Impact and distributional effects of a home garden and nutrition intervention in Cambodia

Abstract

Home garden interventions combining training in agriculture and nutrition have the potential to increase vegetable production and consumption in lower-income countries, but there remains a need for better evidence for impact. This study contributes to filling this gap by evaluating the impact and distributional effects of a home garden intervention in Cambodia. We used a cluster randomized controlled trial with before and after data for a sample of 500 rural households with children under five and women 16–49 years old. Impact was estimated using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and conditional quantile regressions with non-parametric bounds. The results show that the intervention significantly increased the adoption of nearly all promoted gardening methods. More households (+ 35%; p < 0.01) produced vegetables, and the production period was extended by five months on average. One-month recall data show an increase in vegetables harvested (+ 25 kg; p < 0.01) and consumed (+ 10 kg; p < 0.01) from the garden. Quantile regressions confirm these findings and show that nearly all households benefitted, but households that were already doing better at baseline tended to benefit more. Seven-day recall data show an increase in the quantity of vegetables consumed (+ 61 g/day/capita; p < 0.01) and an increased quantity of vitamin A, folate, iron, and zinc contained in these vegetables. Women contributed more to the garden work than men and their time spent in the garden increased by 29 min/day on average. These results add further evidence that integrated home garden interventions can contribute to nutrition outcomes and that almost all participants can benefit.

Impacts of a home garden intervention in Bangladesh after one, three and six years

“…Agriculture & Food Security *Correspondence: baliki@igzev.de 1 Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Theodor-Echtermeyer-Weg 1, 14979 Großbeeren, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article home garden intervention in Zambia in the fourth year of a 4-year programme, Olney et al [14] studied the impact of a 3-year home garden support programme in Cambodia 1.5 years into the programme, and Depenbusch et al [5] studied the impact of home garden programme in Cambodia after one year. Baliki et al [3] used a slightly longer time-span and studied the impact of a home garden intervention in Bangladesh 3 years after project support had ended.…”

“…4 Thaer-Institute, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany. 5 Grameen Bikash Foundation, Bogra, Bangladesh.…”

“…The available evidence shows that home garden interventions can improve household production and consumption of vegetables [3,5,12,[17][18][19], nutritional outcomes such as reduced wasting and anaemia [13,22], and reduced child diarrhoea [9,13]. There is also evidence that home garden interventions contribute to women's empowerment [3,9,15,21].…”

Home gardens, household nutrition and income in rural farm households in Odisha, India

“…Previous studies have examined the effects of home gardens on smallholders' household‐level nutritional outcomes (Baliki et al, 2019; Castañeda‐Navarrete, 2021; Depenbusch et al, 2021, 2022; Schreinemachers et al, 2016; Tesfamariam et al, 2018). The studies mostly show that home garden interventions increase the quantity and diversity of produced and consumed food at the household level.…”

“…Second, many previous studies rely on cross‐sectional data which are limited for drawing robust causal inference. Notable exceptions include studies by Olney et al (2015, 2016), Schreinemachers et al (2016), Osei et al (2017), Baliki et al (2019, 2022), Blakstad et al (2021, 2022), and Depenbusch et al (2021, 2022), that used experimental or quasi‐experimental designs with panel data. Lastly, studies analysing the effects of agricultural interventions on nutritional outcomes in India, other parts of South Asia, and among the most vulnerable population groups are limited (Bird et al, 2019; Kadiyala et al, 2014; Pandey et al, 2016; Rammohan et al, 2019).…”