International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
ISSN: 1946-3138 (Print) 1946-3146 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjue20
Assessing the role and effectiveness of kitchen
gardening toward food security in Punjab,
Pakistan: a case of district Bahawalpur
Muhammad Mohsin, Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, Farrukh Jamal, Fahad
Ajmal & Juergen Breuste
To cite this article: Muhammad Mohsin, Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, Farrukh Jamal, Fahad
Ajmal & Juergen Breuste (2017) Assessing the role and effectiveness of kitchen gardening toward
food security in Punjab, Pakistan: a case of district Bahawalpur, International Journal of Urban
Sustainable Development, 9:1, 64-78, DOI: 10.1080/19463138.2017.1286349
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2017.1286349
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa
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International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2017
Vol. 9, No. 1, 64–78, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2017.1286349
Assessing the role and effectiveness of kitchen gardening toward food security in
Punjab, Pakistan: a case of district Bahawalpur
Muhammad Mohsina*, Muhammad Mushahid Anwarb*, Farrukh Jamalc, Fahad Ajmald
and Juergen Breustee
a
Department of Geography, Govt. S.E. College, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan; bDepartment of Geography, University
of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan; cDepartment of Statistics, Govt. S.A. Postgraduate College, Dera Nawab Sahib,
Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan; dDepartment of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan;
e
Department of Geography and Geology, University Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
(Received 11 January 2016; accepted 19 January 2017)
Food security is one of the leading issues of many governments globally. Kitchen gardening is the
innovative project initiated by the Government of Punjab (Pakistan) to provide instant aid to dwellers by
self-produced fresh vegetables. The present investigation was conducted in the district Bahawalpur. The
objectives were to explore the main benefits of kitchen gardening, to identify the places used for this activity,
to identify the growers’ perceptions and to give suggestions to improve the project. Two urban and one rural
tehsils of district Bahawalpur were selected as study areas. Secondary data were collected from several
sources while primary data gathered through a mobile phone survey and analyzed by applying descriptive
and inferential statistics using SPSS software. The findings have justified that dominant share of growers
have sown the seed kits for vegetables production, mostly for home consumption and was satisfied with the
quality and price of seed kit. Most of the growers certified the efficiency of the project in the regular
provision of fresh and healthy vegetables. Hence, the project is a successful endeavor and still continuing in
the province, benefiting the masses and encouraging urban agriculture. The outcome of the investigation is
suggestions to further improve this project.
Keywords: Food security; kitchen gardening; urban agriculture; district Bahawalpur; Punjab province
Introduction
Increasing urbanization and food security are
among the key issues of the present era (FAO
2011). In recent decades, the safe and regular access
of food to many rural and poor urban households
has become uncertain, creating concerns of food
security in many developing countries. Millions of
the people around the globe are unable to purchase
or have the access to sufficient food for themselves
and their families (Nkosi et al. 2014). Therefore,
safe food production and secure food supply are
critical issues for low-income countries and it is
important to develop all possible methods for the
production and distribution of food (Arshad
Shafqat 2012; Cameron & Wright 2014). In
Germany, innovative forms of urban agriculture,
such as Zero-Acreage Farming (ZFarming) are
being practiced. ZFarming involving rooftop gardens, indoor farms and other building-related forms
have contributed significantly to food supply in
*Corresponding author. Email: chairperson.geosciences@uog.edu.pk
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
addition to providing numerous environmental,
economic and social benefits (Specht et al. 2014).
Major food items such as vegetables and fruits
are considered vital for the rapidly increasing
populations of developing countries like Pakistan,
India and Bangladesh. Therefore, kitchen gardens
(or home-based gardens) can play a pivotal role to
alleviating problems of hunger and malnutrition in
these countries. Kitchen gardens have already proven to be an important subsidiary source of food in
India and Sri Lanka (Halder & Pati 2011; Galhena
et al. 2013).
Literally, ‘Kitchen gardens’ refer to food grown
in or around the house for household use (Evans &
Jespersen 2001). Home gardens may be kitchen
garden, a mixed garden, or backyard, farmyard and
compound garden or homestead garden. Kitchen or
home gardening is an earliest and most extensive
food production system found throughout the world
(Landauer & Brazil 1985; Rowe 2009).
In many parts of the world, the practice of a
community gardening is widespread as both collective gardens and individually allocated spaces
(Holland 2004). The practice of collective community gardens is useful and frequently adopted in
many developed countries (e.g. Australia) as a
useful activity but less applicable in countries
like Pakistan where land ownership patterns and
utilization highly differ from these countries in
terms of individual preferences and existing land
uses. In Pakistan, people grow vegetables individually or on household basis in spaces within their
possession rather in a collective effort on allotted
space. Hence, encouraging or enhancing vegetable
gardening at home can play a significant role in
improving food security to resource poor rural and
urban households in developing countries like
Pakistan and providing additional sources of
fresh and nutritionally rich food products
(Asaduzzaman et al. 2011; Galhena 2012).
The various social benefits that have emerged
from kitchen gardening practices are health and
nutrition, enhanced income, self-employment,
food security within the household and community
social life (Rehman et al. 2013). Fruits and vegetable production gives households direct access to
65
important nutrition that might not be within their
budget to purchase (Talukder et al. 2001; Heim
et al. 2009). Kitchen gardening has also proved
cost-effective and sustainable method for producing organic vegetables such as cauliflower, radish
and turnip (Titilola et al. 2012; Rani et al. 2013).
In Mexico, the house garden is considered a specified site for the reproduction of cultural relations
and plays a key role in family life (Christie 2004).
In Benin, vegetable farming has provided a
balanced diet to urban populations and enhanced
farmers’ household income and living standard
(Allagbé et al. 2014). In low-income housing
areas of urban Penang (Malaysia), kitchen gardens
have proved a symbol of place, identity and sense
of belonging for local low-cost flat residents
(Ghazali 2013).
With its burgeoning population, food security
has now become the major objective of the
Government of Pakistan and policymakers have
focused on formulating a sound food policy leading
to food security (Tariq et al. 2014). Nevertheless, in
recent years Pakistan has witnessed increased poverty levels and higher risk of food insecurity in
many areas. For instance, about 12% of the
Potohar district population lacks food security and
another 38% are at high risk of it (Abbasi et al.
2014). Because it is a fact that kitchen kitchen
gardens have great potential for improving household food security and alleviating micronutrient
deficiencies (FAO 2010), the main objectives of
this study is to explore the benefits of the kitchen
gardening project, to identify place, area and yield
output of kitchen gardens, and to investigate the
grower’s perceptions and suggestions for further
improvement to the project. Hence, this study
sought to summarize specific benefits of kitchen
gardening reported in the existing literature on
urban agriculture in the context of Punjab province
in general and district Bahawalpur in particular.
Kitchen gardening project in Punjab:
background and progress
The kitchen gardening project was initiated by the
Government of Punjab in the year of 2010–2011
66
Table 1.
M.M. Anwar et al.
Brief description of kitchen gardening project in Punjab, Pakistan.
Name of the project
Location
Sponsoring agency
Project period
Project objectives
Upscaling of kitchen gardening in Punjab
All district of Punjab
Government of Punjab
36 months (2011–2012 to 2013–2014) but still continue
✓ To create awareness among masses about production of vegetables for their own
consumption.
✓ To disseminate vegetable production technology for kitchen gardening.
✓ To advertisement the kitchen gardening benefits to increase the interest of growers.
✓ Creating demand of seed kits through NGOs and public sector organizations.
✓ To provide seed kits to the kitchen gardeners having the seeds of seasonal vegetables to
encourage the kitchen gardening.
Source: Govt. of Punjab (2011b).
with the goal of promoting and protecting peoples’
health and reducing their food expenditures
(Table 1). Initially, the estimated period of the
project was for 3 years with the allocation of
38.74 million rupees (PKR) (about 410,000 US
$) for the project. The funds invested largely on
operational works such as the procurement and
selling of seed kits and publication and distribution of introductory pamphlets. During the target
period (2011–2014), about 400,000 seed kits were
distributed among the people successfully (Govt.
of Punjab 2011b). Additional investments were
also made to train people by creating production
technology compacts disk (CDs) and pamphlets
(Tables 2 and 3). The prepared seed kits contained
eight different seeds of popular vegetables such as
ladyfinger, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber,
long melon for planting in summer season and
radish, carrot, turnip, fenugreek, coriander, cauliflower for winter season vegetables. The single
seed kit has a weight of 150 g with the set price
of 50 rupees (PKR) (about 48 US $ cent) per seed
kit to make it affordable for people (Govt. of
Punjab 2010).
It is also been planned to utilize the open
spaces in educational and institutional lands with
the assistance of the respective institutes. The project is a joint venture of public and private sector
and operational in a systematic coherent order
from top (provincial government) to bottom (a
single grower). In this connection, the provincial
agriculture (extension) department was assigned
main duties as first to promote kitchen gardening
and publicize the trend with arranging seminars,
demonstrations, workshops, trainings, walks, public campaign, etc. along with identifying suitable
areas to disseminate the knowledge, awareness and
ways of successful kitchen gardening. The awareness workshops and seminars were held at schools,
colleges and public places by the concerned officials and this activity turned out to be very fruitful
after the exciting participation of public to know
and learn the ways of effective vegetable growing
from household to community level. Apart from
that, the participants were given brief training and
supplementary material to get more understanding
of the kitchen gardening. For instance, they were
instructed by agricultural experts to learn effective
ways of plowing and preparing land, watering,
fertilizing, etc. and provided literature pamphlets,
CDs and helpline contacts. Other than that, the
department was also asked to arrange road shows
and an effective media campaign of the project
(Daily Dawn 2011). Initially, in 2011,
Government of Punjab had prepared about
80,000 seed packets of various vegetables on automatic machines (Islam 2011). While in 2013, the
prepared seed kits selling target was set of 70,000
kits (Table 4) among the 36 districts of Punjab in
summer and winter season vegetables.
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Table 2.
67
Cost of kitchen gardening project (figures in Rs. million).
Item
Establishment charges
Operational/contingencies
Machinery and equipment
Total
2011–2012
2012–2013
2013–2014
Total
0.3
9.57
0.13
10
0.5
13.97
0
14.47
0.3
13.97
0
14.47
1.3
37.51
0.13
38.94
Source: Govt. of Punjab (2011b).
Table 3.
Year-wise activities of kitchen gardening project in Punjab (figures in nos.).
Activity
Procurement and selling of seed kits (5 Marla)
Selling of seed kits (5 Marla)
Training of facilitators
Provision of free seed kits for demonstration plants
Production and distribution of pamphlets
Trainings in schools, govt. offices, vocational training centers and
residential areas
Persons to be trained
Preparation of CDs of production technology
Selling of CDs of production technology
2011–
2012
2012–
2013
2013–
2014
Total
100,000
100,000
72
216
150,000
900
150,000
150,000
72
216
200,000
900
100,000
100,000
72
216
200,000
900
400,000
400,000
216
648
550,000
2,700
27,000
5,000
5,000
27,000
5,000
5,000
27,000
5,000
5,000
81,000
15,000
15,000
Source: Govt. of Punjab (2011b).
Results
The set targets for the sale of seed kits were
achieved throughout the province within the timeframe and had marked the awareness and fame of
the project among urban and semi-urban
population.
Regardless of the apparent significant and
hopeful outcomes, there has been criticism that
the seed packets have not reached to the deserved
poor growers living in urban areas of the province
and thus this whole exercise may not yield desired
outcomes (Hasan 2011). Nevertheless, the project
has achieved up to mark success and popularity
toward creating a safe environment, healthy food
and engagement of the public in this useful activity across the province (Table 4). For instance, in
2012, the sale of kitchen gardening seed kits
increased from 5,000 to 170,000 in rabi (winter)
season and 3,000 to 75,000 in kharif (summer)
season (Govt. of Punjab 2012). Later in 2013,
Planning & Development Department of the
Government of Punjab conducted an extensive
survey. The survey evaluation results indicated
that the project achieved substantial success in
the provision of economical and secure vegetables
to the masses with better yield in summer and
winter seasons. In order to monitor the project
efficiency and acceptance of people, the district
Agriculture
(Extension)
Department
of
Bahawalpur was also directed by the provincial
government to maintain and submit of a kitchen
gardening project report regarding received and
distributed/sold seed kits and their deposited
money on daily basis. Sales centers were established in selected tehsils’ (administrative subdistricts) offices of agriculture (extension) department
and other government offices to sell the seed kits
to residents (Table 5). In this way, the considerable
68
Table 4.
M.M. Anwar et al.
Distributed selling target of kitchen gardening seed kits in 2013 in Punjab.
Target (figures in nos.)
Sr. no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Name of district
Kharif season (summer vegetables)
Rabi season (winter vegetables)
600
1,000
1,200
1,000
1,000
1,000
800
1,000
2,500
1,000
800
1,000
1,200
1,000
1,500
1,100
1,000
1,000
3,000
1,500
1,400
600
1,400
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
500
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,200
1,200
500
40,000
70,000
500
500
1,500
500
1,500
1,000
500
500
2,500
500
500
500
1,500
1,000
1,500
500
500
500
2,500
1,000
500
500
2,000
500
500
500
500
500
1,500
500
500
500
500
500
500
500
30,000
Attack
Chakwal
Rawalpindi
Jhelum
Sargodha
Khushab
Mianwali
Bhakkar
Lahore
Kasur
Nankana Sahib
Sheikupura
Gujranwala
Hafizabad
Sialkot
Narowal
Gujrat
M.B.Din
Faisalabad
T.T.Singh
Jhang
Chiniot
Multan
Lodhran
Khanewal
Vehari
Sahiwal
Pakpattan
Okara
D.G.Khan
Layyah
Muzaffargarh
Rajanpur
Bahawalpur
Bahawalnagar
Rahim Yar Khan
Total
Grand total
Source: Govt. of Punjab (2013).
amount of project operational costs (e.g. preparing of seed kits, publishing and creation of
pamphlets and CDs) were recovered. Although,
the sale of seeds did not pay for the cost of the
project, it did meet the cost-recovery target. After
selling the seed kits, the selling data were sent to
the district agriculture (extension) department
along with the details of total recovered amount
(money) that was later deposited in government
treasury account.
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Table 5.
Sr.
no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
69
Kitchen gardening seed kits progress in Bahawalpur in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Name of tehsil/center
Bahawalpur (City and
Saddar)
Ahmedpur East
Yazman
Khairpur Tamewali
Hasilpur
Divisional Forest Officer/
Bahawalpur/Lal Sohanra
AO Nursery Bahawalpur
Total
Grand total
Dated 20 October
2011
Dated 01
November 2012
Dated 25 October
2013
No. of seed
kits sale
centers
Seed kits received
and distributed
Seed kits received
and distributed
Seed kits received
and distributed
4
1,250
900
850
4
2
1
2
1
650
950
500
355
100
500
500
200
300
100
700
550
450
500
25
1
45
15
15
3,850
9,550
–
2,500
(Al-Sadiq Desert
Organization)
300
3,200
Source: District Agriculture (Extension) Department of Bahawalpur (2014).
Materials and methods
Study area
Bahawalpur district has a rich economic, historic,
demographic and physiographic place in Punjab
province. The district was once the part of the
Bahawalpur state ruled by local Nawab (royal noblemen) before its annexation with Pakistan in 1955. It
is positioned between 27°40′ and 29°50′ North latitudes and between 70°54′ and 72°50′ East longitudes
and occupied an area of 24,830 sq. km (Govt. of
Pakistan 1998) (Figure 1). More than two-third area
of the district is occupied by mighty Cholistan
Desert in the south, southeast and southwest.
Administratively, the district is divided into six tehsils or subdivision namely Bahawalpur City,
Bahawalpur Saddar, Ahmedpur East, Yazman,
Khairpur Tamewali and Hasilpur. Among the 107
Union Councils (UCs or small revenue estates) exist
in the district 29 are urban and 78 are rural. Rural
Union Councils are mainly located around the big
cities or towns and inhabited rural population predominantly is engaged in subsistence farming.
The population of the district is rapidly being
increased as per the national census of Pakistan
(Govt. of Pakistan 1998), the population of the
district consisted of 2,433,000 individuals that
was increased and estimated 3,277,000 in 2011
(Table 6). Likewise, Bahawalpur is one of the 36
districts of the Punjab province where the kitchen
gardening project is initiated with keeping special
focus to its rapidly growing population, high poverty levels and boosting demand of cheaper, fresh
food items among urban and suburban residents.
Data collection
Although, variety of methods and approaches found
in literature that are often used in social sciences for
data collection process, but many researchers have
also introduced innovative methods of data gathering
based on their personal knowledge and experiences,
and also provide creativity in mutual coherence
between researchers and respondents like management of the workshop bus trip, etc. (Cameron et al.
70
M.M. Anwar et al.
Figure 1. Location map of district Bahawalpur showing study areas.
Source: Authors (2015).
Table 6.
Number of Union Councils (UCs) and their population in Bahawalpur district.
Population (thousand persons)
No. of Union Councils
As per 1998 census
Est. on 31 December 2011
Total
Urban
Rural
Total
Urban
Rural
Total
Urban
Rural
1998 urban pop. (%)
107
29
78
2,433
665
1,768
3,277
896
2,381
27.3
Source: Govt. of Punjab (2011a).
2010). Similarly, the current research has also utilized
cellular mobile phone (the most widely used communication medium in Pakistan as estimated 128.04
million users in early 2016 (PTA 2016) survey and
field investigations as primary data collection
methods employing a semi-structured interview
with both open and close-ended questions. Wherein,
majority of the questions were closed-ended (e.g.
purpose of vegetable sowing, cost of seed kit, effectiveness of the project, main expenditures of the
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
71
project, main benefits of the project, etc.) whereas
few questions (e.g. growers opinions about the betterment of the project) were open ended. The opinions
of the growers were categorized in order to analyze
them statistically. The average length of the conversation with interviewee varied between 10–15 min.
During this phase, some difficulties have also been
tapped due to unawareness and hesitant communication of the interviewees probably resulted from the
new method of data acquisition. However, later on
they fully cooperated, happily shared and expressed
about their kitchen gardening experiences when they
were briefed about the purpose and meaning of the
study.
Samples and sampling procedure
Total 100 growers (35 each from Bahawalpur
City and Bahawalpur Saddar, respectively, and
30 from Ahmedpur East tehsil (subdistrict)
were selected as target samples. The sample
size taken one-third of the total numbers given
in the lists was determined using simple percentage formula based on the growers numbers
mentioned in the lists (tehsil wise) in the following procedure;
Number of Growers in One List/Total Growers in
All Lists × 100
(List 1: Bahawalpur City)
101/289 × 100 =
34.95
(List 2: Bahawalpur Saddar) 101/289 × 100 =
34.95
(List 3: Ahmedpur East)
87/289 × 100 =
30.10
The random stratified sampling was used to select
respondents from three tehsils of Bahawalpur viz.
Bahawalpur City, Bahawalpur Saddar and
Ahmedpur East mostly from the residents resided
in urban and semi-urban areas, and they were
contacted by the authors separately for getting
necessary information. In addition to that, field
visits were also made to verify the respondents’
responses and ground-truthing (Figure 1 and
Figure 2) The whole exercise took the period of
more than 1 month. The cellular mobile numbers
Figure 2. Vegetables seeds sown in kitchen garden.
Source: Field survey (2014).
Figure 3. A demonstration plot of kitchen gardening.
Source: Field survey (2014).
of these persons were chosen and obtained from
the detailed lists of growers contacts who purchased the seed kits arranged by Agriculture
(Extension) Department of district Bahawalpur.
These lists were prepared tehsil wise and mentioned other minor details as well (e.g. grower’s
address, plot size).
Data Analysis: Initially, the collected data
were in raw format and were properly arranged,
72
M.M. Anwar et al.
tabulated and then subjected to statistical operations using Statistical Package for Social Sciences
16.0 software. By applying descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential (Chi-square
test) statistics, the attempt was made to determine
the significance and effectiveness of kitchen gardening project among the masses. Finally, study
area map was generated in Arc View 3.2a
software.
Results and discussion
Expenditures, efficiency and main benefits of
kitchen gardening
Cost-effectiveness (affordability) and its related
issues are considered essential in any community
development project. Table 7 shows the project
benefits regarding cost affordability, quality and
expenditures. Out of 100 respondents who have
purchased seed kits from sales centers, 84%
respondents have sown their seed kits for vegetables growing. About 16% respondents had not
planted their seeds due to various reasons such
Table 7.
as lack of time, family affairs, less space, unawareness, etc. A previous study conducted in national
capital Islamabad through personal interview
using questionnaire found that kitchen gardening
activity was practiced by 90% surveyed people at
their homes who used their production for home
consumption and numerous other benefits
(Rehman et al. 2013). Similarly, in study areas,
82% growers have grown the vegetables for their
own daily household consumption. Shaheb et al.
(2014) also reported that production of vegetables
and fruits at homes provides the household with
direct access to important nutrients. The majority
of the growers were urban residents resided in
Bahawalpur City and Ahmedpur East City while,
about 18% had grown the vegetables for selling in
local markets. These were mainly the residents of
semi-urban and rural localities and grew vegetables in comparatively large-size land plots. The
advantages of kitchen gardening, particularly in
the context of low-income households of developing countries, are manifold and support the
growers in many ways. Drescher et al. (2000)
Expenditures, efficiency and main benefits of kitchen gardening project.
Attributes
Have you
sown seed kit?
Purpose of vegetable growing
Quality of seeds
Chi-square = 62.19
Is the cost of seed kit affordable?
Chi-square = 80.04
Estimated expenditures on vegetable
growing
Efficiency of project
Chi-square = 50.65
Main benefits
Response of respondents (frequency and percentage)
Yes
84 (84%)
Home consumption
69 (82.1%)
Excellent
11 (13.1%)
d.f. = 1
Yes
83 (98.8%)
d.f. = 1 level
100–200 PKR
No
16 (16%)
Selling purpose
15 (17.9%)
Good
52 (61.9%)
Sig. = .000**
No
1 (1.2%)
Sig. = .000**
200–300 PKR
27 (32.1%)
Yes
74 (88.1%)
d.f. = 1
Improved quality
and economical
21 (25%)
35 (41.7%)
No
10 (11.9%)
Sig. = .000**
Safe and
healthy
30 (35.7%)
**significant at 5% level. Source: Telephonic Survey (2014).
Average
14 (16.7%)
Poor
7 (8.3%)
300–400 PKR
400–500
PKR
2 (2.4%)
20 (23.8%)
Nutritious and
tasty
25 (29.7%)
Idle
8 (9.5%)
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
stated that many social benefits have emerged
from kitchen gardening practices including better
health and nutrition, increased income, employment opportunities and food security of household
and community social life. A recent study conducted in district Muzaffargarh (Punjab, Pakistan)
concluded that the women are particularly more
aware about kitchen gardening. Hence, the study
based on training activity is designed to involve,
educate women about different ways of exercising
effective kitchen gardening. They were engaged in
growing of vegetables in due time with proper
management and be able to save time and money
in terms of buying vegetables from the market
(Cheema 2011; Bajwa et al. 2015). Similarly, in
study areas the women have also actively participated in the activity along with their men and
children. The results showed that the seed kits
used for kitchen gardening usually contained different seeds of vegetables and were well packed
keeping the standards and design in view. About
13% growers reported that the quality of seeds
was excellent, about 62% asserted that quality of
seeds was good and 16.7% responded that quality
of seeds was average. The Chi-square value
(62.19) also verifies the high quality of seeds
with highly significant (p-value .000) association.
These results proved that the quality of vegetable
seeds was overall good and productive in quality.
About 8.3% growers were not satisfied with seed
kit quality and they considered it poor. When they
were asked about this poor quality of the seeds,
majority of them complained that after sowing
seeds they have not acquired any output. When
an expert of the district agricultural office was
inquired about this under achieved output, he
argued that the seed kit contained certified seed
variety and the output failure might be the result of
improper watering, infertile soil or less knowledge
of vegetable sowing. The affordability of the cost
is also an important component regarding the predicted success of the project and hence it was kept
low as 50 PKR (about 48 US $ cent) per kit.
Previous study conducted in Bangladesh also
highlighted the shortage of irrigation water, quality
seeds and inputs cost as major problems faced by
73
growers in kitchen gardening (Rahman et al.
2008). Study results show that about 99% growers
were happy with the seed kit price and have no
problem to purchase this. Usually, the vegetables
produced in kitchen gardening do save money and
improved taste than vegetables and fruit bought
from grocery store (Christensen 2011). While only
a single grower was unhappy with the stipulated
price. The Chi-square value (80.04) also certifies
strong association with p-value (.000) between the
price of seed kit and growers purchasing behavior.
The estimated expenditures made by growers in
vegetables growing were also varying and range
from low to medium in cost. About 32.1%
growers expenditures on vegetable growing were
between 100–200 PKR, a majority of 41.7%
growers spent 200–300 PKR, 23.8% were spent
300–400 PKR on the growing of vegetables while
2.4% have made the highest expenditures ranging
from 400–500 PKR. These expenditures were
made in account of watering and plowing of
plots when asked. These results certify that the
growers have not spent much on the growing of
vegetables. When they were asked about project
effectiveness and main benefits, then about 88%
growers argued that the project is a useful initiative in alleviating their daily-based kitchen expenditures and a source of an uninterrupted supply of
fresh and safe nutritious vegetables on a reasonable cost. In addition, they had obtained variety of
benefits from this project as 25% growers
responded that they got improved quality (in
terms of seed germination and growth of plant)
and economical vegetables, 35.7% considered this
project as a source of providing safe and healthy
vegetables, 29.7% trusted the taste and nutritious
features of the produced vegetables. Being a
healthy activity, kitchen gardening decreases people’s fiscal expenditures and bring self-sufficiency
in vegetables production. Additionally, they get
healthy and nutritious food from their kitchen
gardens (Rehman et al. 2013). It is also evident
from a study that kitchen gardening has proved a
reasonable livelihood approach for resource poor
people in terms of nutrient supply, calorie intake
and economic benefits (Chayal et al. 2013). A
74
M.M. Anwar et al.
study conducted in Kenya also reported that about
48% of the respondents do not purchase vegetables after establishing kitchen gardens and about
99% of the respondents think that the kitchen
gardens have improved their nutritional variety
(Njuguna 2013). In contrary, only 9.5% growers
were not satisfied with the outcomes and they
blamed it a redundant or useless effort. Despite
this, the Chi-square value (50.65) also supports
growers’ perceptions about project effectiveness
with high significance p-value (.000). These
results again testify that overwhelming growers
(90.5%) were fully benefited and satisfied with
vegetables yield output and thus favored the project with its obvious effectiveness and numerous
advantages. Thus, it is proved a purposeful and
productive venture and should be promoted as it
would help people in dropping kitchen expenditures, pollution and creating healthy environments
at homes and vicinity (Khan 2013).
Specified place, area, inputs and yield output of
kitchen gardening
For a successful kitchen gardening, it is important that how much area required for vegetable
cultivation along with seed, fertilizer and
Table 8.
organic pesticides availability? (AARI, 2015).
The efforts made by district government to
conduct awareness seminars and training sessions about kitchen gardening have brought
notable positive changes in people’s behavior
about the project and they have gained sufficient knowledge and practical training of vegetable sowing and their proper management.
Table 8 portrays the specified sowing place,
area and application of fertilizers for the better
production of vegetables. A large number of
growers (77.4%) utilized house’s lawn for the
purpose of growing vegetables, 17.9% used
house roofs for the growing of vegetable due
to the absence of lawn or availability of less
vacant space at home. The rest of the growers
used earthen pots (2.4%) and plastic bottles
(2.4%) for vegetable production. Although specified area in kitchen gardening is an important
element having a significant impact on overall
yield output (Asaduzzaman et al. 2011) yet, the
majority of the growers resided in urban and
semi-urban areas were having less space for
vegetable growing. Further, it is also known
that the growers education level, income,
knowledge of vegetable sowing, training or
received training literature also do matter in
Place, area and use of fertilizer in kitchen gardening.
Attributes
Place of seed kit Sowing
Specified area of vegetable sowing
Major input by cost
Chi-square = 116.95
Use of fertilizer for better yield
Chi-square = 65.19
Type of fertilizer
Major output after fertilizer use
Chi-square = 126.67
Source: Telephonic Survey (2014).
**significant at 5%.
Response of respondents (frequency and percentage)
Lawn
65 (77.4%)
<1 Marla
33 (39.3%)
Fertilizer
61 (72.6%)
d.f. = 3
Yes
79 (94%)
d.f. = 1
Urea
10 (12.3%)
Increase in yield
72 (85.7%)
d.f. = 2
House roof
15 (17.9%)
2–3 Marla
31 (36.9%)
Labor charges
15 (17.9%)
Sig. = .000**level
No
5 (6%)
Sig. = .000**
Potash
19 (23.5%)
Decrease in yield
3 (3.6%)
Sig. = .000**
Earthen pots
2 (2.4%)
4–5 Marla
17 (20.2%)
Irrigation
5 (6%)
Others
2 (2.4%)
> 5 Marla
3 (3.57%)
Seed kit
1 (1.2%)
DAP
39 (48.1%)
Change in quality
6 (7.1%)
Natural manure
13 (16%)
No output
3 (3.6%)
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
the site and space selection for kitchen gardening. About 39.3% growers used less than 1
Marla (local unit of land equal to 272 sq.
feet) space for vegetable growing, 36.9% used
2–3 Marla (544–816 sq. feet) space for this
activity. Both of these classes of growers
resided in congested parts of the Bahawalpur
and Ahmedpur East cities. While 20.2% and
3.57% growers in adjacent rural localities used
4–5 Marla (1,088–1,360 sq. feet) and more
than 5 Marla (>1,360 sq. feet) piece of land,
respectively, for kitchen gardening. Amongst
majority of growers has exercised this for
income generation, as it has been witnessed as
a source of additional income in various previous studies (Galhena 2012; Qaiser et al.
2013; Rehman et al. 2013; Bajwa et al. 2015).
Moreover, growers also have applied different
kinds of inputs for better yield of vegetables; as
73.9% used fertilizers for better output and
Chi-square result also considered it highly significant with p-value (.000) for better yield of
vegetables, 17.8% have spent much on labor
charges and mostly were the urban dwellers in
Bahawalpur City. Growers also made minor
expenditures in the account of irrigating vegetables (7.1%) and purchasing of seed kit
(1.2%). It was recognized that target growers
have used different fertilizers for better yield.
Chi-square value (65.19) also denoted a considerable association regarding growers’ preferences for the use of fertilizers and expected
better yield output with a highly significant
p-value (.000). DAP fertilizer was famous and
effective for enhancing the yield output, so the
majority of the growers (50%) used this for
better production, 22.6% were used Potash for
increasing yield, 15.5% used natural manure
(animal dung) for this purpose mostly the residents of rural areas and 11.9% growers applied
Urea fertilizer for maximizing the vegetable
output. These results clarify that almost all
growers were willing to gain the maximum
yield by applying different fertilizers to meet
their daily needs of vegetables. Thus, after
using fertilizers, 85.7% growers acquired an
75
increased yield of vegetables. Chi-square result
(126.67) also verifies it highly significant with
p-value (.000), while the rest of the growers
faced a decrease in yield (3.6%), change in
quality (7.1%) and no output (3.6%). These
all discrepancies in yield might be the result
of certain factors like lack of care, deficit
water for vegetables, no application of fertilizer, less experience in vegetable sowing, etc.
However, overall findings demonstrated that
growers yielded maximum output of vegetables
after proper care, use of fertilizer and irrigating
with fresh water.
Conclusion
Kitchen gardening is the innovative project, initiated
by the Government of Punjab with the basic objective to provide relief for the masses on daily vegetable needs and creating a safe and sustainable
environment with healthy people. The findings of
this study highly aid to the relative importance and
hopes of kitchen gardening project in the district and
clearly indicates that the set targets of kitchen gardening project in the Punjab province have almost
been accomplished with considerable success. As a
result, daily kitchen expenditures are greatly reduced
and this activity has evolved urban agriculture too.
The provincial government has invested a huge sum
on the development and promotion of the project. In
this regard, serious and systematic efforts have been
made with the collaboration of district governments
in the right direction to achieve the ultimate objectives of the project. The year-wise performance also
proved the remarkable advancement of the project
and all set targets are entrusted within due period. In
district Bahawalpur, the same results are obtained
after its inception in 2011. The allocated quota of
vegetable seed kits were received and sold out timely
with deep affiliation of the people noticed with this
activity. Survey results also justified the project outcomes. The majority of the kitchen gardeners has
grown vegetables for home consumption and was
satisfied with the quality of seeds and affordability of
seed kit price. Lawns and house roofs were the
common places of seed sowing and mostly urban
76
M.M. Anwar et al.
growers utilized less area compared with rural areas
where comparatively large area of land has utilized
for growing vegetables. Growers are made to vary
expenditures on vegetables growing particularly on
the application of fertilizers for better yield and
achieved it successfully. Leading number of the
growers demonstrated the efficiency of the kitchen
gardening project and counted it substantial in the
provision of vegetables characterized by various
benefits; improved quality, economical, nutritious,
tasty, etc. The same results have been justified by
Chi-square analysis. Hence, it is concluded, that
kitchen gardening project has achieved the target
success and familiarity to provide cheap vegetables
grown at household level with several advantages
including healthy activity, protecting environment
and lessening daily kitchen expenditures. Hence, it
is still in operation in the province and benefiting the
masses with numerous advantages and ensuring
food security. The study is a purposeful endeavor,
successfully accomplished with the combined
source like mobile phone survey, in-depth interviews, regular field visits, ground truthing and participation of many stakeholders (growers, project
implementers, agricultural experts, focal persons,
etc.). However, the collected data by survey were
limited to some extent and may not address all the
aspects of growers’ kitchen gardening experiences.
So, a more comprehensive future study may be
required to uncover the additional potentials and
benefits of the kitchen gardening.
Suggestions
Keeping in view the obvious outcomes and benefits of the project, and to bring further improvement in it, the following suggestions are proposed:
● The project awareness campaign should be
widened to convey its benefits extensively.
● Quality of seed should be further improved.
● The household members particularly women
and children should be encouraged for vegetable production.
● Government should provide more incentives
●
●
●
●
●
●
(training, free seed kits, pamphlets) particularly to poor dwellers residing in semi-urban
and rural localities.
Private partnership on small scale should be
promoted.
Technical support should be provided to the
growers.
Electronic media (TV, radio and cable)
should be utilized for project publicity.
Demonstration plots of kitchen gardening
should be maximized to attract the community.
To increase the seed kits sale, the fixed price
of seed kit should be reduced.
The sale centers should be maximized for
the easier access of the community.
Acknowledgements
The authors are deeply grateful to the Executive District
Officer (EDO) Agriculture, District Officer Agriculture
(Extension) Bahawalpur and their office clerical staff for
the provision of essential secondary data, support and
cooperative behavior.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
authors.
Notes on contributors
Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, PhD Geography, He is
working as professor and chair of Department of
Geography at University of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan. His
area of interest is urban landscape ecology, urban planning.
Muhammad Mohsin, M.Phil Geography, He is working
as lecturer of Geography at Department of Geography,
Govt. S.E. College, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. His
area of interest is Urban Planning, Urban Morphology
and Structure, Urban Problems, Urban Ecology, Ruralurban Fringe Dynamics.
Farukh Jamal is PhD scholar of statistics at Department
of Statistics, The Islamia University Bahawalpur, Punjab,
Pakistan. His area of interest is Applied Statistics,
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Probability, Statistical Inference, Econometrics. He is
working as lecturer, Govt. S.A. Postgraduate College,
Dera Nawab Sahib, Bahawalpur.
Fahad Ajmal is a PhD scholar at Department of Botany,
University of The Punjab Lahore, Pakistan. His area of
interest is Molecular Biology, Plant Physiology,
Agronomy and Stress Physiology. He is working as subject specialist of Botany at Lahore, Pakistan
Juergan Breuste is PhD Geography. He is working as
professor and chair of Urban Landscape Ecology at
Department of Geology and Geography at Salzburg
University, Austria.
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