Abstract

Malnutrition consists of a deficiency, excess or imbalance of energy and other macro-and micro-nutrients that changes the body composition and function, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. This study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of behavioural-based nutrition education to increase fish consumption among school children using two types of pond in Province-3 and 4 of Nepal constructed in secondary level of four schools. The objective was to create awareness through establishing fish ponds in schools and educate adolescent students on the nutritional value of fish as a supplement to their regular diet.School community member selected 57 males and 64 females students including 2 teachers were trained during this programme.Results showed that the knowledge about the nutritive value and production system of fish in the pre-training was quite poor. At the end of the training, the knowledge of students on fish production and nutritive value of fish were significantly increased (p<0.05). Number of students scoring <40 decreased while number of students scoring 61-80 and >80 increased after training (p<0.05). Other observation was the significant increased consumption (times/year) of fish (13.1±7.1) and its frequent inclusion in the diet post training as compared to before training (7.7±3.3) (p<0.05). After six months of project establishment awareness about nutritive value of fish, family members of 14.5% students also constructed their own fish ponds at their home around after getting training. Thus, development of school ponds increased awareness on the value of nutrition and fish consumption in rural households by teaching school children and teachers about Aquaculture.

Key words: School children, aquaculture, nutrition, women group, Nepal.