Foods & nutrition
Adequate nutrition is a basic human need and prerequisite for health. Promotion of proper nutrition is one of the eight essential elements of primary health care. Nutrition surveillance is concerned with everything that effects health. A nutritional dimension, which deals with fundamental issues of making adequate quality of food of the appropriate quality, should be ensured through access to adequate food in quantity and quality for providing good health status, which is the need of the day.
Nutritional deficiency disorder can be prevented or cured by proper diet. These includes – Maintenance of positive health and optimal performance in population at large; Ensuring adequate nutrition of women during pregnancy and lactation; Improvement of birth weights and promotion of growth of infancy, children and adolescents to achieve their full genetics potential; Achieve adequacy in all nutrients and prevent deficiency diseases; Prevention of chronic diet related disorders; Increase in efficiency and life expectancy of all. In order to achieve these goals for improving the quality of life of the vulnerable groups, objectives of AICRP – FN were framed.
Human Development
Studies on growth and development of infants, children and adolescents are important as they provide developmental indicators of a Nation’s health. There is not much research work done in developing norms for rural children. The component of AICRP-Child Development has taken up” Establishing developmental norms for rural children ( birth to 6 years and 6-18/20 years).These norms will serve as guidelines for mothers & other professionals to know, study/ assess the child’s developmental level and plan intervention accordingly.
Indian society has vast number of ethnic groups, whose child care practices strongly reflect their specific culture. The information on developmental delays, disabilities across different settings is critically important for identifying vulnerable groups of children, requiring critical inputs. Child Development component also has taken up research on “Comprehensive child care through farm crèche “and “Exceptionalities among rural children- Prevalence & Etiology”. Rural children (especially girl children) are the most vulnerable among all the groups of population that require intervention for quality life.
Many girl children are forced in to adult lives due to early marriages & child birth. This erodes their capacity for normal growth & development and prevents them from developing educational qualifications essential for self development & empowerment. Thus a large section of human potential is wasted with out proper opportunities for becoming productive individuals. Hence AICRP-Child Development has taken up the project on “Situational analysis of the girl child” and “Empowerment of girl child for quality life” with an aim to enhance the quality of life of rural children.
Rural youth are the future of the agricultural sector. Young farmers play an important role in ensuring food security for future generations but they face many challenges. Hence Capacity development of youth engaged in agriculture was taken up in the XII Plan period, as well trained and competent Youth would be change agents for Sustainable Agriculture.
Besides this the project also focused on enhancing the Educational status of the Academically backward children by connecting to supportive development programmes such as Open schools & Vocational education for livelihood security. It also prepares the youth in coping with day to day challenges using Life skill approach for leading a healthy life style and thus maintaining harmony in the community
Family Resource Management
In a predominantly agrarian country like India, a radical change in the socio-economic conditions can be brought about, when developmental efforts are concentrated on rural masses in general and rural poor or the disadvantaged group in particular.
With a view to improve the quality of life in rural areas, emphasis needs to be given to (i) Increase in production and productivity, (ii) Equity in access to opportunities to earn income, access to public services, and access to productive inputs,(iii) Self-reliance, (iv) Peoples participation in development process.
The drudgery prone activities performed by women who need immediate attention are weeding, threshing, cutting fuel wood, bringing fodder for animals, cleaning animal shed, milking of animals etc. It is necessary to develop the improved tools for these activities for women farmers so that the physiological and muscular stresses of the said activities are reduced, and the efficiency of work is ensured and the safety and health status of the women are promoted. The component of Family Resource Management project has pioneered in designing drudgery reducing tools for women farmers and made modifications in the existing tools to improve the work environment and popularizing the various safety measures while using the improved tools.
Clothing & Textiles
Colouring fabrics using natural dye sources is a creative and pleasing art nurtured and patronized through centuries. India is one of the few civilizations to perfect the art of fixing natural dyes on cloth and enjoyed the monopoly for several centuries. Today, the faded antiquity is unveiling due to the concern manifested globally for saving the environment from pollution. How ever research in this area is negligible when compared to other dyes used for colouring textiles. There is vast scope for research in this area, which has been rightly taken up by the clothing and textiles component of AICRP on Home science.
Around 36 new natural dye sources were explored and their extraction and dyeing conditions were optimized on cotton, silk and wool. Shades of these natural colorants running to several thousands were developed to fill the gaps in natural colour spectrum meeting the ever changing fashion colour trends. Value Addition for Agro and Animal based Fibres, Standardization of dyeing with natural dyes, Eco-Holi campaigns, Software development, Standardization of printing procedure on cotton, Technology generation for production of value added products from agricultural and animal waste were some of the major activities under taken.
Extension Education
The farm women of today are confronted with the problems of illiteracy, drudgery, health hazards, psycho-social burdens and unpredictable conditions in the environment that cause an effect on agriculture production. They have to nurture and care for the family in the economic and life support resources. In view of these, the accent on development of rural women is now concentrated.
The quantitative and qualitative data from nine Agro-climatic zones of AP by capturing their multidimensional role – participation profile, decision making capabilities and time use pattern in farming, livestock management and homestead activities was generated. Data on indigenous knowledge of rural women with regard to animal husbandry, post harvest indigenous practices, maternal health practices and medicinal plants for health security was also collected, scientifically validated and documented.
This information will be helpful in planning capacity building programmes for women. In tenth five year plan, the concentration was on empowerment of rural women for quality life by enhancing their livelihoods and utilization of farm and non-farm waste. Promotion of livelihoods is essential for economic growth and to ensure social and political stability.