Dr. Liz Wood, PhD, recently published an article titled “Household decision-making around food in rural Tajikistan: a cross-sectional study to help extension workers in the field” in Food & Nutrition Research.
Dr. Wood co-wrote the article with Katharine McNamara, a PhD student in the Department of Environmental and Global Health, Nargiza Ludgate, from the University of Florida International Center, and Agata Kowalewska from the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department.
The article presents findings from the project Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES), under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dr. Wood began working on the project in 2016 and completed field work in Tajikistan with Masters of Public Health (MPH) students in 2017. In Tajikistan, Dr. Wood and other team members sought ways to address misconceptions about nutrition. This involved qualitative research methods such as conducting key informant interviews and focus groups to gauge where interventions could take place in rural communities. Based on this information, team members would make recommendations to agriculture extensions.
“I am happy that work like this is getting published in peer reviewed journals, most get reports or white papers, but this means the academic community is taking this more seriously,” said Dr. Wood. She hopes that this will shed light on this area of research.
Please visit here to access the full article.