been the prime concern of the farm family. Therefore, popularly such farming is called
karesabari or kitchen gardening.
In recent times, this type of farming is being considered a sustainable site of in-situ
conservation as such form of farming is very rich in agricultural biodiversity. Thus, a new
term, home gardening is used to cover the holistic form of farming around a homestead.
Thus, home gardening can be considered the extended form of kitchen gardening
encompassing the role of such gardening in agricultural biodiversity.
Thus the significance of home gardening in the Nepalese farming systems lies in meeting
nutritional requirement of the family, providing a supplementary source of farm income, often
supplementing the cash need during the gap during cereal farming and involving farm
women in larger proportion. More recently, home gardening is recognized as a mycocosm of
agricultural bio-diversity.
Contribution of home gardening in the total Nepalese agriculture
Unavailability of data on home gardening is a serious limitation to determine its exact
contribution to the agriculture sector. Even, National Sample Census of Agriculture has
overlooked this aspect. In this context, LI-BIRD's initiative to generate some key baseline
data will be a landmark. Experiences show hardly 2-8% of the cultivated area is used for
home gardening in Nepal despite its importance in biodiversity and optimal use of natural
resources. This has potential to attract tourists.
Program coverage in DoA
Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture has no exclusive program in home gardening.
There are limited programs addressing kitchen gardening under broad-based commodity
programs. The objectives of such programs are, however, limited to food security and not
extended to other potentials of home gardening. Programs are often linked to poverty
reduction addressing disadvantaged groups.
Existing policies that have relevance to home gardening
The government in its tenth five-year plan (1993-1998) has put biodiversity as one of its top
priority agenda. Under this broad-based policy, agricultural biodiversity programs function
home gardening as one of the elements of this broad-based policy framework. Specific
policy related to home gardening does not exist. However, home gardening is a part of the
regular extension program and is implemented by district agricultural development offices in
DoA and the nodal agency is not defined. Traditionally, the Directorate of Vegetable
Development is responsible for the programs related to kitchen gardening at the national
level. Regular extension programs related to kitchen gardening cover vegetable mini kits
distribution, farm level training targeting women and the ultra poor. Materials of mini kits are
composed of little quantities of vegetable seed composites of improved and synthetic
varieties and external input-based production packages which have not emphasized the use
of local resources in the community. They, thus, do not contain any message on natural
resource management and biodiversity. Therefore, the programs need to be completely
reformulated in the context of home gardening. Home gardening covers the areas more than
vegetables and basically focuses on the use of local resources and covers broad areas like
livestock, vegetables, fruits, fodder and many other components that are of immediate use to
the local community.