Perceptions on Sack Gardening in Rural Areas: The Case of Vegetable Stakeholders in Koutiala and Bougouni, Mali

Abstract

Understanding the perception of sack gardening technology is important in order to better support the adoption of sack gardening in households, given the nutritional role vegetables play. This notwithstanding, research has not yet been carried out to understand the stakeholders’ perception of sack gardening technology in the zones of Bougouni and Koutiala, where sack gardening technology was introduced under the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa-RISING) project. This study assessed the perception of farm households on sack gardening technology and specifically to understand to what extent this innovation responds to household needs. Q-methodology was used to identify rural household’s viewpoints and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to compare stakeholders’ opinion typologies to discourses retained by Q-method results. Focus group discussions were used to identify the statements used for the q-set in the individual surveys. Our findings showed three factors or discourses which reflected the stakeholders’ viewpoints. A nutritional role, the role of making vegetables available for household consumption and the role of environment protection, specifically soil protection, were indicated in the stakeholders’ opinions. The understanding of the different discourses retained provides insights that can be used to design public and private interventions to support the usage of the technology in households or the adoption of this technology.

Four Perspectives on a Sustainable Future in Nosara, Costa Rica

“…The mean age was 46.2 and the median age was 44.5 with a range from 20 to 72 years old. The participants self-identified into six categories 15 selecting as "locals" (indicating that they are from Nosara), 12 as Chepeño/Chepeña (meaning they are natives of the San Jose area who now live in Nosara), 34 as expat residents (meaning they are permanent or semi-permanent residents of Nosara, usually from the United States, Canada, and Europe, who possess privileged mobility [39], 6 as foreign visitors (generally indicating that they either live in Nosara only part of the year or that they are migrants from other nations such as Nicaragua), 8 who selected "other", and 4 who left the question blank. We chose these categories based on input from our Costa Rican team members and because these are the terms people use to identify themselves in Nosara.…”

Restoring degraded landscapes and sustaining livelihoods: sustainability assessment (cum-review) of integrated landscape management in sub-Saharan Africa

“…For example, solar based irrigation systems enabled local communities to increase household vegetable consumption by 55% and household incomes by 40% (Birhanu et al, 2023). Other studies conducted in the innovation sites at the plot level further enabled the understanding and usefulness of farm-based intervention practices, such as vegetable sack gardens to increase household income and nutrition (Badolo et al, 2022;Govoeyi et al, 2022;Tignegre et al, 2022).…”