Backyard Gardening; a Convenient and year-round food basket
In Malawi, high population density is a major contributing factor putting a lot of pressure on land as more of it is required for settlement, resulting in land fragmentation and the subsequent reduction in the land-holding size allocated for farming activities and negatively affecting food production. The situation has further escalated other challenges, such as food insecurity and a lack of alternative sources of income among rural farming communities in which households affected by HIV/AIDS have experienced even worst scenarios.
This situation has been of serious concern in many parts of Malawi, including communities Targeted in the Household Nutrition and Economic Empowerment Through Vegetable Production Value Addition and Marketing (NEVAM) Project supported by the Egmont trust at T/A chadza in Lilongwe district.
Despite having limited land for farming activities, Gladys Foliyamu of Mninga village in T/A chadza, who was experiencing similar challenges, was convinced that if she was to improve her household food insecurity and lack of year-round access to nutritious foods, she had to adopt the home gardening innovation that the NEVAM project promotes in the area. As such, she did not hesitate to participate in a series of foundational capacity-building workshops that Agri-Impact Malawi facilitated. These training sessions include Mindset change and life skills, vegetable crop production, Agribusiness, Entrepreneurship, and establishment of diversified vegetable crops home garden.
Barely a week later, she was one of the first ten people who established a rainfed home garden where she planted different types of indigenous vegetables and other improved vegetable crops such as Orange fresh sweet potatoes that she received from the project to enhance the diversity of crops in these gardens.
Due to the success of her home garden, she became a model among her peers and began helping fellow members establish home gardens. Now she is an immense advocate for home garden innovation in her area. She explains to others the importance and benefits of having a home garden with different types of local and improved vegetables.
” I always encourage friends and family, even those outside the project, to have a small vegetable garden within their compound, as they are important and the easiest way to access different food groups as they don’t require many resources to establish. Vegetables such as spinach, pumpkin leaves, and other local vegetable are easily accessible, and these can do much to improve the nutrition of not only the children but the whole family as they can access nutritious food within their home.”
Gladys said. Meanwhile, besides consuming, Gladys wants to position this vegetable production as her side business to support herself and her family’s needs. As such, she plans to expand the size of the garden from 3 metres by 5 meters to 5 metres by 10 Meters in preparation for the dry season in which vegetables are in demand and more profitable.
Project Location: Mninga village, T/A Chadza in Lilongwe