IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ajfand/334036.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The status of Uganda’s food-based Vitamin A deficiency mitigation strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Hyejin

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) threatens public health especially among children in developing countries. Various interventions and their efficacy have been much discussed at a global level to alleviate VAD. Yet, studies indicate individual countries afflicted with VAD may be running relevant programs without adequately updated data or evidence from situational analyses. This study takes Uganda as a case to examine the status of its existing VAD mitigation programs, focusing on food-based interventions. To review the VAD mitigation programs, nationally representative data from the Ugandan public institutions, policy documents from the government and VAD-relevant data from the United Nations agencies were mainly examined. Also analyzed in detail were published studies and working papers directly or indirectly related to Uganda’s VAD and/or VA issues. The results from the review pointed to some evidence on the existing issues with the country’s VAD mitigation strategies. First, gauging a temporal trend of VAD prevalence in the target population was not possible due to changes and inconsistencies in the survey formats and methodologies. This implies the present VAD interventions might rely on unsynchronized VAD assessments in the first place. Second, of the ongoing food-based VAD interventions, effectiveness of food fortification with VA seemed constrained by questionable food vehicle choices, reluctant food industries, low stakeholder engagement, and weak public supervision. Third, for biofortification, wide adoption/utilization of the VA-biofortified orange sweet potato appeared to be complicated by farmer and consumer preferences, social factors, and immature value chains of the crop. But adoption/utilization of the genetically modified VA-biofortified banana seems to have been even more complicated by additional issues around the relevant biotechnology law of the country and public concerns about the genetic modification. Collectively, these VAD interventions in Uganda appeared to be continued without sufficiently updated documents and monitoring frameworks. This suggests that Uganda should review its current VAD interventions for more effective and efficient VAD mitigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Hyejin, 2022. "The status of Uganda’s food-based Vitamin A deficiency mitigation strategies," African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), vol. 22(03).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:334036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/334036/files/Lee21735.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Enoch M. Kikulwe & Ekin Birol & Justus Wesseler & José Falck‐Zepeda, 2011. "A latent class approach to investigating demand for genetically modified banana in Uganda," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(5), pages 547-560, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Schnurr & Sarah Mujabi-Mujuzi, 2014. "“No one asks for a meal they’ve never eaten.” Or, do African farmers want genetically modified crops?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 643-648, December.
    2. Vincent Smith & Justus H. H. Wesseler & David Zilberman, 2021. "New Plant Breeding Technologies: An Assessment of the Political Economy of the Regulatory Environment and Implications for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Fitzsimmons, Jill Ann & Colantuoni, Francesca & Cicia, Gianni & Del Giudice, Teresa, 2014. "Human Values and Consumer Preferences for Extrinsic Credence Attributes in the German and Italian Markets for New Potatoes," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170672, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Gschwandtner, Adelina & Jang, Cheul & McManus, Richard, 2018. "Improving Drinking Water Quality in South Korea: A Choice Experiment," 92nd Annual Conference, April 16-18, 2018, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 273472, Agricultural Economics Society.
    5. Adelina Gschwandtner & Michael Burton, 2017. "The Willingness to Pay for Organic Attributes in the UK," Studies in Economics 1702, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    6. Kouser, Shahzad & Qaim, Matin, 2012. "Valuing financial, health and environmental benefits of Bt cotton in Pakistan," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126544, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Athukorala, Wasantha & Karunarathna, Muditha & Wilson, Clevo & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "Conservation of Genetic Resources of Crops: Farmer Preferences for Banana Diversity in Sri Lanka," Journal of Forest Economics, now publishers, vol. 35(2-3), pages 177-206, March.
    8. Samane Zare & Mahdi Asgari & Timothy Woods & Yuqing Zheng, 2020. "Consumer proximity and brand loyalty in craft soda marketing: A case study of Ale‐8‐One," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 522-541, October.
    9. Pambo, Kennedy O. & Okello, Julius J. & Mbeche, Robert & Kinyuru, John N., 2016. "Consumer Acceptance of Edible Insects for Non-Meat Protein in Western Kenya," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246317, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    10. Kikulwe, Enoch M. & Birol, Ekin & Wesseler, Justus & Falck-Zepeda, Jose Benjamin, 2013. "Benefits, costs, and consumer perceptions of the potential introduction of a fungus-resistant banana in Uganda and policy implications," IFPRI book chapters, in: Falck-Zepeda, Jose Benjamin & Gruère, Guillaume P. & Sithole-Niang, Idah (ed.), Genetically modified crops in Africa: Economic and policy lessons from countries south of the Sahara, chapter 4, pages 99-141, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Dalemans, Floris & Muys, Bart & Verwimp, Anne & Van den Broeck, Goedele & Bohra, Babita & Sharma, Navin & Gowda, Balakrishna & Tollens, Eric & Maertens, Miet, 2018. "Redesigning oilseed tree biofuel systems in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 631-643.
    12. Li, Wenying & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2019. "The implications of heterogeneous habit in consumer beverage purchases on soda and sin taxes," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 111-120.
    13. Wesseler, Justus, 2014. "Biotechnologies and agrifood strategies: opportunities, threats and economic implications," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 3(3), pages 1-18, December.
    14. repec:ags:ijag24:345244 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Adelina Gshwandtner & Cheul Jang & Richard McManus, 2017. "Improving Drinking Quality in South Korea: A Choice Experiment," Studies in Economics 1720, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    16. Mirzobobo Yormirzoev & Ramona Teuber & Daniil Baranov, 2018. "Is Tajikistan a Potential Market for Genetically Modified Potatoes?," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(1), pages 216-226.
    17. Birol, Ekin & Asare-Marfo, Dorene & Karandikar,Bhushana & Roy, Devesh, 2011. "A latent class approach to investigating farmer demand for biofortified staple food crops in developing countries: The case of high-iron pearl millet in Maharashtra, India," HarvestPlus working papers 7, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Feyaerts, Hendrik & Maertens, Miet, 2021. "The Market for Onions or Lemons? Import Substitution and Consumer Preferences in Senegal," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315170, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Tushemereirwe, W.K. & Wale, E. & Ortmann, G.F. & Akankwasa, k., 2013. "Farmers’ choice among recently developed hybrid banana varieties in Uganda: A multinomial logit analysis," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 52(2), March.
    20. Allen, Karen E. & Moore, Rebecca, 2016. "Moving beyond the exchange value in the nonmarket valuation of ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 78-86.
    21. Mohammed H. Alemu & Søren B. Olsen & Suzanne E. Vedel & Kennedy O. Pambo & Victor O. Owino, 2015. "Consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for edible insects as food in Kenya: the case of white winged termites," IFRO Working Paper 2015/10, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:334036. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ajfand.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.