ECOSUN: Healthy Farm, Healthy Food Healthy Kids

Vietnam’s concentrated efforts and remarkable socio-economic growth over the last two decades were critical to reducing malnutrition by more than 70 percent. Yet despite this progress, food insecurity and chronic malnutrition are still significant problems.

With an estimated population of 93 million, nearly 12 million Vietnamese people are undernourished. In rural areas where poverty is high, food insecurity and malnutrition are especially prevalent among women and children. Malnutrition affects an estimated 780,000 children in Vietnam, with 27.5% of them showing stunting and 16% being underweight.

Ryerson researchers and the National Institute of Nutrition, a branch of the Ministry of Health in Vietnam, are collaborating on a project that aims to improve nutrition and food security for Vietnamese children. With funding from Global Affairs Canada and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the project applies and tests a food systems approach to scale-up production of fortified complementary foods for daily child feeding in three rural provinces - Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Ha Giang using locally sources raw materials from female farmers. These provinces are located in northern Vietnam along the border with China and have some of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the country.

Updated January 2018