ABSTRACT

Nutritional status is an important component of nutritional care and state of health of any individual. This study examined the anthropometric indices and dietary intake of rural farmers in Nkanu West Local Government Area Enugu, State. A total of 330 rural farmers were purposively selected and used for the study. Questionnaire was used to collect data on dietary habit, dietary intake and anthropometric information of the farmers. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and mean and standard deviation were used for the analysis. Results showed that about 36.7% had 6-10 years of farming experience, 41.2% have had 1-2 hectares of land while 43.9% share communal land. Similarly, about 96.4% used human labour in farming. Some (67.6%) ate three times a day, 46.1% ate heavy at lunch, 59.1% consumed vegetables twice a week, 42.4% consumed biscuit, 30.9% consumed moi-moi while 57.1% consumed minerals (coke, fanta, sprite, 7up, etc) and 26.1% preferred garri and soup. Food selection on food frequency was based on locally produced food (plant products). BMI results showed that 3.0% of the farmers were underweight, 72.4% were normal, 22.4% were overweight and 2.1% were obese. The result further showed that the number of meals consumed a day had positive relationship with their waist circumference; including waist hip ratio. Therefore, it was concluded that lack of adequate dietary pattern may result in poor nutritional status of the farmers; this could pre-dispose the farmers to non-communicable diseases and poor productivity. The study recommended that nutrition education, healthy eating pattern and nutrition intervention among others be made available to rural farmers by the various levels of government and organization.