Addressing child feeding concerns of women farmers in Mali: Composition and effects on child nutrition of a locally developed weaning food*

The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal root colonization on growth and nutrient uptake of two different cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) genotypes exposed to drought stress

“…is an economically important staple food crop in many semiarid regions of the tropics and subtropics, grown mainly by subsistence farmers under low input of agrochemicals or irrigation water (Timko and Singh, 2008). With a protein content of above 20%, cowpea beans and leaves constitute a nutritionally valuable component of the diet of the rural population in many parts of sub-Sahelian Africa and South America (Silva-Barbeau et al, 1998;Kabas et al, 2007). Due to its ability to produce rewarding yields even under adverse soil conditions such as Al toxicity, poor nutrient availability or drought (Kolawole et al, 2000;Labuschagne et al, 2008), cowpea is frequently cultivated on land only marginally suitable for crop production.…”

Women's Access to Food-Processing Technology at the Household Level is Associated with Improved Diets at the Pre-Harvest Lean Season in the Gambia

“…To ensure the possibility of finding statistically significant differences between groups, if indeed there were any, sample sizes were determined using power analysis. The results of a fortified weaning food study in Mali [3] were used to direct the power analysis. For this study, a control group of 40 women with preschool children (aged 1 to 5 years) and an experimental group of 80 women with children (aged 1 to 5 years) were selected.…”

“…Seasonal fluctuation in household food supply is well documented throughout West Africa [1][2][3], and The Gambia is no exception. The cyclic pre-harvest lean period occurs for many reasons, but is principally due to low household food supplies resulting from depleted food stores from the previous year's harvest and limited nonfarm employment opportunities, resulting in little income to purchase food.…”

“…The cyclic pre-harvest lean period occurs for many reasons, but is principally due to low household food supplies resulting from depleted food stores from the previous year's harvest and limited nonfarm employment opportunities, resulting in little income to purchase food. There is usually an increased incidence of malnutrition among children and adults during this period due to unmet dietary energy needs, coupled with the heavy labor demands of agricultural work and illness [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Welfare Gains from Quality Certification of Infant Foods: Results from a Market Experiment in Mali

“…5 The approach taken by Mali's Food Technology Laboratory (FTL) was initially to promote a mixture of 80% pearl millet and 20% cowpeas, both of which are widely grown by smallholders for home consumption. The FTL is a unit of the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), the national agricultural research service, and initially it followed a traditional farmextension model, encouraging households to make the flour at home (Haïdara, 1989;Bauer et al;Silva-Barbeau et al). But few households took their advice: it turns out that cowpeas are difficult to store and so are not usually available throughout the year, while the processing effort required was prohibitive particularly in periods of peak agricultural labor demand.…”