But maintenance is lacking. The result of the inquiry shows, that a third of the stoves were broken. In some cases they are still waiting for a person to build a new one, and in other cases they are waiting for a season with less work to be done in order to have time to build a new one. Moreover, I think that the literacy activities could be used for giving instructions about preparing food, especially when it comes to additional food for sucklings. This has not been taken care of, because there is a lack of staff for teaching nutrition. This can be seen very clearly in the data of weight/age with the children that have been registered at PMI in Chikal. These show a very low growth between 6 and 24 months.
The objective of eating food does not need much supervision. The knowledge about the diet in the area is too little to establish where any efforts should be put in, for example regarding the bulk size of children's meals. As the main consumption consists of cereals it must be a problem to eat enough for the small stomachs. For PTV you can see that the normal order of meals for the village (morning, noon, evening) has been upset by the work, as the workers have a break between 10 and 10.30 but no break at noon.
Conclusions and diskussion