Following Barnali's comments on women's involvement in fruit and vegetable production...
I was at a research conference in London on Monday and posed an argument that kitchen gardens for better nutrition don't need much new research - we know that increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is really important, probably among most populations and in most countries.
However, I think an important question is about women's involvement in such enterprises and perhaps the potential for empowerment. How kitchen garden development proceeds is more complicated than production models. I worry about the patterns of utilization of kitchen garden products, opportunities for marketing, and I would like to ask if there is any experience of kitchen gardens that do lead to better incomes, better household nutrition, successful commercial marketing - and female empowerment.
Nigel Poole