IMPROVING THE CONTRIBUTION OF
THE HOME GARDEN TO DAILY
HOUSEHOLD FOOD NEEDS
Objective
By the end of this session field workers will be able to identify the home garden technology options for improving the productivity of local home gardens and as a result the households' nutrition.
OVERVIEW
A well-developed home garden has the potential (when access to land and water is not a major limitation) to supply most of the non-staple foods and some of the staple foods that a family needs every day of the year. These gardens produce a wide variety of food crops that supply the households with vegetables and fruits, roots and tubers, legumes, spices, animals and, sometimes, fish.
This session covers the technology options and management advice for improving year-round access of households to a variety of nutritious foods. The problems affecting the food system of a given local community reviewed in Session 4, provide the starting point for discussions during this session. Based on their knowledge of the local communities and available technologies, the participants will look at each potential area of intervention and identify and review the various technology options that appear feasible within the local context.
In addition to the Information Sheets studied in the previous sessions, participants should study those on soil management and fertility, water and crop management, and weed and pest management.
The results of the training needs assessment discussed in the Introduction to this manual should help trainers determine the amount of time needed for this session and whether to use Option 1 or Option 2 (explained in the following section). If the participants have sound horticultural backgrounds, Option 1 may be followed; if their horticultural knowledge needs strengthening, one to three additional days may be needed. The trainer with the agricultural background can determine the additional time required for this session.
ACTIVITIES
The trainers should have distributed Information Sheets 1, 2 and 6 through 12, and all the Home Garden Technology Leaflets on the first day of the training course and asked the field workers to study a specified set (two to three leaflets per evening) each evening. Based on the training needs assessment results, the trainers then select one of the following two options.
Option 1. The participants divide into five groups. Each group studies one of the following sets of Information Sheets and the corresponding Home Garden Technology Leaflets, and prepares to answer questions about them. The trainers ascertain that all the participants are familiar with the contents of each leaflet.
Option 2. This option is the same as Option 1, with the inclusion of some field sessions on aspects of practical horticulture (if the training needs assessment results show that the participants need more practical background information).
Sets of Information Sheets and Home Garden Technology Leaflets to be reviewed
The following materials will be reviewed as sets:
Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4
Set 5
Questions and answers. The trainer displays the Summary Notes on pages 53 and 54. Using these as a guide, the field workers think of questions about each subject to ask each group in turn.
Discussion. The trainer introduces an example of a well-developed home garden (see Figure 5.1) and invites the field workers to comment on:
Local examples. The field workers are asked to give examples of good home garden management from their own experience.
MATERIALS REQUIRED
FIGURE 5.1
Sketch-map of a well-developed home garden on mixed land
Structure
The home garden is 200 m2 (10x20 m) and is located in a region of undulating land. There is a small area of flat land around the house (10% of the total area) but the majority is sloping land (more than 30 degrees of slope) and wet land. The sloping land is planted in a multilayer structure of crops. Short-, medium- and long-term plants are planted together in the same area. A proportion of the wet land has been made into a sunken bed, where rice is grown. A bed for dry-season vegetable production has also been prepared. A small kitchen garden is situated close to the homestead, as is an animal house where chickens are kept.
Function
The home garden functions mainly as a source of daily food and income; it provides spices and medicinal herbs, as well as some animal foods.
Nutritional contribution
The home garden is a major supplier of daily food. The combination of foods from staple crops, vegetables, oil crops, fruits and chicken gives a good diet that provides all the energy and nutrients that a household needs.
FOR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
APPRAISING AND PLANNING A HOME GARDEN
Appraising the home garden |
Planning improvements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SOIL MANAGEMENT
Protect the soil |
Improve soil fertility |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WATER MANAGEMENT
Dry season |
Wet season |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CROP MANAGEMENT
Multiple cropping |
Multilayer cropping |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Intensive vegetable plots |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
WEED AND PEST MANAGEMENT
Insects and diseases |
Animals |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Priority message |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Improving and maintaining soil fertility are critical to improved crop production in the home garden
The improvement and maintenance of soil fertility are major challenges facing most home gardeners in Africa. They must, therefore, have access to the appropriate information and technical advice on:
Home garden managers must have access to information on the fertilizer types best suited to specific home garden crops and the appropriate times for fertilizer application.
In order to ensure continuity in the use of land from one year and from one generation to the next, local communities need information on developing relevant skills in land management and soil conservation. Information Sheets 6, "Soil management", 7, "Plant nutrients: their functions and sources", and 8, "Soils and plants as a system"; and Home Garden Technology Leaflets 5, "Soil improvement", 6, "Special techniques for improving soil and water management", 7, "Erosion control and soil conservation", and 9, "Cover cropping", provide details on different aspects of soil management and soil improvement.
The participants should help farmers choose among the different technology and home garden management options. Where appropriate, participants can demonstrate soil management, soil fertility improvements and other relevant technologies, either on demonstration plots or, preferably, on the farmers' own land. The field workers should exploit all available means of disseminating information, including radio, television, newspapers, songs and local theatre.
Selection of the technologies and plant varieties best suited to specific agro-ecological zones and topographies is the key to the optimum exploitation of home garden potential
In addition to soil management and the improvement of soil fertility, a wide range of technologies exists for improving home garden production and productivity. The area's agro-ecological and climatic characteristics and its altitude largely determine the types of crops to plant and the seasons during which those crops grow well. Technology options, therefore, should be directly related to the altitude and agro-ecological and climatic features of a given area. Farmers, therefore, require information on:
Water management and water harvesting. The annual rainfall pattern and access to reliable watering facilities often determine the physical location of a home garden and the types of beds a farmer may construct. Farmers must have access to appropriate information in order to know whether to construct sunken, flat or raised beds or mounds, depending upon which crops and which times of the year.
Regions with steady rainfall throughout the year have greater potential for producing a steady, year-round supply of fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, communities in areas with distinct wet and dry seasons must have a variety of strategies for ensuring an adequate, year-round supply of fruits and vegetables. Such strategies can include developing two household garden plots, one around the homestead and exploitable mainly during the rains (i.e. rainfed), the other one away from home in a wet lowland or swampy place. For the household garden plot to produce vegetables and other crops throughout the dry season, the use of unconventional water sources, such as household wastewater (from washing dishes or bathing) might be an option.
In addition, communities in areas with inadequate access to dry-season irrigation water can secure a communal water point, by constructing small dams or hand-dug wells, paid for by the pooling of community resources. Next to this water source, participating households can plant a "community garden" in which each household has its individual plot but shares the water and fence with the other participating community members. Assisted by the field workers, community members can jointly decide on the community garden's planting patterns and times for specific food crops. Seed and other gardening inputs can be purchased with help from a community fund or with savings accumulated through group savings schemes. Such community gardens provide an excellent contact point for the delivery of technical information by the agricultural, nutritional or health extension workers in the area.
Details on water management and other water-harvesting techniques are provided in Information Sheet 9, "Water management", and Home Garden Technology Leaflet 6, "Special techniques for improving soil and water management".
Crops and crop varieties must be suited to the environment. While the integration of traditional and local vegetables into the home garden cropping pattern should be encouraged, the low yields of such crops inhibit productivity increases. However, home garden managers can be taught to maintain balance between the traditional and the improved, or introduced, varieties.
Encouraging the cultivation of a broad variety of food crops is a greater challenge in the semi-arid and arid regions and under low-temperature conditions (e.g. in highland areas) than it is in the humid areas. Efforts to extend the production of fruits and vegetables into the drier and colder periods of the year have to be based on the selection of hardier crop species and varieties, together with the application of appropriate cultural practices such as:
Low-cost pest management. The control of plant pests and insects, particularly during dry-season home gardening, is another challenge of rural households. Farmers must have access to information on developing good home garden hygiene. In addition, they must be aware of environmentally friendly methods of controlling pests, for example:
Details on low-cost pest management techniques are provided in Information Sheet 10, "Weed and pest management", and Home Garden Technology Leaflet 10, "Safe and effective crop protection".
A carefully selected planting pattern is crucial for ensuring a continuous supply of fruits, vegetables, some legumes and staple foods
When planning home garden improvements for a continuous supply of fruits and vegetables, it is important to take into account untapped resources and potentials as well as household food needs and preferences.
Factors such as the length of a crop's growing period (from planting to maturity) and the length of time during which a household may harvest edible fruits or vegetables from a mature plant before it must be replaced should be considered when planning a home garden planting pattern. In addition to taking into account basic crop-rotation requirements and desired intercropping aspects, home garden managers must stagger the planting of different types of crop.
To reduce gaps in the year-round supply of fresh fruits to the household, for example, the home garden manager must select and plant fruit-tree types with fruits that mature at different times during the year. These can be mixed with fruit-trees that bear fruit throughout the year (e.g. bananas).
Leafy vegetables and legumes must be planted in a manner that provides the household with access to some varieties of green leafy vegetables and fresh or dry legumes throughout the year. Vegetables that grow well all year round(e.g. some varieties of leafy vegetables) can form the core of the home garden, and seasonal varieties can be planted when appropriate.
Information on the types of fruits, vegetables and legumes that give the best yields at specific times of the year is crucial, because it enables the home garden manager to organize planting patterns for optimum yields and nutritional benefits. Home garden managers should also be sensitive to the planting patterns of other local farmers and, thus, can avoid flooding the market with one or two food commodities, should their household produce surplus for sale.
Planting a mixture of annual and perennial crops (e.g. cassava and fruit-trees) and adopting multiple and multistorey cropping techniques increase the year-round availability of food to the household. Sweet potato and cowpea can be useful cover crops. Small numbers of different crops and fruit-trees, and fresh vegetables in particular, planted and harvested consecutively, provide a constant supply of home garden foods.
If adequate quantities and varieties of home garden foods are to be produced, particularly in the wet lowlands where year-round food production may be possible, intensive crop production techniques must be considered. The use of better cultural practices (i.e. soil fertility and water management, optimum planting times and plant spacing, proper crop rotations, weed control and integrated pest management) can increase the productivity of individual crops. As more intensive crop production practices are adopted, better post-harvest handling techniques (i.e. processing, preservation and storage) must be developed in order for farmers to gain maximum benefits from the increased garden output.
Finally, households should protect their home gardens from roaming animals, especially during the dry season. Using live fencing for this purpose will provide further benefits to the household (e.g. fuelwood, trellising and medicines).
The agricultural extension worker can help families and communities identify the crops that are suited to local conditions and that will supply the nutrients needed for the family to achieve optimum nutritional balance year round. Since women are usually responsible for home gardens, their full participation in planning and implementing improvements is essential.
Details on crop management and planting for a continuous household food supply are provided in Information Sheets 11, "Crop management", and 12, "Broadening the food base with indigenous plants"; and Home Garden Technology Leaflets 11, "Living fences", 12, "Multiple cropping", 13, "Multilayer cropping", 14, "Growing fruit- and nut-trees", and 15, "Intensive vegetable plots".
