In the last decade there has been increased interest in the potential of home gardens to add to the food supply and income of rural households. A special issue of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin (vol. 7, no. 3, 1985) was devoted to this topic, and a later special issue (vol. 9. no. 2, 1987) called attention to the often overlooked possibilities of gardens for the urban poor. In general, it has been assumed that gardens that add to household food supplies and income also improve nutritional status. The following article specifically examines the effect of a "successful" home garden project in Senegal on the dietary adequacy of participating families. The project added significantly to the families' income. However, the diets were reasonably adequate before the project was introduced, and added money was not spent on food. Accepting this to be true, how should it be interpreted? To answer this question, information would be necessary on morbidity from infectious diseases, child growth, cognitive performance, and educational achievement. Improvement in family income may have had health benefits not looked for in this study-for example, reduced morbidity from infectious diseases associated with improvement in environmental sanitation and personal hygiene. This might also lead to better child growth and improved educational performance. The fact that expenditures on medicine and health care were not increased can have two interpretations. Either there was less need for such expenditure because of decreased illness, or, more likely, they were missed by the methodology. Hundreds of studies by anthropologists have documented the struggle of poor families to obtain money for medicine and medical care. Nevertheless, the paper points out that it cannot be assumed that successful home gardening programmes will have a direct effect on dietary adequacy in populations with other felt needs that are given a higher priority.
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