Impact and analysis of horticulture and allied venture interventions on socio- economic status, nutritional and livelihood security of scheduled caste communities of district Ludhiana, India

The present study carried out in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana under DST- SCSP project to analyze the impact of horticulture and allied venture, on socio-economic status, livelihood and nutritional security of SC beneficiaries. There is no such study conducted in this context in these areas for SC population. Data to assess the impact of DST Project collected from 83 beneficiaries across the four blocks containing 08 villages from Ludhiana district through a structured questionnaire developed by the department of food and nutrition. The information on respondent's food consumption was collected using (24-hour recall). It was observed that around 70% beneficiaries had poor dietary quality largely based on cereals & pulses. Land holding varies 0.008 ha to 0.10 ha and literacy rate includes 36% illiterate. The unavailability of seed, land and low purchasing powers were major barrier in the vegetable consumption before the intervention period. Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and Food Variety Score (FVS) was calculated before and after the implementation of horticulture interventions with the same set of respondents. DDS and FVS reached from 5.98 to 8.48 and 17.78 to 26.18 respectively after interventions. In addition to this, mean consumption of green leafy vegetables, roots and tubers and other vegetables increased significantly from 1.5, 1.8, 1.8 to 4.2, 3.1, 5.0 respectively after establishing vegetable nutrition gardens in their home. As a result of interventions around 80 percent of respondents achieved dietary diversity with adequate micronutrient intake.