Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security, Incomes and Health in Northern Uganda (BRENU). Training Module 2: Enhancing smallholder household dietary diversity through kitchen gardens curriculum and facilitators’ guide

Background
This training manual on the “Enhancing smallholder dietary diversity through kitchen gardens” has been developed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and used in the context of Building Resilience to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security, Incomes and Health in Northern Uganda (BRENU), an Action of the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU), a Government of Uganda programme implemented by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) together with a consortium of five co-implementers namely: i) Volunteer Effort Development Concerns (VEDCO); ii) the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC); iii) Ernest Cook Ultra Sound Research and Education Institute (ECUREI); iv) Kilimo Trust and v) Rikolto International , supported by the European Union and supervised by the Office of the Prime Minister.
As part of the consortium, ABC is responsible for conducting capacity building on nutrition for 2050 extension service providers representing 51,250 smallholder households. This training manual is part of a nutrition-sensitive package of formal training, informal technical assistance and mentoring services.

Purpose of manual
The knowledge disseminated by this manual is tailored for multi-sectoral nutrition sensitive interventions that include agriculture, market access, and maternal and child health. After implementation, the content disseminated by this training manual is expected to improve the nutrition sensitivity of agricultural activities and dietary diversity amongst farming communities in the Lango sub-region districts of Amolatar, Dokolo, Kwania, Apac, Otuke and Teso sub-region districts of Amuria and Kapelebyong. The communities will appreciate the importance of self-produced fresh fruits and vegetables in household diets and as sources of income.

Scope of training
This training manual is on the use of demonstration and kitchen gardens as approaches of enhancing dietary diversity and household incomes. These topics are covered in the context of the BRENU, an Action of DINU, a government of Uganda in Lango and Teso sub-regions. The manual is part of a three-part series of complimentary trainings; the other two being “Basic Concepts of Nutrition” and “Concepts of food preparation and utilization”.

Owori, M.; Ecii, J.; Opus, D.; Akullo, J.; Kato, F.; Nabuuma, D.; Ekesa, B.