Nutritional status and dietary diversity of communities in the FoodLAND project: case of Central Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

The study tries to assess nutritional status, dietary practice and dietary diversity of the rural communities’ particularly rural households as well as the dietary practice among children 0-59 months and women using survey data collected from 561 households in Central Tigrai Zone, northern Ethiopia. The results indicate that the minimum dietary diversity among women of reproductive age group is far beyond the minimum requirement, only 3.1% of the respondents had food groups five or more during the survey time which might indicate low nutrient intake and can cause poor pregnancy and delivery outcomes. Grains, roots/tubers and pulses were most consumed foods by the women during the last 24 hours the day before the survey. It also turns out that almost all animal source foods (ASFs) and diets that are rich in micronutrients are greatly missed from the mothers’ diets. Concerning household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and the food consumption score (FCS), the results indicate that it is far from the minimum country recommendations. The study outlines some recommendations based on the findings.