Family Food Security

Comment

Comment by Philippine Sellam on April 24, 2012 at 5:14pm

Hello dear development community!

I am proud to announce, that in a city in a so called developed country (the Hague, Netherlands) there are many  initiatives in the field of permaculture and local gardens. I discovered yesterday that young people started growing vegetables in a green area next to the central train station. And the Hague is part of the transition cities network, with stroom and the time bank. I just wanted to mention this because although we are doing 'development', developed countries also need (even more sometimes, considering the dirtiness of the ways in which food is produced here) small scale and sustainable family gardens!

Best regards to all, I am glad to be part of this!

Philippine

Comment by Lucie Rogo on February 15, 2012 at 3:22pm

Many thanks Ms. Tate-Bradish for the link to the article

"Bringing Agriculture to the Table: How Agriculture and Food Can Play

a Role in Preventing Chronic Disease". Certainly good information source for my proposed project. Sincerely, Lucie

Comment by Kathy Tate-Bradish on February 15, 2012 at 11:14am

Hi Lucy, Good luck with your project. I would just urge you to be sure that someone is seeking out a local agriculture officer or the equivalent. My partner in Kenya has been incredibly successful in getting enthusiastic interest and input by bringing ideas to local experts early on in the process.

Kathy

Comment by Lucie Rogo on February 15, 2012 at 10:41am

 I am part of an online adaptation course OL 341 (http://www.csd-i.org/ol-341-adapting-climate-change/) facilitated by Tim Magee of the Centre for Sustainable Development.

I am developing a community participatory project within the Lwekisujji Watershed in Southwest Uganda. The community has several problems, including (1) malnutrition caused by (2) crop failure and (3) poor crop harvests leading to (4) food shortage and (5) scarcity of water for domestic livestock. The community (3) does not receive adequate rainfall due to changing weather patterns exacerbated by climate variability. These challenges lead to persistent (a) food shortage/ insecurity and stunting in children (b) lack of good education and (c) lack of development because undernourished children cannot learn and undernourished adults cannot participate in developmental activities resulting in increased poverty in the community.

 I'm posting to this Group to get your advice on possible resources that could help me select activities in the development of a project for sustained home gardening and climate smart Agriculture for these communities. I would appreciate resources, including links to websites or scientific papers that would help me find intervention activities for the project, or links to sites where I can download how-to field guides or manuals on implementing these activities with my community?

In exchange, I would like to share with you a link that I found: CARE: Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis
http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/adaptation/CARE_CVCAHandbook.pdf

The position of this article is that for Climate Smart Agricultural Practices, it is relevant to combine community knowledge and scientific data to yield greater understanding about local impacts of climate change: The article emphasizes challenges of working at the local level on climate change adaptation: The lack of scaled-down information on impacts. This is usually coupled with inadequate data and information on weather and climate predictions. The process of gathering and analyzing information with communities serves to build local knowledge on climate issues and appropriate strategies to adapt. The participatory exercises and associated discussions provide opportunities to link community knowledge to available scientific information on climate change. This will help local stakeholders to understand the implications of climate change for farming and their livelihoods, so that they are better able to analyze risks and plan for adaptation.

Thank you for reading my post.

Lucie Rogo

Comment by Kathy Tate-Bradish on October 19, 2011 at 6:47pm

Hi fellow family food security folks: First, thanks to  John Bosco Odongo (below, in 2010) who posted a youtube video filmed in Western Province. I've sent it to a farm manager friend in Kakamega hoping it might be usreful.

Second: As part of our OL341 project we are looking at nutritious home gardens. Does anyone have a resource that helps with how to decide how much of what to plant in a garden? For example, for a family of 7 with maybe 5 square meters, what percentage leafy greens, protein (ground nuts/beans/lentils) Vitamin A (orange-fleshed sweet potatoes), etc.?

Third, there's a new paper out you might be interested in. One of our identified problems is malnutrition, especially kwashiorkor and marasmus in the area of Kenya where we are working. A new paper linking nutrition and non-communicable

diseases has just come out. Here's the full study:

http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/GlobalAgDevelopment...

 

Here's a presentation:

http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/GlobalAgDevelopment...

And here's the brief:  http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/GlobalAgDevelopment...

Comment by magali mourlon on July 9, 2011 at 12:13pm

Thanks Yolanda!!!
indeed this is very useful; good luck with your project; if I find anything of interest for you, I'll let you know,
best wishes,

Comment by Yolanda S on June 29, 2011 at 3:38am

Hi Magali,

I found this FAO report on agroforestry in the Pacific Islands.  It discusses the viability of fruit trees and other crops in the area.  I hope it is helpful to your project! http://www.fao.org/docrep/s1930e/s1930e02.htm

Comment by Yolanda S on June 29, 2011 at 3:34am

Hello All!

I am taking the OL 341 course and we are working on a project to facilitate home gardens in a community in Nigeria.  We recently received feedback from the community that they understood and supported the project and that they had in fact already built up some capacity in home gardening already.  They were helpful in providing local contacts with whom we could collaborate for a successful project.  We are preparing a field guide on home composting.  If you know of any good resources on this topic, please let us know.

 

Thanks!

Comment by magali mourlon on June 26, 2011 at 2:33pm

Hi,
I am currently in OL 341 working on a virtual project in a small island in the Pacifics. One component of the project is about food security and the introduction (or re-introduction) of family gardening (in a sustainble way).
Therefore if you have any specific information on such activity in the Pacific I would be extremely grateful.
On my side I've found relevant document from Benson Institute and more particularly in the lessons modules page: http://www.bensoninstitute.org/Publication/Lessons/index.asp
hope it helps!
good luck,
Magali

Comment by Bob Sutton on June 17, 2011 at 7:13am

Food Security and Development

Working with young malnourished children one comes to appreciate the pain and struggle for parents to put healthy food on the table.  This is (or should be) a growing concern!

OXFAM has started a new initiative.... Growing a better future

more at 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/reports/growing-better-future

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