Women in agriculture: Their nutritional knowledge and roles in addressing hidden hunger

The comparative study sought to determine how women’s nutritional knowledge and their food production, food purchase and food preparation/consumption decisions, involvement and choices influence potential hidden hunger. The quantitative study utilized the survey method among purposively sampled farm women grouped whether they had preschoolers or not. In general, farm women with non-preschoolers are more decisive with choices in food production and food purchase, allocate higher budgets in food purchase, and mostly sourced fruit consumption from their farms. On the other hand, farm women with preschoolers got to decide which vegetables to cook and which fruits were eaten in the household, had patterns of consumption with more frequency and amount and sourced fruit consumption from purchases. Both samples were similar with their active involvement in food production, purchase and preparation/consumption, their places of purchase, and the number of vegetable and fruit varieties. It further showed that farm women generally have moderate levels of nutritional knowledge. The sources of this knowledge were family, relatives, and mass media. It was found that nutritional knowledge was influenced by educational attainment and children’s ages. Certain variables in food purchase and food preparation/ consumption were found to be influenced by level of nutritional knowledge. In general, the assessment showed that the examination of most of the findings in these proxy indicators reveal that farm women in both samples are more likely to prevent potential hidden hunger in their households. Furthermore, the assessment also revealed three lacking essential micronutrients in their diet, such as: vitamin D, iodine and magnesium. Finally, the study emphasized the relevance by which the sampling groups and the use of proxy indicators can help in providing new lengths of this research interest