scholarly journals Can home gardening significantly reduce food insecurity in South Africa during times of economic distress?

2021 ◽  
Vol 117 (9/10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Carstens ◽  
Richard Hay ◽  
Michael van der Laan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Rainwater Harvesting ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Home Gardening

South African food distribution. Existing challenges will be greatly exacerbated by an economic recession projected to be worse than the Great Depression. Home gardens are decidedly utilised to fortify food security and economic resiliency in the face of crises, especially in impoverished communities. For these communities, home garden produce favourably augments diets consisting predominantly of industrially produced staples and the surplus yield can be sold. Despite many campaigns to alleviate food insecurity – some aimed at developing industrial agriculture and others to establish and uplift home gardens – malnutrition and hunger still plague the impoverished. Dissection of these campaigns reveals common flaws in those that failed and key aspects related to those that succeeded, with successful projects even managing to provide a household’s total supply of vegetables. One of the crucial failings was a ‘top-down’ approach that condescended to participants, ignoring existing knowledge, preferences and social consolidation whilst focusing on meticulously consistent packaged methodologies. Successful projects exalted recipients’ own bid for food sovereignty and increased individual and community capacity by providing insightful consultation and access to requested necessary inputs. Obstacles especially present in South Africa include drought and collapse of social capital after withdrawal of institutional support. It has been proven possible that these can be overcome with application of technologies, such as rainwater harvesting, and the creation of common cause such as in national drives. This review of the literature clearly reveals that purposefully uplifted home and community gardens alleviate food insecurity.

scholarly journals Determinants of home gardening participation among rural households: evidence from ingquza hill local municipality, South Africa.

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Yanga Nontu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Local Municipality

The participation of rural households in home garden production, which is a premise of income and food security, is very low. Therefore, this study investigated factors influencing rural households’ participation in home gardens from Ingquza Hill Local Municipality, South Africa. This is against a background where literature and development circles suggest that household home gardens can significantly improve food security and household income. Despite the fact that home gardens are a source of income and food security, rural households’ participation is claimed to be very low, suggesting several factors worth explaining. The study used cross-sectional survey data from rural communities of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa (n = 200), to estimate participation drivers. The initial sample was stratified into two groups; home gardeners and non-home gardeners. For home gardening participants, a census was carried out due to their limited numbers. For non-participants, convenience and purposive sampling was used focusing on households with similar socioeconomic characteristics and close to participants for pairing purposes. Using stratified purposive convenience sampling, two homogeneous mutually exclusive strata were created (stratum “A”; “HGs participants”: n = 87 and stratum “B”; “HGs non-participants”: n = 113) for an independent analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Regression results revealed that home garden participation was influenced by gender, education, household income, extension services, access to arable land, and credit access. This paper concluded that education, household income, access to extension services, and access to arable land were the major factors capable of positively influencing household participation in home gardening. In contrast, gender and access to credit were negatively associated with household participation in home gardening. Therefore, the paper calls for government policies and intervention programs targeting home gardening to improve rural household participation in home gardens.

Ethnobotanical Wealth of Home Gardens

2022 ◽  
pp. 594-615
Author(s):  
Bimal K. Chetri ◽  
Namgay Rinchen ◽  
Karma Wangchuck
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
In Situ Data ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Sample Data

The use of ethnomedicinal plants of home gardens has played an important role in treating minor illnesses related to physical and psychological wellbeing among rural folks. Local healers often use plants from their home garden or nearby forest. In this chapter, the traditional uses of medicinal plants using various tools with sample data have been used to facilitate ethnobotanical research on home gardens. Samples measuring the relative importance of species through quantitative analysis are tabulated. These tools, if applied during in-situ data collection, would help generate reliable information on characteristics of home gardens and medicinal plants. Conservation of medicinal plants from the perspective of home gardening is important. To document how medicinal plants are used to treat different diseases, their use value and ethical considerations would be significant for bioprospecting of medicinal plants and protecting intellectual right of the associated traditional knowledge.

Competing Discourses of Household Food Insecurity in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsofia Mendly-Zambo ◽  
Dennis Raphael
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Household Food Insecurity ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Feeding Programs ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Access To Food

Household food insecurity (HFI) impacts over 1.7 million households in Canada with adverse effects upon health. As a signatory to numerous international covenants asserting that access to food is a human right, Canadian governments are obliged to reduce HFI, yet Canadian governments have done remarkably little to assure that Canadians are food secure. In the absence of government action, HFI has spawned numerous non-governmental means of managing the problem such as food banks, feeding programs, and community gardens and kitchens. These efforts have depoliticized the problem of HFI, making its solution more difficult. Solving HFI is also complicated by the presence of five competing discourses of HFI in Canada: nutrition and dietetics, charitable food distribution, community development, social determinants of health, and political economy which offer differing causes and means of responding to HFI. We argue that the least considered discourse – the critical materialist political economy discourse – best accounts for the presence of HFI in a liberal welfare state such as Canada and provides the most effective means of responding to its presence.

scholarly journals HOME GARDEN, ALONG WITH ITS FUNCTIONAL CATEGORY AND KEY SPECIES REPORTED IN NEPAL: A REVIEW

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Janak Adhikari
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Medicinal Herb ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Key Species

Home gardening is performed from an ancient period in Nepalese societies. More than 74.5% of the population of the country is involved in an agriculture-based profession in Nepal. Home gardens include the versatile species of trees, vegetables, annual and perennial vegetables, birds and animals, medicinal herb plants on the same land units in a geometric or dimensional proportion. this paper focuses on the presentation of home garden status and present scenario and its interlinkages with home garden. Though sufficient work on home garden has been done but still focus on self-sufficiency and their role in food security has not been reported. The home garden species was found to be of great importance as they play a vital role in conservation of key species.

Ethnobotanical Wealth of Home Gardens

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-37
Author(s):  
Bimal K. Chetri ◽  
Namgay Rinchen ◽  
Karma Wangchuck
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
In Situ Data ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Sample Data

The use of ethnomedicinal plants of home gardens has played an important role in treating minor illnesses related to physical and psychological wellbeing among rural folks. Local healers often use plants from their home garden or nearby forest. In this chapter, the traditional uses of medicinal plants using various tools with sample data have been used to facilitate ethnobotanical research on home gardens. Samples measuring the relative importance of species through quantitative analysis are tabulated. These tools, if applied during in-situ data collection, would help generate reliable information on characteristics of home gardens and medicinal plants. Conservation of medicinal plants from the perspective of home gardening is important. To document how medicinal plants are used to treat different diseases, their use value and ethical considerations would be significant for bioprospecting of medicinal plants and protecting intellectual right of the associated traditional knowledge.

scholarly journals Urban home gardens in the Global North: A mixed methods study of ethnic and migrant home gardens in Chicago, IL

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Taylor ◽  
Sarah Taylor Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Nutrient Loading ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Home Gardening

AbstractIn the United States, interest in urban farms and community gardens is flourishing, yet the urban home food garden (UHFG) and its contributions to urban systems have been overlooked and understudied. To begin to address this gap, we are conducting a mixed methods study of African American, Chinese-origin and Mexican-origin households with home gardens in Chicago, IL. Study methods include in-depth interviews, participant observation, ethnobotanical surveys and analysis of the chemical and physical properties of garden soils. As of this writing, findings indicate that home gardening has an array of beneficial effects, contributing to household food budgets and community food systems, the reproduction of cultural identity and urban biodiversity. The majority of informants in the study were internal or international migrants. For these individuals, gardening, culture-specific food plant assemblages and the foodways they support represent a continuation of cultural practices and traditional agroecological knowledge associated with their place of origin. The gardens of some migrant households also harbor urban agrobiodiversity with roots in the Global South. At the same time, gardens may have less salubrious effects on urban systems and populations. A lack of knowledge of safe gardening practices may expose vulnerable populations to environmental hazards such as soil contaminants. Gardeners in this study reported using synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, sometimes indiscriminately, and the repeated application of synthetic fertilizers and compost may contribute to the nutrient loading of urban stormwater runoff. These effects may be moderated by the relatively low bulk density and high porosity of garden soils due to tillage and the application of organic matter, which can be expected to enhance stormwater infiltration. While the UHFG's potential contributions to urban systems are significant, outreach and research are needed to help gardeners grow food safely and sustainably in ways that contribute to overall ecosystem health.

The Contribution of Home Food Gardening Program to Household Food Security in Indonesia: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 795-809
Author(s):  
Haji Saediman ◽  
Abdul Gafaruddin ◽  
Hidrawati Hidrawati ◽  
Idrus Salam ◽  
Almira Ulimaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Household Food Security ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Home Food ◽  
Food Gardening

Home gardens are an essential component of the local food system and family farming worldwide. In Indonesia, a home food gardening program was initiated in the early 2010s to optimally utilize home yards for improving the adequacy of food consumption and nutrition intake of households. In the present challenging situation of Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a growing interest in home gardens to help mitigate food insecurity caused by food supply chain disruptions and the emergence of physical and economic barriers that limit access to food. This paper is a review of pertinent literature to find out the characteristics of home gardens and home gardening program in Indonesia and then examine their contribution to each pillar of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. The experiences of home gardens worldwide are reviewed to understand the global context of home gardens and food security. Literature reviews found a positive impact of home gardening program on food availability, access, and utilization. However, improving food stability through a home food gardening program is still a challenging task. This finding implies that the positive contribution of the home food gardening program to household food security is largely limited to the program period. Nevertheless, the program is still an important strategy to address food insecurity and nutrition deficiency of low-income households. Future research should assess factors affecting the sustainability of the program to derive viable models applicable in diverse circumstances. There is a need for research to assess the value and importance of home gardens as a coping strategy to reduce vulnerability and food insecurity in the present global Covid-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Enhancing food security through home gardening in urbanizing environment in Machakos County, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-455
Author(s):  
Julius Huho ◽  
Margaret Muriuki
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
The Impact

Kenya is rapidly urbanizing at an annual rate of about 4.3%. One of the consequences of urbanization has been the problem of food insecurity in peri-urban areas. Increased migration to urban from rural areas has enhanced food insecurity in these areas. The peri-urban area of Kangundo-Tala in Machakos County is one of the fastest-growing peri-urban areas due to its proximity to the capital city of Nairobi. This study investigated the impact of home gardening in enhancing food security in the rapidly urbanizing middle-income Kangundo–Tala peri-urban areas of Machakos County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to identify the causes of households’ food insecurity in the study area; to examine the factors influencing the adoption of home gardening and; to establish the role of home gardening as a measure of households’ food security. To measure food security, three consumption behaviors were analyzed: consumption changes, food expenditure reduction and income expansion. A qualitative approach was adopted where a total of 120 newly settled households were interviewed. The three main causes of food insecurity were identified (i) small land sizes, (ii) low and erratic rainfall and, (iii) the socialization of peri-urban dwellers. About 68% of the households were practicing at least one form of home gardening. The need for safe and nutritious food, seasonal unavailability, and inaccessibility of food encouraged the establishment of home gardens. From the gardens, households were able to diversify their diets, access safe food and have food readily available. With enhanced stability in food availability, accessibility, and utilization, the study concluded that home gardens played a major role in enhancing food. However, the production was at a very small scale. Up-scaling of home gardening by the Ministry of Agriculture through training was recommended.    

scholarly journals Dietary diversity and nutritional status of 2 to 5 years old children in households with and without home gardens in selected districts in Siem Reap province, Cambodia

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sek Liny ◽  
◽  
Aimee A. Sheree Barrion ◽  
Clarissa B Juanico ◽  
Josefina T. Dizon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Vegetable Consumption ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Household Food Security ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Dietary Diversity Score ◽  
Home Gardening ◽  
Nutritional Status Of Children

Introduction: There is a high prevalence of malnutrition in Cambodia during the past 10 years. One of the programmes implemented to secure household food security in order to alleviate malnutrition was home gardening. This study aimed to compare the nutritional status of 2 to 5 years old children in households with and without home gardens. Methods: Twenty-five households with home gardens and 60 households without home gardens were sampled. Results: The households sampled had a mixed type of home garden with three to five crop varieties occupying 20 to 200 square meters area. The purpose of the garden was to increase vegetable consumption and produce additional income. Results showed that 72% and 65% of the children resided in households with and without home gardens, respectively. Majority had medium dietary diversity score, i.e. consumed four to five different food groups per day. Except for stunting, higher prevalences of undernutrition (32%) and wasting (8%) were observed among children residing in households with home gardens compared to children in households without home gardens. Conclusion: There were no associations for dietary diversity score and nutritional status of children from households with and without home gardens. Among the sociodemographic and economic factors, age, sex, family size, and vegetable consumption were significantly associated with dietary diversity score and nutritional status of the children.

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