x3996e09

SESSION 7

PROMOTION OF HOME GARDENS
FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION:
SECOND HOME GARDEN VISIT

Objective

By the end of this session, field workers will have:

increased their knowledge and skills in interacting with communities;
gathered and interpreted the information needed to understand the food and nutrition situation of individual households and communities;
gained a better understanding of the current and potential contributions of the home garden to household food security and nutritional well-being as a basis for discussing solutions and planning improvements with households.

OVERVIEW

During this second visit to the household, the participants collect detailed information and work with household members in assessing the household's food and nutrition situation. How to advise households and assist them in planning improvements are the subjects of Sessions 8, 9 and 10.

It is important to remember that the field worker's role is to facilitate learning and analysis by local households and communities. The emphasis, therefore, is on building, step by step, a process of discussion, analysis and planning in the household or community. This requires a number of follow-up visits and the establishment of a working relationship with local people on a continuing basis. Such a process requires teamwork, sensitivity and certain skills in facilitation. Gender roles and responsibilities, and the access by men and women to resources, must be included in the dialogue with households and communities, since these issues significantly affect the decisions that household members make about food and nutrition.

ACTIVITIES

Review of technical notes. Using the Technical Notes section in Session 7, the trainer and participants review the importance of teamwork, the facilitation and communication skills that field workers need in their work with households and communities, and the importance of considering gender issues in all agriculture-, home gardening- and nutrition-related activities at the household level.

Review and final preparation of Checklist 2. Based on the outcome of the first home garden visit and the subsequent training sessions, the trainer facilitates a discussion that leads to a review of Checklist 2 (see suggested Checklist 2 in this session). The field workers should also review and discuss the Notes for field workers that follow Checklist 2 to be sure that they understand the purpose and significance of each question in the checklist.

The trainer emphasizes the importance of treating the checklist as a guide for discussion rather than as a rigid questionnaire. For example, if issues raised in the first home garden visit require further probing or verification, they will need to be included in Checklist 2.

Preparation for household visits. The trainer should arrange to re-visit the same households that participated in the first home garden visit. For households other than single-headed ones, both the husband and the wife should be present. The field assessment will take an entire day.

Field workers continue to work in the same groups as during previous visits and classroom exercises. Each group selects a facilitator and a recorder prior to the visit. Each team will interview five to six households. The health worker or nutritionist in the group will be responsible for the nutritional assessment (measuring MUAC of children aged one to five years).

Second home garden visit. After introductions, the group facilitator explains the purpose of the visit and provides a brief summary of the results of the first visit. Each team and its respective households begin discussions. The teams ask household members to answer the questions in Parts A, B, C and D (on background, food sources, nutrition and the gender aspects of resources and time allocation) of Checklist 2.

The participants explore the home garden with the household members and ask household members to help them complete Parts E, F, G and H (which deal with agricultural conditions, biological load, the management of the home garden, and crops and livestock) of Checklist 2.

The team leader facilitates a session with the household where all members participate in drawing a map of the home garden (on a flip chart or on the ground), identifying its main physical features and the crops grown there. This map will serve as a reference for discussion in this session and in Session 8.

MATERIALS REQUIRED

Checklist 2 and Notes for field workers
flip charts
notebooks
pens and markers
MUAC strip or measuring tape

TECHNICAL NOTES

Priority message

1
Field workers need good facilitation and communication skills in their work with households

2
Teamwork among field workers is crucial for helping households improve nutrition

3
Considering gender roles during dialogue with community members is of key importance

Field workers need good facilitation and communication skills in their work with households

Apart from having specific technical knowledge and skills, field workers who work directly with households and communities must also have excellent interpersonal and facilitation skills. A good facilitator is a good observer and an active listener, who shows interest in what people say. A good facilitator should generally:

be respectful of local opinions;
quickly identify individuals who dominate discussions and find gentle and tactful ways of soliciting the opinions of other community members, in group discussions or individually;
be observant of group dynamics and how household and community members
(e.g. husband and wife or men and women) interact;
respond to the needs of households and adapt questions according to those needs.
The field workers should generally be sensitive to cultural practices and traditions in their dealings with households. For example, where it is not acceptable for male field workers to meet with female members of a household or when the topic of discussion is considered exclusively "female" (e.g. food preparation, child feeding, reproductive health or family planning), female field workers should facilitate the discussion or organize women-only focus group sessions. That is why it is important that each team include female members, preferably in equal proportion to the male members.

Teamwork among field workers is crucial for helping households improve nutrition

Food and nutrition issues cut across several disciplines, and helping households solve problems of food insecurity and malnutrition, becomes the responsibility of all field workers working in a community. When solving these problems individually, agricultural extension workers, for example, normally look only at production, crop yields, prices and income, while nutritionists and health workers, on the other hand, consider how households acquire food and whether that food is adequate to meet people's nutritional needs. Creating an environment in which field staff from different sectors can share information and work together for a common goal ensures that rural households are able to draw upon available technical services and inputs in a manner that addresses the multifaceted nature of food insecurity and poor nutrition.

Considering gender roles during dialogue with community members is of key importance

Gender roles (i.e. the roles and responsibilities held by both men and women) have to be taken into account during dialogues aimed at improving household nutrition. This can be done by looking at questions such as:

Who decides what to grow, where to grow it (home garden or family field), when to grow it and what to do with the food produced?
Who is responsible for the day-to-day decisions about the types of food to cook, how much food to cook and how much to serve to the different members of the household?
How do different members of the household spend their days (daily activity patterns) and what are the seasonal variations in these activity patterns?
What are the specific needs of men and women in home garden and nutrition improvement and how can those needs be met?

A technique such as asking men and women to keep separate daily logs of their activities will provide a clear indication of who does what and when, and will indicate the competing time demands on women for making home garden improvements and providing adequate care for young children.

It may be necessary for the participants to meet separately with women. This will allow the women to express their ideas and opinions freely, especially in places where it is culturally unacceptable for women to speak in the presence of men or at public gatherings. The active participation of women in assessing the food and nutrition situation is important, both as a means of empowering women and of ensuring that home garden actions and improvements will be designed and planned in a way that meets the women's needs without burdening them with extra tasks.

CHECKLIST 2:

FOOD AND NUTRITION SITUATION AND HOME GARDEN UTILIZATION

Name of facilitator: ........................................................................

Name of recorder: ..................................... Date: ....................................

Name of village: .......................... Name of household: ..........................

A) Background

Ask the following questions of all household members:

1. How many members are there in the household?

a.Adults (total): ................. (total working): .................

b. Children (list those under 15 years old and their ages):

.................................................................................................................................................................

2. How many household members do off-farm work?

.................................................................................................................................................................

3. Who are the household members with experience in home garden activities, especially vegetable and fruit growing?

.................................................................................................................................................................

4. Is home garden production adequate to meet the food needs of the household year round? If not, what are the factors which constrain production?

.................................................................................................................................................................

5. What is the main function of the home garden at present (circle one)?

a. Food .................

b. Income .................

c. Both .................

B) Food sources

Ask the following questions of all household members:

6. How much of the household food supply comes from the home garden?

a. Most .................

b. About half .................

c. Less than half .................

7. Which crops do you grow in the home garden (list all crops)?

Rainy season	Dry season
............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................	............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................

8. Would you like to produce more of any of these crops?

.................................................................................................................................................................

9. Which additional crops would you like to produce?

.................................................................................................................................................................

10. How do you use the above food crops (e.g. home consumption, sale, processing, storage)?

.................................................................................................................................................................

11. What methods/facilities do you use for processing (drying, curing, other) and storage?

Crop type	Method of processing/storage
............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................	............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................

12. Who decides how the foods are to be used (husband/wife/other)?

.................................................................................................................................................................

13. What important food items do you buy with cash? How often?

.................................................................................................................................................................

14. Who buys (husband/wife/other)?

.................................................................................................................................................................

15. What other items for food preparation do you buy on a regular basis (condiments, vegetables, fruit, oil, infant foods, soap, fuelwood/kerosene, other)?

.................................................................................................................................................................

C) Nutrition

Ask the following questions of the wife/caregiver:

16. How many meals did the family eat yesterday?

a. Adults: .................

b. Children (under five years old): .................

c. Children (aged 5-15 years): .................

17. Is there any time during the year when you eat more or fewer meals per day? When?

.................................................................................................................................................................

18. What did you eat yesterday?

Type of dish	Ingredients used
............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................	............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................

19. Is there any special food for the children? If so, what?

.................................................................................................................................................................

20. How many times per week do the children (under five years old) eat vegetables? Fruit? Meat or fish?

.................................................................................................................................................................

21. How does this vary with the seasons?

.................................................................................................................................................................

22. How many times did your child (under two years old) eat yesterday?

.................................................................................................................................................................

23. What did you feed him/her?

Type of weaning food	Ingredients used
............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................	............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................

24. Do you think you are feeding your children enough of the right kinds of food? If yes, or no, explain why.

.................................................................................................................................................................

25. Have the children (under five years old) suffered from any of the following illnesses in the last month (circle all that apply)?

a. Diarrhoea .................

b. Measles .................

c. Malaria .................

d. Cough .................

e. Malnutrition .................

f. Night blindness (list signs and symptoms): ........................................................................

g. Other: ........................................................................................................................................

26. How often has your child suffered from any of these illnesses during the last month?

.................................................................................................................................................................

27. What do you think are the causes of the illnesses mentioned?

Illness	Cause
Diarrhoea	.................................................................
Measles	.................................................................
Malaria	.................................................................
Cough	.................................................................
Malnutrition	.................................................................
Night blindness (list signs and symptoms):	.................................................................
Other:	...........................................

28. Take mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) measurements of children aged one to five years and list which children have MUAC measurements in the green, yellow and red categories, or write down if you are using a tape measure, the actual measurement. Note this information on each child's health centre growth chart, if available.

.................................................................................................................................................................

D) Gender aspects of resources and time allocation

Ask the following questions of the husband and wife separately, and prepare separate
24-hour logs for men's and women's activities:

29. How much time do you spend every day doing different activities (e.g. walking to fields; working in fields; gardening; working off-farm; gathering fuelwood; carrying water; processing food; preparing food; feeding and taking care of children; resting; sleeping)?

.................................................................................................................................................................

30. Who buys inputs (e.g. seeds, planting materials, fertilizer) for the home garden?

.................................................................................................................................................................

31. Who decides on the use of home garden produce?

.................................................................................................................................................................

32. Who decides on the allocation of income from home garden produce?

.................................................................................................................................................................

33. How is such income used?

.................................................................................................................................................................

E) Agricultural conditions

Ask the following questions while walking through the home garden with household members:

34. Is there water available all year round for the home garden? Indicate sources of water.

.................................................................................................................................................................

35. What is the size of your home garden? .....................................................................................

36. What approximate percentage of the home garden land is:

a. Flat: .................

b. Sloping: .................

c. Swampy: .................

37. For how many months in the year is the home garden land available for gardening activities? What determines its availability?

.................................................................................................................................................................

38. What is the soil texture?

.................................................................................................................................................................

39. How is the soil fertility (circle one)?

a. Poor .................

b. Adequate .................

c. Good .................

40. How deep is the topsoil?

.................................................................................................................................................................

F) Biological load

Ask the following questions while walking through the home garden with household members:

41. What percentage of the total home garden area is used for:

a. Growing food: .................

b. Other purposes (specify): .................

42. How much of the home garden is used for growing:

a. Annual crops: .................

b. Perennial crops: .................

43. How much of the home garden land is planted in:

a. One layer: .................

b. Two layers: .................

c. Three or more layers: .................

44. Does the home garden have a living fence? (If no, proceed to question 48.) .................

45. What plants are used?

.................................................................................................................................................................

46. Are there any that are food crops?

.................................................................................................................................................................

47. Are there any that are used as animal feed? .................................................................................

48. What types of local/indigenous vegetables do you grow?

.................................................................................................................................................................

49. Are crops generally growing well or poorly?

.................................................................................................................................................................

G) Management of the home garden

Complete the table below while walking through the home garden with household members.

TABLE 7.1
Management of the home garden

Management	Good	Poor	Remarks
Land preparation
Water management
Crop protection
Use of organic matter
Spacing
Pest management
Weed control
Erosion protection
Plant propagation
Seed saving and multiplication
Crop layering
Tree pruning
Crop diversification

H) Crops and livestock

Record the number of plants (or area planted) and animals and their condition in
Table 7.2. Complete only the columns that are relevant to this home garden.

TABLE 7.2
Home garden crops and livestock

Crop	Number of bearing plants	Number of non-bearing plants	Square metres of area planted	Remarks
Coconut
Oil-palm
Banana
Mango
Citrus
Papaya
Avocado
Cashew nut
Coffee
Cocoa
Cassava, root
Cassava, leaves
Sweet potato, root
Sweet potato, leaves
Maize
Taro or cocoyam
Yam
Irish potato
Cowpea^*
Pigeon pea
Groundnut
Bambara groundnut
Other legumes
Chilli
Tomato
Eggplant
Okra
Pumpkin, fruit
Pumpkin, leaves
Leafy vegetables
Herbs/spices
Chicken
Goats
Fish

^* Indicate if the leaves are used as well.

CHECKLIST 2:

NOTES FOR FIELD WORKERS

A) Background

1. How many members are there in the household? This will indicate the size of the household and the ages and nutritional needs of the family members.

2. How many household members do off-farm work? This will indicate what labour is available for cultivating the home garden. Labour shortages are one of the major constraints to home garden development.

3. Who are the household members with experience in home garden activities, especially in growing vegetables and fruit? This will indicate how much advice and support the household will need.

4. Is home garden production adequate to meet the food needs of the household year round? Together with Part E, this will show if the household has a realistic appreciation of the home garden's potential.

5. What is the main function of the home garden at present? Food? Income? Both? If a main function is to meet food needs, then it is necessary to find out if the garden is fulfilling that function. However, if income is the main function, it is important to ask if the income generated covers the cost of purchased foods and if other food crops could be integrated into the cash crop system.

B) Food sources

6. How much of the household food supply comes from the home garden? This will indicate how well the home garden is providing food for the household, and also how great is the need for cash to buy food.

7. Which crops do you grow in the home garden? / 8. Would you like to produce more of any of these crops? / 9. Which additional crops would you like to produce? These questions will indicate the variety of crops that the household grows and how this varies seasonally. They will also indicate what potential there is for increasing and diversifying production and consumption.

10. How do you use the above food crops (e.g. home consumption, sale, processing, storage)? After each food item mentioned, record the proportion that is consumed, sold, processed or stored. This will indicate how households utilize available foods and what potential there is for optimizing available food resources to meet household food needs.

11. What methods/facilities do you use for processing and storage? This will indicate the knowledge that people have about processing and storing different home garden foods and how they plan to insure themselves against potential seasonal shortfalls.

12. Who decides how the foods are to be used? This will indicate who is the main decision-maker in the household with regard to household food utilization and allocation.

13. What important food items do you buy with cash? How often? / 14. Who buys? /
15. What other items for food preparation do you buy on a regular basis? Field workers should try to find out which foods or other items could be produced in the home garden in order to save cash. Differentiate between food items that cannot be produced in the home garden, but are necessary for nutritional balance, and those that can be produced locally.

C) Nutrition

16. How many meals did the family eat yesterday? / 17. Is there any time during the year when you eat more or fewer meals per day? When? Record the number of meals that each household member ate the day before and establish if this is the number usually eaten or if the number varies with the seasons.

18. What did you eat yesterday? Take note what the children ate. Write down the different food groups (staples, legumes, oil/fat, vegetables, fruits). Enquire if those food groups absent in the meal from the day before are often missing.

19. Is there any special food for the children? If so, why? This will indicate if children have been given snacks or fruit between main meals. This question indicates also whether or not the mother is aware of children's need for extra energy and nutrients.

20. How many times per week do the children (under five years old) eat vegetables? Fruit? Meat or fish? / 21. How does this vary with the seasons? These questions will indicate if the children's diet contains sufficient vitamins and minerals.

22. How many times did your child (under two years old) eat yesterday? / 23. What did you feed him/her? These questions will indicate how many meals, in addition to breastfeeding, the mother fed her child the day before. The field worker should record the ingredients the mother used for making the weaning foods. If the mother fed her child fewer than two meals in addition to breastfeeding, find out why. This will indicate if the mother is aware of young children's need for frequent feedings and the special food needs of children of different ages.

24. Do you think you are feeding your children enough of the right kinds of foods? If yes, or no explain why? The answer to this question, together with other data gathered, should show if the household is well informed about what a nutritious diet is.

25. Have the children (under five years old) suffered from any of the following illnesses in the last month? / 26. How often has your child suffered from any of these illnesses during the last month? / 27. What do you think are the causes of each of the illnesses mentioned? Take note particularly of illnesses related to malnutrition, such as measles, frequent diarrhoea and cough, and record how many episodes of an illness each child has suffered. Night-blindness may indicate a lack of vitamin A in the diet (as may other infectious diseases, since a lack of vitamin A reduces resistance to infection). More than three episodes of diarrhoea per week means that the child is losing nutrients and water, in which case he or she needs regular feeding and sufficient liquids to prevent dehydration. The mother's response to the question on the causes of the illnesses will indicate whether or not she is aware of what causes infectious diseases and how they can be prevented.

28. Take mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) measurements of children aged one to five years, and then list which children have MUAC measurements in the green, yellow and red categories. This will indicate the nutritional status of the children and show whether or not they are malnourished, as well as the degree of their malnutrition. List which children have MUAC measurements in the green (above 13.5 cm - the child is not wasted), yellow (between 12.5 and 13.5 cm - the child is moderately wasted) and red (under 12.5 cm - the child is severely wasted) categories. If a child falls in the red category, he or she is severely malnourished. Advise the mother to take the child to the health centre for treatment.

D) Gender aspects of resources and time allocation

29. How much time do you spend every day doing different activities? Ask men and women to describe in separate 24-hour logs the proportion of time they take to do different daily activities. Start by asking at what time they get up in the morning and end by asking them when they go to bed at night. This will reveal the different workloads of women and men and will indicate, together with other information, how much time is available for home gardening- and nutrition-related activities, such as food preparation and child care. It may also lead to discussions within and among different households on what can be done to alleviate household members' (particularly women's) workloads, and what possible actions might support this. For example, building a community water well would not only save women's time but would also provide clean drinking-water as well as water for small dry-season kitchen gardens.

30. Who buys inputs (e.g. seeds, planting materials, fertilizer) for the home garden? This will indicate who in the household is responsible for investments in home gardening and which types of crops are grown. Whoever buys inputs may also influence decisions on the use of home garden produce and who benefits from it.

31. Who decides on the use of home garden produce? The person who decides whether home garden produce is used for home consumption or for sale influences the types of benefits derived and who receives those benefits.

32. Who decides on the allocation of income from home garden produce? / 33. How is such income used? Different members of a household have different priorities, and the use of the income will vary accordingly. Studies show that income earned by women is more likely to benefit the household members directly, particularly the children, if women also have decision-making power over how to dispose of that income (i.e. the income is spent on additional food, health care or school fees).

E) Agricultural conditions

34. Is there water available all year round for the home garden? Indicate sources of water. Indicate type of water source and whether the source is seasonal or permanent. Also find out the walking distance to the source, the water quality and quantity and its cost, if any.

35. What is the size of your home garden? / 36. What approximate percentage of the home garden is flat? Sloping? Swampy? It is necessary to know the size of a home garden and the type of land it has, in order to know its production potential. These questions will also indicate what needs to be done in terms of soil and water management (e.g. drainage in wetlands, soil and water conservation on flat and dry land, and soil and water conservation and erosion control on sloping land).

37. For how many months of the year is the home garden land available for gardening activities? What determines its availability? Many home garden managers use farmland for growing home garden crops after the main staple crops have been harvested. If the land is not available year round, the options for intensified land use (e.g. multistorey cropping) are more limited.

38. What is the soil texture? Perform a finger test. Consider how difficult or easy cultivation in this soil might be. Sandy soil will not hold much water and dries out quickly, so it may need a lot of organic matter to retain water and improve productivity. Clay soil will hold water but may be difficult to work in the dry season.

39. How is the soil fertility: Poor? Adequate? Good? Poor soil will need more work to improve it.

40. How deep is the topsoil? Measure it. Shallow soil will need more improvement than deep soil. Shallow soil can indicate an erosion problem.

F) Biological load

41. What percentage of the total home garden area is used for growing food? Other purposes? It is necessary to know what else the land is being used for so that it is possible to estimate what percentage of it is available for growing crops. It can then be decided whether or not this remaining land is being used fully or whether it can produce more.

42. How much area of the home garden is used for growing annual crops? Perennial crops? Introducing more perennial plants, especially trees, can increase the productivity of land by extending the top layer of plants, providing shade and natural compost and preventing the growth of weeds.

43. How much of the home garden land is planted in one layer? Two layers? Three or more layers? The multilayer system increases productivity.

44. Does the home garden have a living fence? / 45. What plants are used? / 46. Are there any that are food crops? / 47. Are there any that are used as animal feed? A living fence protects the home garden from intruders such as roaming animals, acts as a windbreak and improves soil fertility.

48. What types of local/indigenous vegetables do you grow? Indigenous vegetables contribute to diversity, conserve nature and add nutritional value to people's diets, since they are often more nutritious (i.e. they have a higher content of vitamins and minerals) than exotic species.

49. Are crops generally growing well or poorly? If some plants are growing poorly, it will be necessary to assess the cultural practices.

G) Management of the home garden

Land preparation. Take note of the tools used. Describe where and how to use beds, basins, mounds, ridges, etc.

Water management. Enquire about water management during the wet and dry seasons. Note drainage, the application of water for irrigation, water-saving devices, water harvesting and storage, as well as wastewater utilization. Where water is scarce, runoff from wells and kitchens should be used for crops. During the dry season, the use of available water sources (e.g. riverbanks, swamps and wetlands) leads to dry-season production, increases productivity and ensures food diversity.

Crop protection. Is the home garden fenced in? Note roaming animals. Note the effectiveness of crop support systems (e.g. the use of trellises, stakes, mulch).

Use of organic matter. Mulch should be used to conserve moisture around annual plants that are sensitive to drought. Manure and compost should also be dug into the soil to feed it.

Spacing. Is spacing between crops optimum? If not, trees and other plants may be competing for sunlight and nutrients.

Pest management. Evaluate disease pressure. Note the form of pest control practised. Enquire about the use of natural enemies and pesticides.

Weed control. Are the crops overgrown by weeds? What is the reason for this? Find out if the benefits of weed control are known.

Protection from erosion. Soil should be covered by plants or mulch, and barriers should be in place to prevent soil from being washed away.

Plant propagation. If the home garden has a nursery, evaluate the nursery techniques. Enquire about the source of the materials used and note possible areas for improvement, if any.

Seed saving and multiplication. If seeds are saved for further propagation, assess the mother plants for their quality and health status. (Field workers should be informed about seed processing, storage and viability.)

Layering of crops. Determine if the home garden has a multilayer cropping system. Are plants of different heights grown? If so, how well established are they? Do they provide shade and contribute to weed control?

Pruning of trees. Observe if the tree crops, particularly the fruit-trees, have been well cared for. Have the trees been properly pruned and their dead branches removed?

Diversity of crops. The information gathered for Part H of Checklist 2 will show in detail how many crops the home garden is producing. The greater the variety, the better the chances of ensuring that enough food is produced for family needs throughout the year.

H) Crops and livestock produced in the home garden

Table 7.2 shows the productivity of each crop and animal and invites comments on those that should be producing better than they currently are. Remarks should try to identify the reasons for poor production. For example:

coffee: lack of pruning;
mango: flowers but never bears fruit (not suited to climate);
citrus: poor fruit (must prune dead branches and fertilize).