Bio: Shirisha Junuthula received her MSc and PhD in Foods and Nutrition from Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension Management from National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), India. Currently working as a Project Associate at MANAGE, an apex body of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare, Govt of India. She is working for The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture. Her earlier projects were focused on Self Help Groups (SHGs), Midday meals program evaluation, Millet consumption among Tribal and Urban population, Urban farming & Microgreens conducted in association with ICRISAT and MHRD.

Project summary: Extension Advisory Services (EAS) providers are an excellent entry point for sharing nutrition knowledge and developing farmers’ healthy nutrition attitudes and practices in a culturally appropriate manner. However, there is no standardised and validated tool available in literature to assess the Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) knowledge and gaps in EAS Staff training in India. This is a major constraint in development, design and implementation of training programs for the promotion of NSA. The proposed research project under the fellowship will aids to develop a validated standardised scale for the EAS staff in the context of NSA. The scale will be developed and validated qualitatively and quantitatively. The developed metric facilitates the design of capacity building and training programs for EAS workers for promotion of NSA. The capacity building and training programs can be tailored to the specific knowledge gaps of EAS workers in different locations. It is very crucial to identify the training needs of the EAS, since they are the connectors between government and farmers for implementation of many agriculture and nutrition related programs. Training needs identification will help in planning the suitable training to translate agriculture into being more nutritionally sensitive.

Briefing note:

Knowledge Assessment on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Scale (KANSAS) for Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) staff in India