A vast majority of malnourished and hungry people live under sub-standard conditions. Over half a billion of the world’s population suffer from chronic food insecurity—food production and stocks’ security to meet the growing demands and efficiently cope with the necessities. Strategies are required to address this issue, and one of the sustainable solution known today is home gardening.
Home gardening has been recorded as an essential supplemental source that can contribute to food and nutritional security. For decades, home gardening has been an integral component of local farming and food systems. This can be found in rural and urban places in small scale production supplying animal and plant consumption through field consumption, gathering, fishing and wage-earning.
SOCIAL BENEFITS OF HOME GARDENING
Enhancing food and nutritional security
The most fundamental benefit of home gardening is their direct contribution to household food security by increasing the availability, accessibility and utilization of foods. It gives easy access to fresh plant and meat supply in urban and rural places. Furthermore, the inclusion of poultry and livestock from home gardening reinforces nutritional security such as eggs, milk and meat from home-raised animals.
Improving health
The truth that plants are an essential source of medicine to human and livestock makes a way of having a home garden. Medicinal plants and herbs are grown in a home to treat various illnesses and diseases to improve health conditions. Food insecurity nationwide forces people to consume less and settle to food that is of low nutritional quality. Still, when you do home gardening, you’ll be secured to a healthier intake.
Preserving indigenous knowledge and building integrated societies
Home gardening consists of a variety of components that represent social and traditional areas of different societies. Most researchers look at home gardening as a valuable repository for transferring and preserving the indigenous crops and livestock species.
ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF HOME GARDENING
Home gardening is widely promoted as a sustainable mechanism to avert poverty and a source of income for subsistence families in other developing countries. It serves as the primary unit that utilizes ad initiates ecological approaches for food production while conserving natural resources and biodiversity.
Home gardening also provides several sustainable ecosystems such as habitats for animals and other beneficial organisms, reduced soil erosion, nutrient recycling and enhanced pollination. The abundance of animal and plant litter and the continuous recycling of organic soil matter can contribute to a high-quality and efficient nutrient cycling system.
CONSTRAINTS OF HOME GARDENING
While there are multiple advantages of home gardening in developing the world’s security, there are also critical constraints to home gardens’ sustainability and productivity. Some of these constraints are the shortage of land, inadequate access to water, limited marketing opportunities, and plants’ damage due to insects and pests.
Overall, home gardens show that it can fulfil social, economic and cultural needs while providing several environmental systems. In this light, we can conclude that home gardening systems can promote multiple services to help families and the county itself.