Nutrition Programme In Korea

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31981, 7 May 1969, Page 22

Nutrition Programme In Korea

In the little Korean village of Mang Po the seeds of a U.N.I.C.E.F. project which will reform the country’s poor diet are encouragingly under way. Mang Po was one of an initial group of five pilot villages, all of which are reporting good progress. Korea’s traditional diet is notoriously low in protein and heavy with parasites—and the first victims are the children. Among the cattle sheds and raised-floor, tile-roofed and rice-thatched houses clustered on Mang Po hill are patches now growing green and yellow vegetables to supplement the rice, Chinese white cabbage and white radish. There are hedges of protein-rich soy. New strains of soybean introduced by a F.A.0.-U.N.1.-C.E.F. nutrition expert, Dr Y. H. Yang, of Nationalist China, are half as big again as Mang Po’s normal beans. Extensions to some of the houses now contain Leghorn chickens: both the birds and the feed are supplied by U.N.I.C.E F. In a clearing on a rise, two older girls are organising a play school for the toddlers, to free their parents for the increased agricultural work. Songs and miming come to an end when one of the mothers organised by the Korean social workers arrives at the “village nutrition station” with bowls of hot soy-milk whey. The children eat this—another aspect of the U.N.I.C.E.F. project, in which local mothers cooperate—with obvious delight. Mang Po means “Big Pot,” so the hamlet seems to have ben predestined for a plan to improve nourishment in a country so busy overtaking the modern world, and achieving “economic take-off,” that problems like nutrition had been overlooked. Aid From N.Z.

Korea’s applied nutrition programme has started on a three-year budget of SUSI7O,000, of which $U524,000 was raised by New Zealand’s Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas (C. 0.RS.O.).

Approved by the Korean Government, F.A.0., U.N.I.-

C.E.F. and W.H.0., the project calls for increased production of “nutritionally valuable foods," including eggs, goat milk and fish, a nutrition education programme, the development of enriched foods to protect small children from disease, food preservation for the “hungry season” (winter), and personnel training. Korea’s Office of Rural Development Implements the scheme in its dally operation, which covered in its pilot year (which ended last summer) 363 families with 2346 members (in five villages). Five more villages have been added for the current year (1968-69). Forty-five more will be added in July, 1969, and 116 more villages in July, 1970. Raw Vegetables At present less than 30 per cent of Korea's inadequate protein is of animal origin. A major problem is that the average farm is only 0.9 hectares (just over two acres). Almost all fish is eaten dried or smoked, and is invariably “off” (deteriorated) often before leaving the ship. Most vegetables are eaten raw, pickled in vinegar and red pepper. In this form, known as kimchi, the parasites derived from nightsoil fertiliser are preserved as well. The first year of the scheme was partly employed on a baseline survey in all five pilot villages, on nutrition levels and parasites. Each pilot village started growing at least 100 square metres (approximately 120 square yards) of green and yellowleaf vegetables, using improved seeds and fertilisers. Some of these may become kimchi, while other forms of pickling and drying are being tried. New methods of storing sweet potatoes—the country’s third crop—have proved successful. Persimmon and apricot production is being stepped up under the U.N.1.C.E.F. project, using improved seedlings. Soybean production is to be raised from 570 kilograms (12541 b per hectare (approximately 2J acres) to about two and a half times that quantity. Soy is popular as shoots, as paste or as curd, or to make soy sauce.

Poultry Batteries Mang Po is one of two villages to have been started on poultry raising. It has five batteries of 30 birds—started

at two months for safety. Tbe cost of birds and feed will be reimbursed as breeding starts and a return is obtained from eggs. The Leghorns are producing an average of 24 eggs each a month: there is a requirement that the family raising the birds consume at least one-third of their production—about eight eggs a day for a six-member family. The country’s stock of 16,000 nanny-goats is to be enlarged- Proper feed, supplied hy U-N.I.C.E-F. to begin with, is expected to raise present average production of H litres (approximately 2} pints) of milk an animal to twice as much—enough for nearly 20 children. Five families in each of the pilot villages have received a shegoat, while one family also gets a ram. By 1970, 696 goats will have been distributed in this way. The recipient; will eventually replace all animals, at the Government Experimental Livestock Station, when lambing starts. Fish Production

Inland fish production is being stepped up also, with training of local fisheries officers in Nationalist China. A larger number of candidates will have short-duration training at home. Fish ponds and storage dams will be used to breed a type of Chinese carp which survives icing over. In this as in other aspects of the U.N.I.C.E.F. programme 4H (young farmers) and similar clubs have played and will play a role. U.N.I.C.E.F. has supplied fingerlings from Taiwan, with fish transport, oxygen tanks, nets, fertiliser and feed for the first year’s operation.

To develop this project, considerable training, both by courses and in-training, has marked the first 18 months. U.N.I.C.E.F. fellowships in Food Science and Applied Nutrition have enabled two top girl workers to study in London and Ibadan (a University in Nigeria). Three-month fellowships are being offered in Taiwan.

Well Improvement an<L’ ether sanitary reforms are j under way. New Government ”, legislation banning the use «• of nightsoil fertiliser progressively over the next eight ■ years should eventually eliminate the alarming propor- . tion of parasites in local fruit,. * vegetables and inland fish.— • U.N.I.C.E.F. release. ' '