Home gardens as a source of good food

Nilanthi Chathuranga Daulagala
Postgraduate student, Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya

‘Home Garden’ is a complex sustainable land use system that combines multiple farming components such as crops, livestock and occasionally fish. It provides environmental services, household needs and income generation opportunities to the households.

In a research study funded by the Asia Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research which was conducted by the Agriculture Faculty of University of Peradeniya, the contribution of home gardens to national economy was thoroughly analyzed. This article is based on review of the literature on home gardens of Sri Lanka.

Agriculture and Environmental Census Department of Sri Lanka classify a piece of land as a home garden under two scenarios. First, a piece of land is classified as a home garden if it contains a dwelling house, has some form of cultivation, and the total land area is equal to or less than 20 perches. On the other hand, a piece of land that is larger than 20 perches may be classified as a home garden if it contains a dwelling house, some form of cultivation and if the produce of the cultivated land is largely for home consumption.

Foreign donors

An estimated 14.32 percent of land in Sri Lanka fall under this category. They are largely distributed in all administrative districts. Eastern province (3.5 acres) followed by the North Central (3.1 acres) and Uva (2.5 acres) provinces have relatively larger home gardens. Mullaitivu has the largest home gardens in the country ie 4.2 acres in size. Kurunegala (74,636 gardens) contains the highest number of home gardens, followed by Anuradhapura (70,210 gardens) and Kegalle (65,255 gardens).

They receive substantial incentives from the government foreign donors such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UN. Rural development programmes included in Mahinda Chinthana, development agenda such as Gama Neguma, Gemi Diriya, Osu Gammana (Herbal farming villages) and Jana Sevana support village livelihood, infrastructure and agriculture based enterprise development.

Socio-economic aspects

Investments in construction and repair of new and existing wells, tanks and irrigation canals increase water availability to households. The government freely distributes planting materials such as ambarella in an effort to improve home garden-based income generation. Besides support from the public sector, international donors also provide essential financial support to improve agriculture-based income generation through regional NGOs in Sri Lanka.

The essential features of home gardens - sustainability, environmental services and high species diversity - have been discussed below.

Natural resource base

Home gardens are essentially sustainable land use systems of which sustainability refers to its ability to maintain production at a desired level in the long-term at the presence of environmental constraints and disturbances and also socio-economic pressure.

The sustainability includes both environmental and socio-economic aspects. Home gardens have been nurtured by the indigenous knowledge, preferences and survival mechanism of its dwellers.

They have survived ecological constraints and adversities over a prolonged period of time. The growing demand for land from other sectors such as industries, infrastructure and building constructions has not significantly affected the proportion of home gardens in the country. According to the Forestry Sector Master Plan forecast in 1995, the total number of home gardens continues to grow at 1.6 percent annually. Therefore its sustainability is widely explicit.

Protection of natural resource base via soil conservation, soil fertility improvement, carbon sequestration, water quality management, windbreaks are important environmental services provided by home gardens. Kandyan Forest Gardens which refers to the home gardens found in Kandy, Kurunegala and Matale districts provide environmental services equivalent to tropical rain forests. Multistoried structure in these systems reduces the intensity of rain splash which is the most important detachment agent of soil erosion.

Moreover, soil organic acid content in mature home gardens is significantly higher compared to open fields. The important soil properties to agriculture such as cation exchange capacity, water holding capacity, pH value, aeration and filtration are largely improved in agro-forestry systems such as home gardens. Carbon sequestration, which refers to the removal of gaseous form of carbon from the atmosphere followed by deposition in an alternative source, requires further research.

However findings of similar studies in other countries suggest a higher contribution from home gardens to carbon sequestration and associated mediating of atmospheric temperature around human settlements.

An essential feature of home gardens is year around production of food and other products. Home gardens are predominantly rich with food trees such as jack, breadfruit types e.g. ratudel, katudel, kalladel, fruit tyes such as amberella, avocado, banana, carambola, cashew, citrus types, cocoa, durian, gauva, jackfruit, mango, mangosteen, passion fruit, papaya, pineapple, pomegranate, rambutan, rose apple, sapodilla etc. and vegetables such as amaranthus, brinjal, cabbage, okra, pumpkin, sesbania grandiflora, spinach, water spinach, wing bean etc.

Nutritional foods

Between 29 percent and 50 percent of the species cultivated in home gardens are edible in general.

These also include different varieties of spices e.g. Cardamom, chillies, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, curry leaf, ginger lemon grass, nutmeg, pepper, rampe, turmeric and root crops e.g. Yams, sweet potato, taro, yam cassava. Families have direct access to these highly nutritional foods.

A mature jackfruit for instance is equivalent to 1 to 1.5 kg of rice. Green leafy vegetables and fruits are rich in micronutrients - Vitamins A, C, iron, minerals and fibre - highly required for children of age below 6, pregnant and lactating mothers.

Recently the livestock component had become less prominent due to limited space, scarcity of grasslands and religious concerns.

The most popular livestock produce includes chicken, eggs, goat and cow milk.

In addition to food products, homegardens also provide timber, fodder medicines, fibre and firewood, which are important for household remedies and consumption. For instance, a large proportion of households in rural areas rely 100 percent on firewood for cooking.

According to popular literature, most of the plants in homegardens have some form of medicinal value, providing households with several ayurvedic remedies to common illness.

While living in a global economy which is threatened by food and energy crisis along with rapidly degrading ecosystems it can be concluded that any incentive given for development homegardens is nothing but wise investment on future.

The writer wishes to thank Prof Buddhi Marambe, Dr Jeewika Weeraheva, Dr Gamini Pushpakumara, Dr Pradeepa Silva and Bimali Wijeratne for their assistance and support.