Why Home Gardens Fail in Enhancing Food Security and Dietary Diversity

Abstract

Visions of sustainable cities mostly conjure up well tended home and community gardens, where owners and residents plant fruits and vegetables that supply some of their livelihood needs. Indeed, home gardens can contribute to household food security but often fail to do so. Moreover, gardens can provide several additional ecosystem services and impact entire communities. This paper seeks to answer why these gardens often do not provide adequate services to make a substantial contribution to food security and identifies possible solutions. We undertook a case study in South Africa in a low-income former township area. The area is characterized by poverty, high levels of unemployment and food insecurity. We interviewed 140 respondents with home gardens to determine what role their own garden plays in household food security. Only 10% of households were found to be completely food secure. Of the rest, 39% experienced hunger that affected everyone in the household and 51% were at risk of hunger. Despite the fact that 72% of the respondents planted vegetables or fruits, the gardens did not contribute substantially to food security. The respondents mostly bought their food, with subsequent food shortages when they did not have enough money. The dietary diversity and consumption of vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables were very low. The most important constraints inhibiting urban agriculture in the study area were cultural practices, such as the presence of large, bare, open spaces, or “lebala,” the focus of home gardeners on ornamental species and lawns; and a reliance on purchasing of foods.

Potential of house yard plants as an alternative for dengue vector control in the tsunami area settlement of Banda Aceh City

“…The families Apocynaceae, Arecaceae, Asparagaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, Portulacaceae, Solanaceae, and Zingiberaceae are species commonly grown by communities in tsunami areas for various needs or uses such as food crops, medicine, ornamental plants, and traditional ceremonies. Home gardens have contributed to increasing food security, social, cultural, health, and economic community (Du Toit et al, 2022 ;Galhena et al, 2013). Table 1 and Figure 4 shows O n l i n e F i r s t that 63 families have potential as Aedes mosquito repellent plants.…”

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“…While supermarkets are the major grocery resource for U.S. households, the availability of other healthy food options has increased (Ma et al, 2018;USDA, 2022a). Other points of healthy food access include community gardens, food pantries, and farmers markets, which provide additional access to healthy foods, but are seasonal and often unreliable, meaning that families cannot always count on them for weekly needs (Du Toit et al, 2022). Furthermore, not all residents feel a sense of belonging at farmers markets.…”

Home food gardening in modern cities: advances, issues, and future perspectives

“…Climate change has caused extreme weather to occasionally affect protected fields, not to mention HFG sites without shelter. Typhoons, frosts, hailstorms, and heat injuries have become commonplace, making it difficult for HFG to operate outdoors and ultimately leading to a failure to improve food self-provisioning (Du Toit et al, 2022;Darge et al, 2023).…”