Influence of Capacity Building on Nutrition Sensitivity of the Municipal Agriculture Development Plan in Calabarzon, Philippines
Kim Leonard G. dela Luna, Maria Theresa M. Talavera, Leila S. Africa, Clarissa B. Juanico, Nancy A. Tandang, and Marison Felicidad R. Dy
Received: April 22, 2022/ Revised: April 29, 2023/ Accepted: May 08, 2023 https://doi.org/10.62550/DJ041022
To improve the nutrition sensitivity of the Municipal Agriculture Development Plan (MADP) of Calabarzon, a one-group pre-test post-test design quasi-experimental study was conducted involving the Local Agriculture Planners (LAP) of 57 municipalities in the region from March to December 2021. Wilcoxon Paired Signed Rank was used to determine significant differences in the nutrition sensitivity of the MADP and level of knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy of the LAP before and after the intervention. Binary logistic regression analysis was also performed to model the change in the level of the nutrition sensitivity of the MADP. The LAP's level of knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy as well as the nutrition sensitivity of the MADP significantly improved after the capacity building. The study also found that the change in knowledge of municipal agriculturists may increase the nutrition sensitivity of the MADP by 28%. Therefore, capacitating LAP on nutrition-sensitive agriculture can significantly improve their capability to create local agriculture plans that are also nutrition-focused.