Thirty-one-year-old Nargis Begum lives in Suryadi village of Sherpur district with her mother-in-law and a three-year-old child. Since the death of her husband, she has been taking care of the family by herself for the last two years. Her only source of income is some land left by her husband, on which she cultivates paddy.
She also kept cows, goats, and poultry. All her efforts were focused on ensuring a daily supply of nutritious food. At one point, an unknown disease began affecting the chickens, and she had to give up poultry farming, losing a portion of her income.
Now, on four decimals of the land next to the house, Nargis has carefully cultivated various types of vegetables, such as red cabbage, spinach varieties, and beans. She is using organic fertilizers in her vegetable field.
For the past four months, she has also been rearing poultry again, getting 17 eggs a month that go towards meeting her child’s protein requirement. The family eats chicken two or three days a month, saving most of the poultry to sell on the market.
While working in her vegetable field, she told this correspondent that she had received special training to produce nutritious vegetables without using harmful fertilizers. Cow, goat, or poultry houses are now regularly kept sterile and clean.
She did not know much about poultry farming before, but the government’s Smart Nutrition Model Village (Model Pusthi Gram) project helped change that.
Like Nargis, Suman Mia and Ambia Begum also received training under the project. Suman Mia closes his drug store one day a week when he and his wife tend to their vegetable garden. He now has 25 chickens at home.
Sahera Khatun and Idris Ali have five cows being reared in a hygienic way. He wants to sell two of them next Eid.
Under a project of World Vision Bangladesh, these three villages (Dobarchar, Charka Char, Suryadi) have been chosen to develop as models for the implementation of the District Nutrition Plan under the National Nutrition Plan to ensure the availability of nutritious and diverse food for marginalized people. A total of 360 families from each village have joined this project.
The lives of people in this village have been transformed due to the training under the government’s ‘Smart Nutrition Model Village (SNMV)’ initiative. The district and upazila nutrition coordinating committees are working together to implement the SNMV initiative in their respective areas in coordination with twenty-two different government departments, including the Department of Agricultural Extension, Animal Resources, Fisheries, Public Health Engineers, Health and Family Planning, and Local Government.
The international development organization World Vision Bangladesh and its partner organization UnnayanShangha are implementing a multisector nutrition project (BIeNGS) to support the “Smart Nutrition Model Village” initiative of the government. The Bangladesh Initiative to Enhance Nutrition Security and Governance (BIeNGS) is a multisector nutrition project aimed at improving maternal and child nutrition for 153,825 nutritionally vulnerable families, or more than 1.7 million people in Jamalpur and Sherpur districts. The project is co-funded by the European Union and the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Programme.
BIeNGS project manager Mohammed Jahirul Hoque said that the Smart Model Nutrition Village initiative is being properly supervised by District and Upazila Nutrition Coordinating Committees and local government representatives. It will serve as a milestone if implemented nationally across the country. BIeNGS project team leader Dr Mary Rashid said: “Through facilitation from the BIeNGS project, the ‘Smart Nutrition Model Village’ pilot being implemented by the government is expected to improve not only the nutritional status but also the standard of living of the community people. If the six-month pilot is successful, we hope this multi-sector initiative in public-private partnership will set an example for a country-wide scale-up.