Impact of home garden interventions in East Africa: Results of three randomized controlled trials

Depenbusch, Lutz; Schreinemachers, Pepijn; Roothaert, Ralph L.; Namazzi, Sylvia; Onyango, Charles; Bongole, Sophia; Mutebi, James

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102140

Cited by 17 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…As these households already reach the required consumption levels, there is less scope for improvement. While Baliki et al (2019) and, to a lesser degree Depenbusch et al (2021) also find the lowest levels of vegetable consumption to improve, their results do not indicate larger gains among participants with higher baseline consumption.…”

Section: Reflection On the Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…In Burkina Faso, an RCT study showed that a home garden project improved hemoglobin levels among children in one of two tested nutrition outreach designs (Olney et al, 2015). Yet, an RCT study of a home garden intervention in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda showed an increase in the share of households producing vegetables and an extended production period in Tanzania, but not in Kenya and Uganda (Depenbusch et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Depenbusch¹,

Schreinemachers²,

Brown

et al. 2022

Food Sec.

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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.

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Section: Reflection On the Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Depenbusch¹,

Schreinemachers²,

Brown

et al. 2022

Food Sec.

Self Cite

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“…Establishing trees in agricultural systems cushions the practitioners from total losses that may be accelerated by factors such as increasing temperature and erratic rainfall patterns, which are common occurrences in the regions. To illustrate, the adoption of home gardening systems in East Africa has led to a significant increase in vegetable cultivation and consumption to meet nutrition needs, though with a more bias towards commercial vegetables for income generation ( Depenbusch et al., 2021 ). However, higher impacts and adoption of such interventions need closer training, follow-ups, and monitoring to document impacts.…”

Section: Eras Of Agroforestry Research and Practice Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative appraisal of selected agroforestry studies in the Sub-Saharan Africa

Muthee

Duguma²,

Majale³

et al. 2022

Heliyon

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“…Homegarden programs are these days more broadly executed in Africa [ 14 , 15 ]. The expansive concentration of the valuable plants found in Ethiopia is found in homegardens [ 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Composition of homegarden plants and cultural use in an indigenous community in Northwest Ethiopia

Yinebeb

Lulekal

Bekele

2022

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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Background Homegardens in Northern Ethiopia received little investigation into the diversity of plants and no study and recording in the Gozamin District. This study was used to fill the gap in how cultural use and cultural importance conserve species diversity in homegardens in the different agroclimatic zones in northwestern Ethiopia. Methods The study district and 12 kebeles were chosen using multistage and stratified random selection procedures based on traditional agroclimatic zones in the Gozamin District, Northwest Ethiopia, respectively. The number of plots chosen in each homegarden was determined by the homegarden's size, which ranges from 0.015 to 0.5 ha. These data were gathered by putting plots with a distance gradient from home (size: 10 × 10 m each). A semi-structured interview and complete plant inventory were conducted to document the informant's knowledge of plant species. Sørensen’s similarity indices and Shannon–Wiener diversity indices were used to compare the similarity of sites and three agroclimatic zones, respectively. Direct matrix ranking, cultural importance (CI), the relative frequency of citation, and cultural value were used in quantitative analysis to compare the most common multipurpose plants. Results A total of 238 culturally important plant species from 81 families were identified. The Kruskal–Wallis test showed that there was a significant difference among the three agroclimatic zones species diversity (H = 103.4, Hc = 111.2, p < 0.05). Of the total plant species recorded, 59% were reported to be utilized for environmental uses, 35% were food crops, and 35% were medicinal plant species. The same was true for the three agroclimatic zones; food and medicinal uses were the first and second most important use categories, respectively. The similarity index for 64% of the sites investigated was less than 0.5. Cordia africana (FC = 125) was the most culturally significant species with a value of 2.23 on the CI index. Conclusion Homegardens are multifunctional systems. The presence of different agroclimatic zones, cultural uses, cultural importance, and cultural value of the species are central to conserving plant species in the area. As the size of the garden increases, so does the diversity of species and uses. Our findings suggest that conservation strategies should take into account the links between plant composition and cultural importance.

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Impact of home garden interventions in East Africa: Results of three randomized controlled trials

Cited by 17 publications

References 34 publications

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

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

A quantitative appraisal of selected agroforestry studies in the Sub-Saharan Africa

Composition of homegarden plants and cultural use in an indigenous community in Northwest Ethiopia

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