Experiences of research and development interventions in the home gardens
The current project is the first systematic effort in the research and development of home
gardens in Nepal. The results so far have shown that home gardens are important
production systems for food security and livelihoods of the people are viable units for
biodiversity conservation, and that there is greater need and scope for further research and
development. For overcoming rural poverty and addressing millennium development goals
(MDGs), home garden has seen as a good entry point for intervention as the programme
can reach the poorest of the poor. Some of these experiences are summarized here.
Farmers are aware of the value of home garden and keen for community management
There are good opportunities for strengthening the home garden production systems for
following reasons:
Majority of farmers maintaining home garden and this need to translated into
“nutrition” garden for family health and well being not only for income.
Farmers’ keen interest in the home garden project activities.
Initiation of community management of home gardens – establishment of “home
garden research and development groups” and “community resource home gardens”.
Community actively engaged in surveillance/monitoring of biodiversity in the home
gardens.
Farmer-to-farmer exchange of information and seeds/ planting materials.
Exposing key home gardens to new innovation and technologies from other countries.
Scope for promotion of diversity through home garden diversity kits
There is a good opportunity for promotion of diversity through home garden diversity kits as
farmers have traditionally been using home gardens to test new crops and varieties.
Possibly for this reason, there has been high demand for home garden diversity kits from the
farming communities. Farmers’ preferences, however, determine the composition of such
diversity kits.
Use of participatory approach in planning and implementation of home garden activities
The use of participatory and community-based approach has been found quite useful for the
management of home gardens as the empower community to develop community-driven
action plans. This includes:
Using farmers’ knowledge in identifying species and associated knowledge.
Farmers’ participation in planning and implementation of the interventions.
Mobilizing farmers’ resource and capacity.
Farmers’ traveling and learning workshop encourage diversity in home garden
Farmers’ mobility and access to information and materials have positive impact on the home
garden diversity (Shrestha et al., 2004). Organizing farmers’ visit to different farming
communities, and research and development project sites has been found to encourage
home garden biodiversity because of the following reasons:
Opportunity to see and share knowledge and seeds/ planting materials.
Increased awareness about the value of home garden.
Motivation for community mobilization.
Motivation for resource and fund mobilization.
Issues of policy implications
The project findings and other experiences discussed during the workshop has identified a
number of research and development issues of policy implication. These include:
Home gardens yet to be recognized as (a) viable units for on-farm biodiversity
conservation, and (b) important sources of food security and livelihoods.