Home gardening as a tool for improving food and nutritional security - A case study at Madiha and Gandara in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Improvements of food and nutritional security of coastal communities affected by the Tsunami is a matter of great concern. Home gardening, in this regard, is highly considered as it could make an important contribution towards both livelihood improvement and food security. Waste management through composting is found to be a viable tool in meeting the nutritional requirement of the crops in home gardens. The present paper assessed the viability of implementing waste management and home gardening together to improve food and nutritional security of the people in Madiha and Gandara. Based on their interest, thirty home gardens from each village were selected for the study. A group of people comprising a member representing each selected garden was trained on home gardening and waste management. They were provided with planting materials, farming tools and bins for composting. Their gardening was routinely monitored and necessary information and guidance was given. Despite no specific way of discharging household waste was found initially, composting was found increasingly popularized among the involved people as the programs proceeds. Crops are now fertilized with only organic manures by the majority (71%) of the people who were totally dependent upon chemical fertilizers. As a consequence of composting, the problem of discharging household waste has now been solved and people begin to receive organic manure at low or no cost. Before the program was implemented, the majority (60%) of the selected families was totally dependent upon the market for their vegetables and none of them consumed homemade vegetables only. As the home gardening program progressed, the vegetable production at home gradually increased and some of them (4%) started to sell the excess creating an extra source of income. However, as most of the gardens (81%) are relatively small (>0.25 Ac), market oriented farming seemed difficult in these villages. Despite being highly dependent upon the family preference, the species diversity in these gardens is high, minimizing the risk of crop failure. Waste management has also contributed effectively to minimize the pest and disease incidents in the gardens. Consequently, diversity of food which positively influences nutritional security has begun to increase in these villages as they grow more and more vegetables.