Food Security, Nutrition and Home Gardens

Recently, the United Nations announced that world hunger is on the increase and that today more than 1 billion people suffer from hunger. 53% of all deaths of children under five are associated with malnutrition.

Food security
Food security exists when people have enough basic food at all times to provide them with energy and nutrients for fully productive lives. When poor people are asked what their highest priority is for themselves and their family, very frequently their answer is food. The First Millennium Development Goal is to ‘two eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”.

Food insecurity is still severe in some countries, especially in sub Sahara Africa and South Asia. While poverty is the main cause of food insecurity across the world, there are other issues that complicate it, such as climate change, HIV, conflict, and poor governance.

The concept of food security can be divided into four main areas.
1. Availability of food
2. Access to food
3. Quality and nutritional value of food
4. Stability in the provision of food

In Guatemala, due to population growth, family farms are no longer large enough to grow enough corn to last for the full 12 months before the next harvest. And, there isn't enough water during the dry season to provide irrigation for second corn crop. A subsistence farmer’s family runs out of corn four or five months before the next harvest. This is typical in other parts of the world too.

Nutrition
Rural families may not have enough food, or they may have enough of their staple crop -- corn or rice or cassava -- but the rest of their diet may not be varied enough to provide good nutrition -- especially for growing children. Chronic malnutrition can lead to stunting (lack of physical and mental development in children) which in turn can lead to an inability to excel in school. These children may become uneducated adults of small stature reducing their ability to lead healthy, prosperous, productive lives.

Studies have also shown that improved nutrition boosts the body's immune system protecting children against disease and can reduce diarrheal infections from 18% of the children to 5% of the children.

One of the simple underlying principles of good nutrition is to eat a variety of different kinds of food. If a family is suffering from poor nutrition it could be that:
1. There is a lack of availability of food
2. They can't afford a variety of food
3. They have a lack of knowledge of nutrition and of the need for a varied diet

Home Gardens
According to the World Health Organization, ‘in Africa and South East Asia, growing fruits and vegetables in home gardens enables a diverse diet and contributes to better life long health. This is backed by research in South Africa on a home gardening program that was integrated with nutrition education, and focused on the production of yellow and dark green leafy vegetables, significantly improved the vitamin A status of 2 to 5-year-old children in rural villages in South Africa. Home gardens can be both a major household food resource and a source of income’.

However, there is controversy over whether or not home gardens can make a difference in food security and in overall family nutrition. Proponents and a number of scientific studies promote home gardens positively. Others are bit more cautious about home gardens.

Baseline Survey
Before beginning a home garden project, it is a sound idea to conduct a simple survey that will let us gain a better understanding of community food security and family nutrition. Consider including a few questions about family gardening.

The survey will do four things for us:
1. It will help us determine if the community is suffering from food insecurity, and if so, what are the underlying causes.
2. It will help us determine if families in the community are suffering from under nutrition, and if so, what are the underlying causes.
3. It will help us understand people's feelings and knowledge about family gardens, whether they have areas that they can plant gardens in, and whether they have the ability to purchase seed and maintain their gardens, and whether they have water available for watering their gardens.
4. And lastly, the baseline will give us something to compare to in six months or a year to see if our program is having a positive impact on the community.

Family Garden Crops
From the baseline we will gain a better understanding of where the food gaps are and what potential we have in the community for family gardens. We will be able to present this information to both an agriculturalist and a nutritionist in order to get their recommendations for what culturally and regionally appropriate food could be introduced to the community to help fill those food gaps.

For example we might be in an area that is relatively dry and children are suffering from a lack of vitamin A. The agriculturalist and nutritionist may recommend sweet potatoes as one of the garden crops because they grow well in the dry soil and are a good provider of vitamin A.

Another thing to consider are local, indigenous food crops that may have fallen out of favor with the introduction of imported food crops. Many times these indigenous foods are well-suited to the area and appreciated by the locals.

Designing and planting a family garden
Now that we've gotten past all of the scientific investigation, we can begin to have some fun and start designing and planting gardens. At first will need to present the choices for food crops to the community. Then we'll need to have the community members draw a simple map on a sheet of paper of their compound so that we can see whether they have a yard for garden, whether they have a fence, whether they're on a steep slope or have level ground, whether their garden is heavily shaded by trees or has sufficient sun, and whether they have a source of water.

Then we will plant a demonstration garden either at a school or community center or even someone's yard, so that workshop participants can see what it looks like to plant a vegetable garden from start to finish.

Workshop participants will then go to their homes and plant their own gardens. A home gardening project is a long-term commitment as continuing follow up and support is essential in the success of a project such as this. Also very important is continuing nutritional education for community members, or the garden could lose its nutritional focus.

There are many good resources online. I will begin posting them in the family food security group. But for now here is a great new book that was just published in Zimbabwe -- Healthy Harvest: http://motherchildnutrition.org/healthy-nutrition/pdf/mcn-healthy-h... .