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Home gardens are found in many humid and sub-humid parts of the world. They are sometimes called backyard or kitchen gardens. These gardens have an established tradition and offer great potential for improving household food security and alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. Gardening can enhance food security in several ways, most importantly through: 1) direct access to a diversity of nutritionally-rich foods, 2) increased purchasing power from savings on food bills and income from sales of garden products, and 3) fall-back food provision during seasonal lean periods.

One of the easiest ways of ensuring access to a healthy diet (see Nutrition Education and Training) that contains adequate macro- and micronutrients is to produce many different kinds of foods in the home garden. This is especially important in rural areas where people have limited income-earning opportunities and poor access to markets. Home gardens are also becoming an increasingly important source of food and income for poor households in peri-urban and urban areas.

A well-developed home garden has the potential, when access to land and water is not a major limitation, to supply most of the non-staple foods that a family needs every day of the year, including roots and tubers, vegetables and fruits, legumes, herbs and spices, animals and fish. Roots and tubers are rich in energy and legumes are important sources of protein, fat, iron and vitamins. Green leafy vegetables and yellow- or orange-coloured fruits provide essential vitamins and minerals, particularly folate, and vitamins A, E and C. Vegetables and fruits are a vital component of a healthy diet and should be eaten as part of every meal. Meat, chicken and fish are good sources of protein, fat and micronutrients, particularly iron and zinc. They are especially important in small children's diets to ensure normal growth and intellectual development.   --- FAO



  1. 2010-05-20 Food Always in the Home as modifed by Larry Yarger, ECHO, 2010 under the auspices of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, International Most rural areas of the world subsist on growing food, with food security top-of-mind for most agrarian communities.Believe it or not, there are still...
  2. The World Vegetable Center is committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables. Household gardening is an age-old practice to supply a diverse range of fruit and vegetables to...
  3. Key Resource 1995-01-19 All organic gardening methods can yield bountiful crops over multiple growing cycles using minimal resources in a suburban environment. Whether you hope to harvest your first tomatoes next summer or are planning to grow enough to feed your whole family in years to come, this book is your...
  4. 2015-03-26 There are perennial vegetables that are quite resilient and also highly nutritious. These vegetables can significantly improve diet, increase the body’s ability to capture the value of foods, and be incorporated into common foods. This presentation will discuss producing and using Chaya, Katuk,...
  5. 2015-11-18 Vegetable growing can provide nutrition and livelihood for those isolated by poverty, recovering from crisis, and/or diversifying their food and income options -- but gains are not automatic. What should be considered in designing and deploying vegetable gardening programs? What seed...
  6. Home gardens are found in many humid and sub-humid parts of the world. They are sometimes called backyard or kitchen gardens. These gardens have an established tradition and offer great potential for improving household food security and alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. Gardening can...
  7. Our missionis to provide educators with inspiring, research-based gardening resources and professional development to support engaging, empowering, and relevant learning experiences for children, youth, adults, and communities.
  8. 2017-10-05 Home garden interventions are one of few agricultural interventions with a proven effect on nutritional outcomes and potentially contribute to 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Despite a recent surge in interest, there remains a lack of knowledge about the most effective ways to...
  9. Farming with raised planting beds is a great way to keep your crop safe and increase your yields. This agricultural technique reduces soil compaction and improves the quality of the soil. It protects your plants during times of excess rainfall. This animation describes how to implement this...
  10. Compost can be used to improve the quality of your soil. You can use plant materials, animal manure and kitchen scraps to create compost. Compost will add nutrients and organic matter to your soil. This animation explains the process of creating and storing compost. Scientific Animations Without...
  11. Drip Irrigation is a technique that allows you to consistently water your entire crop. This technique is especially helpful during a drought or dry season. This technique must be combined with Raised Planting Beds. Please watch our animation on Raised Planting Beds before attempting Drip...
  12. 1993-01-01 This book provides a solid source of information for your unique gardening needs, not a tranlation of cold-climate techniques. If you live in a warm climate, this book will help you pick up the right planting rhythms, choose the best plants, and discover useful techniques to make your gardening...
  13. Half the world still lives on less than $2 per day. On this budget, it can be impossible to sustain life. Malnutrition in the developing world causes dire consequences for nearly a billion people, 60% of them women and girls. Yet, there is hope for change as the majority of those who are hungry...
  14. Key Resource 1985-04-01 Root crops is a general term commonly used for a wide variety of food plants that have an underground storage organ known as a root, tuber (rhizome), corm, or bulb. Root crops are rich in starch, and low in protein and oil. They are excellent sources of calories. Some are consumed as major...
  15. Session:WorldVeg has implemented a project funded by USAID on scaling home gardens with traditional African vegetables to improve nutrition of young women and small children, and enhance incomes. The session will focus on the diversity of species being produced, the choices of adoption of good...
  16. Key Resource 2008-12-12 Crop production science in horticulture series: 17 Most of the world's poorest smallholders depend on tropical roots and tubers crops as their principal source of food and nutrition. These species produce large quantities of dietary energy and have stable yields under difficult environmental...
  17. What is No Till Gardening exactly? Methods that reduce or eliminate the breaking up and turning over of the soil – MINIMIZE SOIL DISRUPTION Planting in an “unprepared” seed bed (Ex. No Till Drill) Using available organic materials to smother/cover ground
  18. Access Agriculture Training Video As our land remains under water during the rainy season, our ancestors were already thinking of ways to produce crops in order to survive. They invented the floating garden by using crop residues. We do not need any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, because the...
  19. 1985-01-01 The articles in this issue discuss a household-level food production strategy which is as old as human civilization and plant domestication itself: the household garden. Show to have been of crucial importance to a large proportion of the population in recent world history, the home garden still...
  20. Anything you would need to know about organic gardening is in this book.
  21. 2011-02-14 Put the fruits of your labors front and center! With plentiful sun, open space, and an audience appreciative passersby, the front yard has all the ingredients for a beautiful and bountiful garden. Let famed blogger and garden designer Ivette Soler show you how to make over all or part of that...
  22. 2011-03-15 When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one year—and that she wanted to do it in their yard—they told her she was crazy. She did it anyway.
  23. 2019-10-31 This is a handbook for growing a Climate Victory Garden when the enemy is global warming. Acadia Tucker, a carbon farmer and gardener, invites us to think of gardening as civic action. By building carbon-rich soil, even in a backyard-sized patch, we can capture greenhouse gases and mitigate...
  24. 2019-03-12 Acadia Tucker’s long love affair with perennial foods has produced this easy-to-understand guide to growing and harvesting them. A regenerative farmer who is deeply concerned about global warming, Tucker believes there may be no better time to plant these hardy crops. Sturdy and deep rooted,...
  25. Foliage Plants for Modern Living contains over 125 full color illustrations of useful and pupular foliage house plants, accompanied by care instruction and suggestions as to their decorative uses. There is an index of common names, as well as a fullsection on the general care of indoor plants...
  26. 1986-01-01 Are you intimidated by pruning? Or tired of paying a professional to tackle the task? You can prune most trees and shrubs on your own, andPruning Simplifiedshows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune,...
  27. 1974-01-01 This book discusses the different plants that can be grown indoors, as well as providing information on apartment gardening, pots for plants, plant pest, and much more.
  28. 1987-01-01 Gardening in colder regions means dealing with early and late frosts, arctic winds, and inhospitable terrain. Sharing knowledge gained from years of gardening in northern Vermont, Lewis Hill provides proven methods for growing abundant vegetables and maintaining a beautiful landscape as you work...
  29. 2004-01-01 Gardens have been kept by rural and urban people for millennia thus providing them with food, income and concrete opportunities to improve their livelihoods. Policy-makers, donors and other development specialists need to realize the great potential and opportunities that gardens can provide to...
  30. 1995-01-01 The Crandalls how how anything that growns in a conventional garden can be grown in a container. This includes such unlikely candidates as asparagus, pumpkins,corn--even fruits such as apples, apricots, peaches, pears and figs. Container gardening also makes it possible for people in cold...
  31. 1978-01-01 You'll find everything you will need to know about each plant's growing habits, climatic needs, cultural requirements, soil and moisture preferences; extra carethat can produce a superior crop; harvestting and storing each vegetable, its value as a food and how to prepare and serve it. Sources of...
  32. 1978-01-01 Presents information on the characteristics, planting, cultivation, harvesting, and culinary uses of traditional Chinese greens cucurbits, snow peas, beans, cabbages, and herbs.
  33. 1978-01-01 This book is a manual of procedures, giving you the step-by-step how and when of various planting techniques. Look too, in every chapter, for the principles--the "why"--on which these techniques are based.
  34. Compost can be used to improve the quality of your soil. You can use plant materials, animal manure and kitchen scraps to create compost. Compost will add nutrients and organic matter to your soil. This animation explains the process of creating and storing compost. Scientific Animations Without...
  35. 1990-01-01 Intensively cultivated vegetable gardens can supply a great deal of a family's food from very little land. However, to maintain their productivity, these gardens require a lot of fertilizer and some special techniques, which are discussed below. As one crop is finished, another is put in its...
  36. Access Agriculture Training Video Staking allows more light and better air circulation to plants. Staked tomato plants are less attacked by pests and diseases and the fruits do not easily spoil. By staking your plants, they do not fall over due to the weight of the tomato fruits. Your plants will...