Agrotechnology

Adoption and Impact of Kitchen Garden on Farming Households

Julia Spahn^* Department of Farm and Agribusiness Management, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
^*Correspondence: Julia Spahn, Department of Farm and Agribusiness Management, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany, Email:

Received: 04-Nov-2022, Manuscript No. AGT-22-18856; Editor assigned: 07-Nov-2022, Pre QC No. AGT-22-18856 (PQ); Reviewed: 21-Nov-2022, QC No. AGT-22-18856; Revised: 28-Nov-2022, Manuscript No. AGT-22-18856 (R); Published: 05-Dec-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2168-9881.22.11.291

Description

The need to increase food production and buffer stocks is constant because it is predicted that the world's population will surpass 9 billion by 2050. In order to fulfill the rising demand and prevent food insecurity and famine, nations throughout the world-particularly developing nations where hunger and food shortages are more common and severe-are turning to a variety of counterstrategies. In recent years, there has been an increase in interest in bolstering and expanding local food production in order to lessen the negative effects of food price volatility and global food shocks. As a result, home gardens are receiving a lot of attention as a technique to improve family food security and nutrition. Home gardens have stood the test of time and are an essential component of regional food systems and the agricultural landscape of emerging nations all over the world.

The adoption of kitchen gardens and their effects on agricultural households' food and nutrition security. As indices of food and nutrition security, the Per Capita Kilocalorie Intake (PKCI) and Food Consumption Score (FCS) were used in this. To identify the determinants influencing the adoption of a kitchen garden and its effects on the food and nutrition security of the engaged agricultural families, endogenous switching regression is used. The analysis' findings show that the adoption of a kitchen garden rose with family size (adult equivalent), credit use, information availability, districts (location), and the use of various agricultural water sources besides rainfed. The TLU and total land area both lowered it. While the adoption of a kitchen garden considerably raised both adopters' and non-adopters' FCS by 1.45% or 2.96% and 1.26% or 2.69%, respectively. The adoption of a kitchen garden, on the other hand, had no discernible effects on adopters but significantly decreased the PKCI of non-adopters by 101.18% or 3.92%. Therefore, in order to use the kitchen garden intervention as a strategy to improve the household's food and nutrition security, policymakers and development organizations should further promote and scale it up.

Improved effect data is still required, but home garden initiatives integrating agricultural and nutrition education have the potential to boost vegetable output and consumption in lowincome nations. By analyzing the impact and distributional consequences of a home garden intervention in Cambodia, this study helps to close this gap. For a sample of 500 rural homes with children under the age of five and mothers between the ages of 16 and 49, we employed a cluster randomized controlled trial with before and after data. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and conditional quantile regressions with nonparametric constraints were used to estimate the impact. The intervention dramatically raised the use of almost all gardening techniques that were advocated. Vegetable output increased by homes (+35%; p 0.01), and the average production period was prolonged by five months. According to one-month recall data, more vegetables from the garden were gathered (+25 kg; p 0.01) and eaten (+10 kg; p 0.01). Nearly all families benefited, although those who were already performing better at baseline tended to benefit more, according to quintile regressions that support these findings. Seven-day recall data reveal an increase in vegetable consumption (+61 g/day/capita; p 0.01) as well as an increase in the amount of vitamin A, foliate, iron, and zinc that these vegetables contain. Women worked in the garden for an additional 29 minutes per day on average, and they contributed more to it than males did. Nearly all participants can benefit from integrated home garden treatments that can improve nutrition outcomes.

Anemia among mothers and children was decreased by a home garden intervention, according to a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) research. Another RCT research conducted in Nepal revealed that combining family gardens with school gardens dramatically enhanced both the output of the former and the frequency of vegetable eating among youngsters. In Burkina Faso, an RCT research revealed that one of two tried-and-true nutrition outreach strategies-a home garden project-improved child’s hemoglobin levels. Nevertheless, an RCT investigation of a home garden intervention in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda revealed an increase in the proportion of families growing vegetables and a prolonged production period in Tanzania, but not in Kenya or Uganda. This study follows the whole causal chain, from people's participation in training activities through the adoption of new technology to an increase in productivity and consumption. The study specifically examines the hypothesis that an integrated home garden intervention, targeted at low-income rural households with children under the age of five and women of reproductive age, will increase production and consumption of nutrient-dense vegetables for both the typical household and those households most at risk of low vegetable consumption.