Food Security and Nutrition in Rural Cambodia

Integration of Small-scale Aquaculture With Homestead Food Production for Improved Household Food Security and Nutrition in Rural Cambodia

The project is a three arm randomized control trial in rural Cambodia designed to evaluate the impact of homestead food production (home gardens) with and without fish ponds versus control on household food security, dietary intake of women and youngest child, biochemical nutritional status of women, and household livelihoods over a 22 month period. Baseline and end line surveys will be conducted that involve questionnaires and a blood sample.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Household Food Security
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Homestead Food Production plus small pond aquaculture; Behavioral: plant-based Homestead Food Production; Behavioral: a comparison group

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 900
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Cambodia
  • Prey Veng
    • Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, Cambodia
      • Rural Cambodia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must be represented by a woman.
• Must fall within the "poor" category in terms of community wealth rankings.
• Must have access to land (including homestead) for agriculture cultivation.
• Must have sufficient access to labor to undertake the homestead production activities.
• Must have a keen interest in participating in this action.
• Must have a least one child less than five years of age (in 80% of the target households).
• Have suitable land for pond and preferably own a small pond

In addition village model farm owners will:

• Have at least 1,200 square meters of land that can be used to establish the model farm;
• Have some disposable income to invest in the model farm for fencing and land preparation;
• Be productive, open to new ideas and willing to provide assistance to other households in the village;
• Be able and willing to maintain the VMF throughout the year;
• Commit to providing inputs and marketing support to group members at least during the project.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None, only that they don't meet the inclusion criteria

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: Control	Behavioral: a comparison group; No intervention.
Experimental: Homestead Food Production plus small pond aquaculture	Behavioral: Homestead Food Production plus small pond aquaculture; In the case of the aquaculture arm a pond will be dug if there is not an existing pond and fingerlings and brood stocks will be provided. Hatcheries will be established if there is not one within a reasonable distance of the farms.
Active Comparator: plant-based Homestead Food Production	Behavioral: plant-based Homestead Food Production; The village model farm will be provided with the necessary inputs to establish their farm including saplings seeds etc.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline in nutritionally related biochemical measures at 22 months	Haemoglobin (g/l) Haematocrit (%) Serum Ferritin (ng/ml) White Cell Count (x109/l) Red Cell Count (x1012/l) Mean Corpuscular Volume (fl) Mean Cell Haemoglobin (pg) Red Cell Width % Platelet Count (x109/l) Neutrophils % Eosinophils % Lymphocytes % Monocytes % Neutrophils # (x109/l) Eosinophils # (x109/l) Lymphocytes # (x109/l) Monocytes # (x109/l) C-Reactive Protein (mg/l)	At baseline and 22 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
24-hour dietary recall	At baseline and 22 months
Mid-upper arm circumference	At baseline and 22 months
Household Food Security Scale	At baseline and 22 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Tim Green, PhD, University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Williams BA, Cochrane KM, Fischer JAJ, Aljaadi AM, McAnena L, Ward M, McNulty H, Kroeun H, Green TJ, Whitfield KC, Karakochuk CD. The Homozygous Hemoglobin EE Variant Is Associated with Poorer Riboflavin Status in Cambodian Women of Reproductive Age. J Nutr. 2020 Jul 1;150(7):1943-1950. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxaa119.
• Michaux KD, Hou K, Karakochuk CD, Whitfield KC, Ly S, Verbowski V, Stormer A, Porter K, Li KH, Houghton LA, Lynd LD, Talukder A, McLean J, Green TJ. Effect of enhanced homestead food production on anaemia among Cambodian women and children: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Matern Child Nutr. 2019 May;15 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):e12757. doi: 10.1111/mcn.12757.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: June 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 20, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 4, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): May 8, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 10, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 8, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: H12-00451