Obesity remains to be a global health problem. Chile has been affected by the high prevalence of obesity in the infant population. Obesity is shown interchangeably at early ages, being necessary to investigate this behavior in age groups of 4 to 7 years. To this end, a general objective has been set: to evaluate the nutritional status, from the anthropometric point of view, of children from 4 to 7 years of age in the district of Arica, carrying out a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive-comparative study. As a result, it was found that there weren't statistically significant differences in the prevalence of obesity and overweight among girls and boys, although girls showed values of body mass index and percentage of fat mass discretely higher than boys and, the obesity increase was directly proportional to age.

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Collective operation of smallholder farmers and cooperatives has been attributed to many mishaps and malfunctions. Such knowledge creates misperceptions regarding agricultural cooperatives and their usefulness in development. This study investigated member commitment, group cohesion and membership retention in agricultural production cooperatives. The main aim was to identify possible practical measures for enhanced performance and increased sustainability in farmer organizations. Data was collected from 92 participants that were currently operating as cooperative members. A combination of descriptive statistics, Perceived Cohesion (PC) and Binary Logistic Regression methods were employed for analysis. Results of the study indicate that group cohesion is influenced by trust among members, internal communication, financial performance of the cooperative, involvement of members in decision making, and role of the organization in the community. Strategies for increased group cohesion that were recommended in the study include information sharing and transparency at all levels of operation, and collective decision making and planning in organizations.

The National Department of Science and Technology funded a project on demonstration agronomy of vitamin A-enriched sweetpotato in South Africa for job creation, enterprise development and ultimately addressing food security and malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency. This chapter reports on a competitive system for small-scale commercial farmers for the informal market, based on experiences of the well-developed commercial sweetpotato industry in South Africa. Capacity was developed in nursery management and handling practices for good quality cuttings, and agronomic and postharvest practices for fresh produce. Improved cultivars (high yield, dry texture) were promoted, focusing on orange-fleshed cultivars, but not excluding cream-fleshed cultivars. A gross margin analysis of cutting production was performed and market information collected through informal interviews. The project resulted in setting up of infrastructure at four nursery sites in four provinces (the Agricultural Research Council-Roodeplaat Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Institute (ARC-VOPI) and at the Universities of Fort Hare, Venda and Zululand) using disease-indexed stock plants of seven new cultivars propagated by the ARC sweetpotato scheme. Training was provided for 85 farmers in three provinces on: (i) vitamin A nutrition; (ii) cultivation practices; and (iii) handling, grading and packaging of sweetpotatoes for informal markets. Over 600,000 cuttings were issued to outreach activities of various government departments, and directly to farmers. The gross margin for cuttings production at ARC-VOPI was R36,110/ha (US$4248/ha). Small-scale commercial cultivation of vitamin A-enriched cultivars, ranging from 0.3 ha to 1 ha, in different climate and socio-economic settings, achieved a mean farm-level yield of 21.3 t/ha. During the 2012/13 growing season, an average of 25 ha of the vitamin A-rich sweetpotato was produced. The key attributes of a competitive system for smallscale commercial farmers were improved vine management procedures, and quality care at harvest time leading to quality fresh produce. In January 2013, roll-out of the programme to provincial level commenced, focusing on nursery enterprises as well as sweetpotato growers.