Nutritional Status of Vegetable Cultivators of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Background: West Bengal is a major producer of fresh vegetables in India. Despite that the farmers belongs to the low socio-economic group and thus their food insecurity exists, necessitating assessment of their nutritional status. Methods: Based on their activity level, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of 333 vegetable cultivators of North 24 Parganas district comprising of both males and females. Using 24-hr dietary recall questionnaire, the daily nutritional intake were evaluated to estimate nutritional insufficiency, including that of vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin and vitamin C, iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium. The collected data were statistically analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test using SPSS (version 22). Result and Conclusion: Deficiency of micronutrients is common among the vegetable cultivators, along with excess intake of energy which create imbalance in the nutrient intake irrespective of gender and activity levels.