CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Food is one of the basic needs of man. Our body needs food to do its work. Food is vital to life and may be any solid or liquid substance which when eaten and digested by the body, provides it with necessary materials to enable it grow, replace worn-out and damaged parts and to function normally. The human body is like a complex piece of machinery in that it is prone to faults and weaknesses if it is poorly maintained. This can happen if the daily food intake is in any unbalanced form. Again, any nutritious substance that people or animal eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth (Wikipedia dictionary.com, 2011). In essence, food is made up of nutrients.

Food and nutrition is one of the branches of Home Economics which deals with food and its nutrients. It includes food processing, presentation, food preparation, meal management and services. Lack of adequate intake of these nutrients lead to poor nutritional needs on the academic performance among the primary school children, in particular primary six pupils in rural areas.

Anazonwu, (2003) pointed out that the wealth of a nation depends to a large extent on the health of these citizens. She further said children are the future generation who are expected to grow up in good health, productive adults, likewise are able to make a full contribution towards the economic and social progress of their country. In other words, health is wealth.

Pyke (1982) says that poor diet and disease actually result from underlying causes related to insufficient access to food by families or household. Inadequate caring practices provide vulnerability of the members of the family, in particular, children may be exposed to poor nutrition. It is necessary to identify in a specific situation what constitute the major constraints to providing adequate access to food, to health services and to certain extent education.

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