Kitchen Garden Research JFK Hard Cover
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK
THE ROLE OF KITCHEN GARDENS IN FOOD SECURITY AND
NUTRITIONAL DIVERSITY:
A CASE STUDY OF WORKERS AT JAMES FINLAY KENYA- KERICHO
BY
JOHN MBURU NJUGUNA
(C50/62987/2011)
A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF DEGREE IN MASTER OF ARTS
IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
NOVEMBER 2013
DECLARATION
This research is my Original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other university.
Signature……………………………… Date………………………………
John Mburu Njuguna
C50/62987/2011
This research report has been submitted for examination with my approval as the
University supervisor.
Signature……………………………… Date…………………………………
Dr G.G.Wairire
Department of Sociology and Social Work
University of Nairobi ii
DEDICATION
This research project is dedicated to my parents, the late Samuel Njuguna and
Elizabeth Mumbi for their prayers and support. My beloved Wife Mary Njoki and my children, Ruth, Nathan and Simon for their deep understanding and allowing me to be away from them at times during my study. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My heart is indebted to my supervisor the Late Dr. Pius M. Mutie for his rich guidance almost through the entire project. I am equally indebted to Dr G.G. Wairire who finished the good work started by his predecessor. I acknowledge the work of
Prof. Chitere, Dr. Robinson Ocharo, Prof. Yambo and Dr Agnes Zani for their help in imparting skills that helped me complete my research project.
I cannot forget to thank my supervisor at workplace Brenda B. Ochieng and former colleague Mohamed Mbarak for their moral support during the course work. Marcus,
Kean, Daniel Kirui, Betty Kibiliach, Reuben Langat, Jane Ndirangu, Chris Masika and the entire James Finlay Kericho Team that facilitated my data collection for this research.
Special thanks to all my research assistants for the special role they played as participant observers during the fielding of questionnaires and to James Finlay managers at different sections who joined the various focused groups and offered vital information during the sessions. iv
TABLE OF CONTENT
List of Plates ....................................................................................................................... ixi
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 10
2.2 Kitchen Gardens and African Leafy Vegetables in Nutritional Diversity ..................... 12
v
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................. 21
3.3 Target population......................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS ................................ 26
vi
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND
vii
LIST OF TABLES
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Distribution of hungry people in the world in millions ............................. 15
Figure 2.2 Conceptual framework .................................................................................. 20
Figure 4.1 Sources of design help ............................................................................ 37
Figure 4.2 No of variety grown in households ......................................................... 41
Figure 4.4 Frequency of buying meat
............................................................................ 46
Figure 4.5 Solution to the challenges ............................................................................ 49
Figure 4.6 Improvements recommended ................................................................. 51 ix
LIST OF PLATES
Plate 4.2 Garden layout ................................................................................................. 32
Plate 4.5 Workers in one of the early gardens ............................................................. 34
Plate 4.7 Compost pit ...................................................................................................... 36
Plate 4.8 A Banana Stool in One of the Kitchen Garden ........................................... 45
Plate 4.9 Nutritional board near a dispensary .............................................................. 50
Plate 4.10 Strawberry growing in improvised containers .......................................... 52
Plate 4.11 Banana stems used as containers for vegetable production ..................... 52
Plate 4.12 Vegetables growing in upright sack containers ..................................... 53
Plate 4.14 Vegetables growing in hydroponics...................................................... 55 x
ACRONYMS
FAO- Food and Agricultural Organization
JFK- James Finlay Kenya
WHO-World Health Organisation
OECDOrganization for Economic Co-operation and Development
FGD-Focused Group Discusions
ALVS- African Leafy Vegetables
UN-United Nations
DFIDThe Department for International Development xi
ABSTRACT
Food security and nutritional diversity is one of the key areas that a developing country should address. With varying local opportunities and challenges, the kitchen garden forms a panacea that can address food insecurity and bring in self reliance, sovereignty and dignity. Households have labour power– the physical ability of household members to generate income (Christopher, 2006). When this labour power is used in the Kitchen garden it has the ability to improve food security and nutritional diversity of the household. Even with the dwindling land resource small areas around the house as small as ten square meters can make the difference in the lives of many.
This research was undertaken on workers at James Finlay Kenya to investigate the role of kitchen gardens in addressing food security and nutritional diversity. The research used both qualitative and quantitative approach to collect data from households and stakeholders. Stratified sample was used to pick household respondents.
The findings show that the kitchen gardens at James Finlay are small organic gardens which were started about six years ago. Majority of them are about 10 square meters.
The size of the garden was designed to be big enough to produce sufficient vegetables for the household but small enough to be replicated in many areas in Kenya where land as a production unit has become too small. In the innovation uptake the social capital (in this case the predominant Seventh Day Adventist teaching of healthy living by promoting the use of plants as the major source of nutrients, the goodwill from the management) and the human capital in the form of traditional knowledge (71% had kitchen gardens before) played a big role. The management decision to reinforce this innovation by hiring a consultant to bring a positive change to food security and nutritional diversity of the workers acted as a trigger. Almost 48% of the respondents do not buy vegetables after establishing kitchen gardens as compared to 4.2% who were not buying vegetables before the gardens were formalised. About 99% of the respondents think that the kitchen garden has improved their nutritional diversity.
Compared to the monoculture of the few gardens that existed before the formal gardens, more than 18 different varieties of vegetable and fruits were recorded in different households during the study indicating that a wide diversity has been xii
achieved. Eighty five % have replicated the garden in their rural homes, and 98% have learnt a new skill indicating that the kitchen garden seems to be positively addressing food security and nutritional diversity and further demonstrating the central role of agriculture in meeting household needs.
James Finlay Kenya management should continue popularising the kitchen garden to bring more workers to self sufficiency in vegetable supply. As an organic garden the phosphorous deficiency should be addressed, possibly by using Finlays IPM crop division to improve the productivity of the gardens. Dudutech products from Finlays
IPM approach like Rhizatec (mycelia enhancing roots system) and Vermitec
(vermicompost) (Dudutech ltd, 2012) can be used for this purpose.
The government can learn from this innovation and include a kitchen garden in its extension program as it has the capacity to address food security and nutritional diversity and especially so with the dwindling land sizes. Further research needs to be done to establish the quantity of vegetables harvested from these gardens. This will further help to establish the cost savings from the kitchen gardens which is important in arriving to wider recommendations.
xiii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information
In Kenya and world over high population growth, rural urban migration and vulgarities of weather have pushed the cost of food upwards (Silvia, 2012). The increased use of food crops in biodiesel production put further imbalance to food supply which further affects the demand/supply relationship. Non-communicable diseases add further pressure to the citizens and more so to low income groups. The resultant of this is more people are going to be food insecure. Famine Early Warning system warned that there will be a rise from 2.2 million to 2.4 million food insecure people in August 2012 (UN, 2012).
The answer to increased food demand cannot be met by the green revolution as well as rain fed agriculture which is already showing fatigue (Pastakia, 2011) This food insecure group needs to face the current environmental and health challenges by identifying ways to better align aesthetics, ecology, and health (Denver Urban
Gardens, 2012). A kitchen garden can be a part of the solution to this problem. As already proven one-size-fits all solutions cannot be applied in every area to answer the question of food sustainability (Beddington, 2011).
The higher demand for food should be met by practical innovations like kitchen gardening which not only improves availability but also answers the question of diversity required for a healthy community. The kitchen gardens can be viewed as an adaptive strategy of communities as an entry point for development . The kitchen garden can also help to reduce the gap of productivity between the technical potential and actual production levels of food crops due to low use of suboptimal inputs and low adoption of most productive technologies (Tittonell, 2012). A kitchen garden involves the very people who are the greatest resource for development in a view to improve their own livelihoods and empowerment as envisaged in the rural university concept (Mathai, 1985). The kitchen gardening is a radical transformation towards using resources more efficiently. The kitchen garden is perhaps the only available ecological space available to the poor to meet their economic needs especially so in
1
Africa where the poor tends to rely more on natural resource base for their livelihood.
Kitchen Gardens depend on the gardeners for maintenance and are spaces made meaningful by the actions of people during the course of their every-day lives. They are spaces where the gains from social capital, physical and symbolic arrangement of items of private living space are aggregated and given utility value. Above all,
Kitchen garden is an avenue where the actor is totally immersed in his role (Kimber,
2012).
The British and the Americans won two world wars by growing their own food to feed their armies and the people left at home (Great Britain Ministry of Food, 1946).
Kenyans can feed themselves by growing what we eat and one way to do this is adopting the Kitchen garden. The kitchen garden is a form of Community adaptive strategies that leads to sustainable livelihoods (Agobia, 1999).
A kitchen garden is an integrated system which comprises the family house, a recreational area and a garden producing a variety of foods including vegetables, fruits and medicinal plants for home consumption or sale. The kitchen/home gardens have been found to play an important role in improving food security for the resource poor rural households in developing country like Bangladesh (Asaduzzaman, 2011) and can do the same in Kenya.
In addition to supplying the food needs, the kitchen gardens help in biodiversity conservation as well as a platform of socializing the younger generation into the communities’ norms as they interact with the older people while tending the gardens.
While it may not directly supply the cereals need for the family, the savings achieved from not buying fruits and vegetables would be used to buy additional cereals.
Most of the African homes had a garden either by default or design which often undermine its usefulness. The spring onion which has wide usage in many households as a spice/condiment has always been grown near homestead officially cultivated and protected from animals. In many cases this garden evolves from the dumpsite where seeds from plants like pumpkin are thrown with trash, germinate and grow into plants.
Eventually this dumpsite evolves into a valuable garden supplying vegetables. Many
African families depend for survival on what they grow. For such families Kitchen
2
gardens are the difference between life and death. For the Kikuyus there is a saying,
“ ndoigangue ni ng'aragu ,tetereukamera”, which translates “when I give up on hunger, amaranthus (vegetable) germinates and life continues”.
Ornamental or vegetable gardening is a fun pastime or hobby for many people who enjoy but do not spend much time analyzing. Many people cannot really explain why they have to plant something; before they call any place they have lived a home. In high rainfall areas like Kericho, food supply is expected not to be a problem but food is produced on land and not everybody is in control over land and hence will depend on the market forces for food supply.
In 2010, Italian NGO, Terra Madre launched an ambitious project in kitchen gardens in Africa dubbed “A thousand Gardens In Africa” which aimed to create a thousand gardens in schools, villages and the outskirts of cities(Miller, 2012).In Kenya’s Vision
2030 Public- Private Partnership has been singled out as one key driver of development (Kenya (NESC), 2007). James Finlays Kenya (JFK) is one such company that embraced this partnership way back before it was officially known.
The purpose of the Kitchen Garden Project was to help employees in the village improve on family food supplies and nutrition year round, through sustainable exploitation of the land, water and other resources around the house including the idle household labor and skills. The status quo at this time in the workers villages was a free for all situations even where some people had tried some gardening. The villages were messy with poorly cultivated and eroded gardens, un-coordinated and dirty children play areas. By growing our own food we are also helping the environment by not importing food from around the globe.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Agricultural workers lack sufficient incomes to meet their food and nutritional demands adequately. An alternative way of improving their food supply is practicing kitchen garden farming. African countries contribute the highest human development index in terms of GDP but this has not been translated into food security (Goswan,
2012). In the developing countries food production has gone down as result of poor governance, poor land management, and marginalization of the peasant production
3
and rural urban migration which has deprived the food production areas of the much needed workforce. Monoculture commercial production also pushed the peasants to marginal and non productive lands. The globalized system of food production and trade favors a reliance on export crops while discriminating against small-scale farmers and subsistence crops. More than 16 million people are at risk in the Sahel alone (across the semi-arid belt from Senegal to Chad) and an equal number in the
Horn of Africa remain vulnerable after last year’s food crisis in Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Kenya and Somalia (FAO, 2012). In such a situation of food scarcity the population on the lower end of the social class is extremely vulnerable.
The agricultural workers are the least paid all over the world and will be the most affected by food inflation. The living wage is not yet achievable in any part of the world and as the investors compete in the global perspectives solutions to food security through salary increments are not tenable. Alternative ways of helping the poor to get their food supply would be a noble method. Prevention, efficiency and the primacy of localism are the three governing principles of the self-reliant city (Grewal,
2011). Looking at Finlays as one of these cities, the kitchen garden is one efficient use of the land resource. The kitchen gardens can be an example of how to attain food security not only to Finlays but to the entire country when the knowledge and skills are transferred to other areas.
About a third of the world population suffers from one or more deficiency of micronutrient (Amaroso, 2012) which has persisted even when the food stocks are said to be above demand. The kitchen garden falls under bio-intensive and participatory innovation which can provide year round availability, access and consumption of adequate amount and varieties which supply not only the calorific demands but also the micronutrients by the resource poor. Iron deficiency affects about two thirds of the world population and consequently reduces work capacity of entire populations (Wanjek, 2005). This serious handicap to development can only be overcome by the diversity embodied in the kitchen garden.
Sustainable production and consumption was defined by Oslo symposium 1994 as follows, “the production of goods and services that responds to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources’, toxic materials
4
and emission of waste and pollutants over life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the ability to meet the needs of future generations.
Provision of food which is a key driver to the health and well being of the workers goes beyond basic contractual obligation. JFK attempted to provide food indirectly to the workers by introducing a structured kitchen garden in 2005. To this day no evaluation has been done to ascertain the extent of success of the project. Availability of food does not guarantee its accessibility due to social and/or economic constraints
(Kavishe, 1993). For the JFK workers income and localization (alienation from the areas of food production) forms part of these constraint. Areas where food crops are also cash crops have been found to exhibit high levels of malnutrition (Mushi, 1993).
1.3 Research Questions
The research questions that the study sought to answer are;
1.
What are kitchen gardens and how are they designed?
2.
To what extent have the kitchen gardens impacted on food security of JFK workers?
3.
To what extent have the kitchen gardens impacted on nutrition diversity of JFK workers?
4.
What challenges do kitchen gardens face and how can the challenges be handled?
1.4 Objectives
The general objective is to investigate the role of kitchen gardens in Food supply and nutritional diversity to James Finlay workers.
1.4.1 Specific Objectives i.
Find out what kitchen gardens are and how they are designed. ii.
How effective are kitchen gardens in food security. iii.
In what way have kitchen gardens influenced nutritional diversity. iv.
Establish the challenges that are faced by the kitchen gardens and what is being done to overcome these challenges.
1.5 Justification of the Study
Kitchen gardens are an area that is currently under research in an attempt to shed more light into this subject in Kenya. Kitchen gardens are important in the domestic
5
economy of the marginalized but because they are relatively not immediately obvious and less visually impressive than field systems, they tend to be overlooked and their contribution to survival of mankind underrated (Kimber, 2012). Agriculture extension officers advise farmers to practice crop rotation. This kind of practice would not hold in a small plot and it is thus necessary to find out how these kitchen gardens overcome low productivity usually associated with overworked soils (Agobia, 1999). The parameters of food production are inter-related in terms of land, water, environment and the people involved in the production.
The 2007/2008 post election violence in Kenya destroyed civil and social capital as well as networks which are vital in survival and especially in food acquisition (World
Bank, 2009). This further worsens food shocks for the poor and it has always been in history, these shocks are better addressed by local participation in the production process.
The availability of vegetables and fruits in a kitchen garden would increase consumption and hence mitigate against malnutrition. The availability of the food would spur consumption as observed by a study of urban community gardeners in
USA (Alaimo, 2008). Beyond the obvious hunger resulting from insufficient food, we have hidden hunger of micronutrients deficiency that leads to vulnerability to infectious diseases physical and mental impairment that leads to low productivity in addition to reduced life expectancy (Turner, 2012).The kitchen gardens are known to increase local opportunities to eat better(Litt, 2011).
Among the barriers that deter consumption of fruits and vegetables are costs, availability and acceptance. Kitchen gardens have been found to lower these barriers as the cost of production is low as the participants invest their own labor and other production functions like land and organic fertilizer (Dibsdall, 2011). The individual production will certainly grow varieties that one would like thus increasing access and eventually increased acceptance of tastes perception of fruits and vegetables. Herbs and condiments improve the taste of food and thereby encourage consumption.
Poor people more often pay a higher price for food as they buy in expensive small quantities as well as traveling far to get to where the food costs relatively lower
6
thereby losing that advantage on transport(Smit, 2001). Kitchen gardening can thus be argued to improve access to food to the vulnerable groups.
Kitchen gardens provide and supplement subsistence requirements and generate secondary direct or indirect income (Ninez, 1984). Direct income is by sale of surplus production while the indirect income is by the savings achieved by not buying the same products from the market as well as butter trade when produce is exchanged with others from the neighbors.
Besides the provision of fruits and vegetables gardening provides an aesthetic and therapeutic exercise that helps in relieving stress. The perception of good health goes beyond what we eat and encompasses the whole being. While the poor engage in manual work in their employment they do so as an obligation but in their gardens they do it because they like it. Gardening promotes relief from acute stress (Berg, 2011) which further improves the wellbeing of the participants.
African leafy vegetables (ALVS) form part of the richest sources of vitamin sources for human consumption. About 45,000 species of plants are found in sub-Saharan
Africa, 1000 of which are edible. African spinach happens to be the most common in
African diets (Oiye, 2009). Micronutrient deficiencies in iron, selenium, copper, zinc and iodine affects many people in Africa. Vitamin A deficiency has been found to affect a third of the population The Kitchen garden through diversification and adoption of the ALVS will certainly address the much needed nutritional diversity.
1.6 Scope and Limitations
The study covered the James Finlays Kenya ltd in Kericho. The target households were those that practice kitchen garden. It also focused on the impact of kitchen gardens on food security and household nutritional diversity. Since the study was done in an area that is peri-urban, the results may not be applicable to urban areas.
However, they may be true for other parts of Kenya that bear similar characteristics.
7
1.7 Definition of key terms
1.7.1 Kitchen Garden
The simplest definition of a kitchen garden is a garden where vegetables, herbs, and fruits are grown for one's own consumption. This is related to the household garden definition which defines these gardens as a subsystem within a larger food procurement system which aims at the production of household consumption items that are not obtainable, readily available or affordable through other means including wage earning. These gardens supply supplements subsistence requirements and generate direct or indirect income (Ninez, 1984).
1.7.2 Food security
This research project has adopted the 1996 World Health Organization definition of food security which states “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”(WHO 2013). Access here has to do with physical and economic factors that enable people to meet their dietary needs as well as their dietary preferences.
1.7.3 Nutritional Diversity
Nutritional diversity refers to a diet that focused on the diversity of the food consumption to maintain overall health and vitality. A human diet requires at least 51 nutrients in adequate amounts consistently for good health (Remans, 2003).
1.7.4 Food Availability
The availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports (including food aid).
1.7.5 Food Access
Food access refers to the access by individuals to adequate resources for acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Entitlements are defined as the set of all commodity bundles over which a person can establish command given the legal, political, economic and social arrangements of the community in which they live
(including traditional rights such as access to common resources).
8
1.7.6 Utilization
Utilization refers to utilization of food through an adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. This brings out the importance of non-food inputs in food security.
1.7.7 Stability
To be food secure, a population, household or individual must have access to adequate food at all times. They should not risk losing access to food as a consequence of sudden shocks (e.g. an economic or climatic crisis) or cyclical events
(e.g. seasonal food insecurity). The concept of stability can therefore refer to both the availability and access dimensions of food security.
9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Various names and definitions have been used to describe the kitchen garden over time. For this paper the kitchen garden represents the universal subsistence food production unit also going by the name farmyard enterprise, backyard garden, dooryard garden, home garden or food garden. The kitchen garden entails small scale economic production units in relatively confined areas located close to the family dwellings. Kitchen gardens have evolved with man over the years but still remain the most ancient and persevering form of cultivation (Kimber, 2004). Kitchen gardens easily fall within the definitions of urban agriculture as the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in, and/or around a village, town or city. It is not just limited to foods and fruits but also include keeping of small animals like chicken, rabbits and bees for honey as well as non food items like flowers and trees.
The USA the kitchen gardens/urban farming came into the lime light during the 2 nd world war due to shortage of food, labour and transport. The government encouraged citizens to grow their own fruits and vegetable in what was called “Victory Gardens”.
It was estimated that over 20 million victory gardens were created between 1942 and
1943. Over 40 percent of their vegetables and fruits were produced that year as people felt they were doing a patriotic act by growing on the victory gardens.
“ This is a food war. Every extra row of vegetable in the allotments saves…the battle on the kitchen front cannot be won without the help from the kitchen garden, Isn’t an hour in the garden better than an hour in the queue?" (World Carrot Museum, 2012).
The above statement observed by Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, 1941 underscores the importance of the Kitchen gardens during the war.The victory gardens were not a preserve of the USA but were a common phenomenon with its allies in Canada,
United Kingdom, and Germany.
Land that has been left behind by former industrial cities as well as homes left behind by disasters like Katrina has been converted into gardens. Food miles concerns as well as rampant food illness from industrially produced foods has helped to promote locally grown foods. In March 2009, US First lady Michelle Obama planted a 1,100-
10
square-foot (100 m
2
) "Kitchen Garden" on the White House lawn (Michelle, 2012), is the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's, to raise awareness about healthy food.
The production of vegetables and fruit in gardens and allotments was economically and nutritionally important for the poor, often the only supplement to their low wages
(Kemp, 1977) until the onset of green revolution which came with monoculture and
“one size fits all” model of agricultural food production.
In Germany there are German garden Ghettos, which are small plots for rent, popularly known as the schrebergarten located at the edge of the cities where
Germans spend their time over the weekends. Small vegetable plots exist within these ghettos where families teach the young generation on vegetable production (German
Survival Bible, 2006).
After the fall of USSR in 1989 and tightened economic embargo by USA, Cubans lost the food aid and had to feed themselves. Some 8000 gardens known as Popular
Gardens were created in Havana most of which are farmed organically as fertilizers and pesticides used to come from Russia. These gardens are responsible for more than
50 percent of all vegetables consumed in Havana (Chaplowe, 1996).
In Philippines a project by the name, “Oh My Guly” (OMG) that stands for ‘oh my vegetables’ in the local Tagalog language was launched to improve production and consumption of local vegetables. In this project local celebrities in dance, music and television are featured in print and on television, posing with their favorite vegetables.
These role models are being used as “gate keepers” to boost consumption of fruits and vegetables among children as opposed to meats and rice-based diets as is common with Philippinos (Cotthem, 2012).
From these gardens man has managed to produce relatively large amounts of food from relatively small extensions of land ordinarily unsuited for field agriculture, supply nutrition not obtained solely from field agriculture like the condiments and spices which are relatively fresher than when obtained far from the fields, provide food (including staples) in non-farm settings especially urban centers, seal food supply gaps in terms of famine or food flow disruptions like it happened in Kenya
11
during the Post Election Violence of 2007/2008, provide fodder for household animals like rabbits and chicken, accrue in-kind or cash benefits when exchanged with money or other needs with the neighbors’, ( cash from incidental sales of surplus production), obtain secure production through location to the dwellings in terms of time and space, provide relatively less contaminated foods by reducing the number of people handling the product . Kitchen gardens are good experimental bases for new genetic material and cultivation techniques with ample time to tend and follow the plants throughout the growing period. They guarantee women who are the mediators between production and consumption in the family, a regular and secure supply of food, petty cash or goods for trade. As recognized by International Plant Genetic
Resources Institute (IPGRI) the kitchen gardens form an important role in in-situ biodiversity (Eyzaguire, 2001). The kitchen gardens provide aesthetic value which in turn provides therapeutic healing to the community. As the family works together in the garden, the older regeneration is able to pass important life skill knowledge to the younger generation. The garden offers physical exercises to the family members which guard against obesity. The availability of fruits and vegetables from the garden induces consumption of the same.
2.2 Kitchen Gardens and African Leafy Vegetables in Nutritional Diversity
African leafy vegetables (ALVS) form part of the richest vitamin sources for human consumption. About 45,000 species of plants are found in sub-Saharan Africa, 1000 of which are edible. African spinach happens to be the most common in African diets.
Per capita Consumption of number of fruits and vegetables declined between 1986 and 1995 (29 kg per capita consumption) in sub-Saharan Africa while it was rising in developed countries (Oniang’o, 2009).
According to FAO/WHO vegetable consumption per person should be 146 kgs per annum. In Kenya urban vegetable consumption is 147 Kgs per person against 73 Kgs in rural areas (Onim, 2008). In terms of nutrition ALVS have been found to be important than the brassicas in Yaoundé Cameroon for household consumption and income generation for poor households (Shiundu, 2007). ALVS are generally more profitable giving about $19708 per ha (sold as leaves) as compared to $1197 for maize per ha (Mwaniki, 2008). The kitchen gardens can be used to grow the vitamin rich ALVS. The main benefits of ALVS include superior nutrition qualities in
12
vitamins, oils and micronutrients. They are adapted to the local environment, they use own seeds as opposed to expensive hybrid seeds, fast growth, and lately high income for the health conscious consumers. Unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles as well as tobacco use have been scientifically proven as major determinants of non communicable diseases (Rasanathan, 2011). Unhealthy diets are perhaps the major determinant for non communicable diseases for the poor people. WHO listed Kenya among 72 countries with low serum retinal levels as a result of Vitamin A deficiency.
Vitamin A supplementation began several years ago but food based long term strategy is more cost effective and here the ALVS play a major role.
Iron deficiency affects about 50% of the world population predominantly in the developing countries (WHO, 2004). This deficiency results in 30% impairment in physical capacity and performance (WHO, 2001). The ALVS produced in Kitchen gardens would form a stable supply of this much required iron. The traditional vegetables, meet the major protein calorie nutritional needs especially in children, the sick, elderly, expectant and lactating mothers (FAO, 2005).
2.3 Kitchen Gardens and Food Security
Food security was defined in 1974 by the first World food summit in Rome under the auspice of FAO as, “availability at all times, of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuation in production and prices” (FAO, 2003).
The most widely accepted definition and concept of food security is the World Bank
1986 definition which is as follows, “ access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life”(FAO, 2003). This definition is broken down to availability, access, utilization and vulnerability. Food security in Kenya has been tackled differently by trying to control the units of production and mainly land and water.
Many famines in the world happen not because of lack of food but in poor distribution occasioned by poor government policies, perishability of the food as well geographical challenges’. In 1943 Bengal had one of the biggest rice harvest yet
13
hundreds of laborers starved to death. The poor laborers are vulnerable and lack the security of livelihood that will secure food (Department for International
Development (DFID) , 2004).
Sessional paper no 10 of 1965 identified poverty, ignorance and disease as the leading problems to deal with as a government (Kenya Government, 1966). Top-down projects were designed with an aim that benefits will trickle down to the people. At micro level poverty concerns were not addressed. Basic needs approach has also been tried as a form relief but has been found to leave people as it found them in 1972. To date this model is practiced through the ministry of Special programs. District Focus for rural development (DFRD) came into being in 1983 (Maina, 2005).
The Vision 2030s enhanced equity and wealth creation opportunities for the poor; policy can only be achieved when the poor has access to one of the greatest production input “the land” (Kenya Government, 2007). This does not necessarily need to change the land tenure system by using the land around where the poor people live (kitchen gardens) more efficiently. This is one way that Kenya can feed itself. In
March last year the government launched the Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture
Project (UPAP) in an effort to promote food production in urban and peri-urban areas.
A number of districts have been selected to spearhead this project with the main emphasis on innovative use of the scarce land resource to boost small scale production. This project is also aimed at building the capacity of small farmers who have embraced the greenhouse farming but lacks the technical know-how of greenhouse farming. Kiambu and Kericho districts are some of the districts in this project (Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Kenya, 2012). A key area is the realization that 36% of the urban population practices agriculture.
The kitchen garden is a principal source of household food and income during periods of stress, e.g. the pre-harvest lean season, harvest failure, prolonged unemployment, health or other disabilities suffered by family members or agricultural and economic disruption caused by wars for instance the post election violence in Kenya. In
Kampala, Uganda, after the civil war, urban agriculture substantially fed the city in non-cereal foods. Kitchen gardens contributes to household food security by providing direct access to food that can be harvested, prepared and fed to family
14
members. Poor, landless or near landless people practise gardening on small patches of homestead land, vacant lots, roadsides or edges of a field, or in containers.
Gardening may be done with virtually no economic resources, using locally available planting materials, green manures, "live" fencing and indigenous methods of pest control. Kitchen gardening is a production system that the poor can easily access.
Kitchen gardening provides a diversity of fresh foods that improve the quantity and quality of food rich in nutrients available to the family (Marsh, 1998).
2.3.1 Food Accessibility and Vulnerability
Geographical barriers, geo-politics, globalization, level of development, regionalization, gender, income, religion and culture are among the many factors that play a big role in access to food. Paradoxically the world has enough food for the current population but it just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and belonging to the wrong person or in a form that is not palatable to the people.
Constraints to food access include economic growth that is inadequate in the aggregate, or in wholesome leading to lack of opportunities to become an active participant in the economy (USAID, 1992). This could be an acquired behavior in the form of “Learned helplessness” (Peterson, 1993) as a result of colonization most of the developing countries are net importers of food making it food a commodity that can only be accessed through the income that one has.
Globalizations has broken both the physical and the mental barriers and brought unrealistic perception of access to food. The adverts in the media and in the market places of food from far lands look cheaper than they really are and tend to undermine local production. We are like a people in an ocean of food which is visible to us through a thick glass which can only be broken by monetary exchange. Widespread hunger exists today in a context of global oversupply of food as the chart below suggest.
15
Figure 2.1: Distribution of undernourished people in the world in millions
The figure above shows about 1 billion people were classified as hungry in the world in 2010 (FAO, 2010).
The current FAO global cereal production for 2012 is 2396 million tons against a global utilization of 2370 million tonnes (FAO, 2012) .
This paints a picture of a world of plenty where hunger should be a foreign word from.
The food situation contradicts the1798 Thomas Malthus population theory (Burns, 2011. Inventions like the green revolutions seem to have reversed the growth patterns in food production. Generally in developed countries as well as some countries in Far East the food production increased as a result of green revolution.
Vulnerability is a dynamic concept which looks at the situation before and the results or outcomes. It is an expression of the future world which we don’t know and is a very subjective area. This concept is more of the perception of the people involved rather than the very physical availability of food or ability to acquire it. Different people will return different levels of satisfaction given the same physical conditions
16
and endowments. Kenya is the most developed in east and central Africa yet the
Kenyans are the least satisfied people in the region.
2.3.2 Food availability
Globalization has helped man to include foods from un-imaginable distances to be on his plate, by improved transport, processing, cooling and communication in general.
Though this has increased food availability in developed countries, the same cannot be said to be true in developing countries where infrastructure is poor to say the least.
Food production is done in areas of low human population and has to be transported to areas of low production and of high food demand.
Though the green revolution had succeeded in developed countries and some Asian economies, food production in Africa and particularly Sub-Saharan Africa has stagnated if not declined (Asiema, 1994).
People living below the poverty line are net buyers of food. In terms of quality man needs other types of food besides cereals. Fruits and vegetables are perishable and have a short vase life compared to the cereals. Transporting them to great distances requires expensive processing and refrigeration which highly increases their prices.
Besides the fruits and vegetables, meats and animal products are also highly perishable. This perishability further compromises the relative availability of a balanced diet food to the vulnerable. Before the recent draught in northern Kenya last year, which resulted in “Kenyans for Kenyans food campaign,” excess milk in central
Kenya and central Rift valley was poured into open drains (Wambugu, 2011).
The availability of food is not just about the inadequacy and the immediate entitlement but has to do with paucity of the household as without assets to liquidate and buy food one will go hungry (Maxwell, 1992).
Despite the bill of rights in Kenya’s constitution “guaranteeing food” (National
Council for Law Reporting, 2010) as adopted from the Universal Declaration human rights (United Nations, 2013) we are in private ownership market economy where entitlement (read availability) and relations of persons are determined by what they own, what they generate, what they can trade, what they can accede to or are given.
17
“Food Deserts” have emerged from the current food retailing structures in America large supercentres in suburban areas where food is scarce for disadvantaged consumers (Thomas, 2010). Most of the imported foods in developing countries are found in supermarkets which are located away from the marginalized people.
As eluded earlier in this paper, the world food production is above its utility needs.
The late Roger Revellie of Harvard University claimed that Africa, Asia and Latin
America could feed 35- 40 billion people(seven to eight times the current world population) if they used water more efficiently(Richman, 1995). The kitchen garden uses part of domestic water thereby improving growing conditions for plants.
Gardeners directly experience nearby nature by 'getting their hands dirty' and growing food. They enjoy the way vegetables taste and form emotional connections with the garden. The physical and social qualities of garden participation awaken the senses and stimulate a range of responses that influence interpersonal processes (learning, affirming, and expressive experiences) and social relationships that are supportive of positive health-related behaviors and overall health. This research suggests that the relational nature of aesthetics, defined as the most fundamental connection between people and place, can help guide community designers and health planners when designing environment and policy approaches to improve health behaviors. Young people trained to be the farmers through the kitchen gardens can produce and process food for tomorrow, not just to feed themselves and their villages, but to grow the food to feed our cities (JFAD, 2012).
Food insecurity in a household can be seen as a combination of two distinct problems: a problem of acquirement and a problem of utilization. Below is a four dimensional angle of looking at the food insecurity; the ability to improve and maintain the level of acquirement, the ability to cope with shocks to acquirement, the ability to improve and maintain the level of utilization; and the ability to cope with shocks to utilization
These elements above are not independent of one another but are rather interrelated and hence complex. Other external factors like national policies variables will have their effects on the household which lies at the end of the chain.
18
2.4. Theoretical Framework
Two theories were relied upon in this research are Techno-Ecological theory and the adoption theory as explained below.
2.4.1 Techno-Ecological Theory
Techno-ecological theory of Berry and Cline (Scanlan, 2003) best captures the
Kitchen garden innovation. This theory opines that technology and human ingenuity are the greatest resources’ available and are not being threatened with scarcity. The theory further says that as it has been in the past, future challenges confronting the world’s carrying capacity will be met.
Kitchen Gardens are a result of human ingenuity and were instrumental in the shift of humankind from the hunters and gatherers stage to domesticated agriculture where seeds selected from the forest were planted near the dwelling places in the domesticating process. The success that this garden has had in the past can be used to address food and nutritional diversity. Combining this with organic farming techniques will have a garden producing sufficient food for years from a small area.
2.4.2 The Adoption of Innovation Theory
The Adoption of Innovation Theory (Rogers, 1995) gives light to how innovations are adopted or not. The elements of diffusion are very important in respect to the type of innovation, the communication channels, the timing and the social system that would determine the success of adoption. This answers the process question important in evaluation of who was involved in decision making, how the decisions were made, whether new networks have been made and who benefits from the innovation. Typical top-down innovations are short lived as the recipients do not own the process. Rogers refers these kinds of decisions as Authority Innovation-design. JFK used this system but due to sustained reinforcement, the timing, and by use of village champions
(communication channels) the project has been successful to a greater extent. The project used old employees as opinion leaders and gate keepers to the society.
19
Figure 2:2 Conceptual Framework
Outputs
Activities
1.
Develop a kitchen garden policy, plan and budget.
2.
Mobilize and train the households on kitchen gardening
3.
Set demonstration up plots workshops and
4.
Supply inputs like seeds, manure and information
2.4.3 Conceptual Model.
1.
Small productive organic gardens for every household
2.
Improved no of varieties of vegetables and fruits
3.
Improved production and consumption of indigenous vegetables
Outcome
1.
Improved food supply to family the
2.
Improved nutritional diversity
3.
Improved disposable income
Impact
Health and fulfilled
Families
The Kitchen garden project was set up using result chain logical framework typical of result based management as shown above. This provides a way of indentifying measurable indicators which helps to recognize changes attributable to the innovation.
The activities were well defined and form a basis of expectations in terms of short term outputs like seeing the actual physical garden and workers supplying the household labor. The outcomes desired were the improved food supply and nutritional diversity. Replication of these gardens outside Finlays would be a good indicator of the uptake of the innovation. Happy and healthy families are the greater why the kitchen garden was started.
20
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
The chapter presents the research design and methodologies used in this study.
The areas that were reviewed under this chapter include; the research design, site description, unit of observation, sample size, data collection techniques and data analysis were discussed in this chapter.
3.1 Research design
This study was designed to understand the roll of the kitchen gardens to the JKF workers by interviewing them, their leaders and the stakeholders in the area. This was done through administering a structured questionnaire to the workers, three focused discussions in three villages, Observations, Key informant interviews and desk review of information from stakeholders.
3.2 Site Description
The study was carried out at JFK Kericho both the tea and the flower section. The purpose of this study was to documents the geographical features of the villages, infrastructures, social backgrounds and social composition of the population. This site was selected because of the researchers urge to survey how the people use the land resource in formal kitchen gardens. Moreover, JFK is one of the few farms that still house its employees. The employees live deep in the farm cut from the normal market supply which ideally would make them vulnerable.
The population of the workers was 14,314 at the time of the study. The tea estates section employs over half (56.4%) of the population while the rest are in tea factories and services departments. JFK is situated in Kericho County which has a total population of 758,339 people. Kericho County has five constituencies namely,
Kericho, Kipkelion, Londian, Litein and Kabuti. It covers 2479 square kilometers and a population density of 309 people per square kilometer. It has a poverty rate of 44.2
%(USAID, 2012).
Temperatures range from a minimum of 16°C to a maximum of 20°C. The average rainfall ranges between 1,400 mm and 2,000mm per annum. This choice has been done because JFK has adopted the kitchen garden innovation. Though Kericho is a
21
high rainfall area where food should be plenty, most of the land is put on cash crops at the expense of the food crops. JFK has recorded an average of 1867.mm of rainfall for the last ten years.
3.2.1 Unit of observation
Unit of observation is the unit upon which one collects or analyzes data (OECD,
2005) term analogous with unit of measurements. The unit of observation is the JFK workers in the lower cadre usually referred to as unionisable staff.
3.2.2 Unit of analysis
The unit of analysis is the major component that is being analyzed in the study
(Trochim, 2006). It is the 'what' or 'whom' that is being studied. The unit of analysis in my study is the perceived role of kitchen garden is in food security and nutritional diversity of James Finlay’s workers in Kericho.
3.3 Target population
The target populations for this study were the JFK workers in the lower cadre who were about 1100 households living in the farm. In this case one hundred and forty two
(142) households were sampled.
3.4 Sampling procedure
Sampling is the process of selecting a group of subjects for a study in such a way that the individuals represent the larger group from which they were selected (Yount,
2006). When one is studying a population it may be logistically and economically impossible to study the full population, but looking at a group that represents the population may help one to make inferences and extrapolations to the whole population. Sampling is the process of collecting information from the sample.
The study population (JFK) is about 1100 households (Finlays, 2011) who live in the farm. According to Small sample technique (Morgan, 1970) a 280 sample would be most ideal at 95 level of confidence. However this puts a very big impact on the cost of the study as to administer the questionnaire alone will require in excess of 2 months having in mind that the workers may only be available for not more than a three hour window when workers are in their houses after work. One hundred and forty (140) households were sampled for this study.
22
To avoid biasness a stratified random sample was used. This was done to help cover the stratified nature of the workers and in turn help to capture all the possible perceptions across the groups. Various income groups have different perceptions about food and this can only be captured by a random stratified sample. This probability element allows the findings of the study to be used to infer to the JFK population. Eighty three households in tea, twenty five in flowers, nineteen in factories and fifteen in services were sampled. The tea villages were taken from two productive estates (Tiluet and Kaproret) and one low production estate (Kapsongoi).
The factories were represented by Kitumbe, Medical team was sampled from Miwani village and the flower section was represented by Master D village in Flowers Two.
3.5 Types of data
The study used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from the respondent on their perception of their state of food security and their dietary diversity. Five research assistants were recruited, trained and helped to fill the questionnaires to the households under my supervision. Secondary data was sourced from the human resource department, food prices treads from the ministry of agriculture, and timelines from the elderly people in Kericho.
3.5.1 Data collection
Household interviews, key informant interviews, focused groups’ discussions; desk review, photography as well as observations were used to carry out this study.
3.5.1.1 Household interview
The household is central to the development process not only as a production unit but it is also consumption, social and demographic unit. This is so because the household is the basic unit of influence to the members’ well-being. This study uses the
Malawian definition of household which is as follows; “the household was defined as
“consisting of one or more persons related or unrelated who make common provision for food and who regularly take their food from the same pot and/or share the same grain store (Nkhokwe) or pool their incomes for the purpose of purchasing food."
Malawi 1987, 1998”, (Coast, 2008). A structured questionnaire was used to get the respondent household perception on various issues about the kitchen garden
23
3.5.1.2 Key informants
Key informants are individuals with knowledge of the community under review in terms of their needs. They provide key information on the subject matter in the community. The informant should be well versed with information about the community. A key informant interview guide structured to shed light on the JFK kitchen gardens discussions was prepared. Those interviewed were;
1.
Eight JFK personnel managers
2.
The project consultant
3.
Four Women leaders
4.
Five Section heads
5.
Kericho District Agricultural Officer
6.
Two JFK Medical Personnel
7.
Union leader
Union leaders are in the political front and are more critical on any developments initiated by the management. A note taker accompanied me during the key informant interviews.
3.5.1.3 Focus Group Discussions
Focused groups discussions (FGDs) are group of individuals selected and assembled by researchers to discuss and comment on, from personal experience, the topic that is the subject of the research(Gibbs, 1997). They entail organized discussions aimed at gaining information from the individuals about the topic at hand and organized in such a manner that all the perspectives of the subject will be covered. This is important in qualitative research where the indicators in review are perceptions difficult to quantify and can only be captured in emotions and where visual and body language and weight to spoken or written words. FGDs help to gain insight gaining insights into people’s shared understandings of everyday life and the ways in which individuals are influenced by others in a group situation. A moderator was required to control and guide the discussions and will be employed for this study. An FGD guide was used to restrain the discussions from digression.
In this research 3 focused group discussions were done, in Mara Mara club. The discussions included managers, section heads, village champions, medical personnel, ground men and welfare representatives’.
24
3.5.1.4 Desk Review
Desk review also known as secondary research is done by collecting information from existing data from other researches and government organs as well as stakeholders in the area. The stakeholders in this research were the JFK management executives, the project consultant and village committee members. A check list was used to ensure all possible data is collected.
3.5.1.5 Observation
Observation helps in gathering information primarily through close visual inspection of the natural setting. Here the research tries to be unobtrusive and detached from the setting. Participant observation where the researcher and the assistants will try and observe and experience the world as a participant, while retaining an observer's eye for understanding, analysis and explanation will be applied in this study(Smith, 1997).
Field notes were taken and maintained throughout the research. Observations were done in an open mind to avoid bias interpretations of the situation. The information gathered here was of snapshot nature and cannot be conclusive. A structured checklist was used to guide the observation. However it helped to build a good picture of the subject as well as identifying outliers during the data cleaning exercise.
3.6 Data analysis
The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods but with a bias on the former. Quantitative data was coded and summarized in tables and analyzed in frequencies and percentages. Descriptive Statistics of The Statistical Package for
Social Scientists (SPSS) was used to analyze some of the data. Findings were presented in tables, narratives and bar charts. Qualitative data was analyzed by screening all the notes taken and presented in narratives where necessary. In many areas the qualitative data was used to give meaning to the findings to the quantitative data.
The biggest challenge in this study was the vast size of the JFK with villages located several kilometers from one another. To cover the as many perceptions as possible the researcher avoided neighboring villages which further added to the challenge. As an employee of the flowers section it took a lot of discipline not to direct the research to the flower section only.
25
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.0 Introduction
This chapter presents the research findings obtained from 142 respondents who are workers selected from the JFK workers households, observations seen in the gardens, information from focused group discussions and Key informant interviews as well as secondary data from stake holders. The data generated contained enough information which can effectively answer the research questions. The survey focused on assessing whether the Kitchen gardens have influenced food security and nutritional diversity of the practicing households.
4.1 Demographic Characteristics
4.1.1 Respondents Household Distribution
The structured questionnaire was administered to 142 households in seven villages at
JFK. The factory was represented by Mamba village in Kitumbe, Master D village for flowers, Barrier village for Kapsongoi estate, Miwani village for the medical section,
Dimboli and Umoja village for Tiluet estate and Kaproret Tea Estate as shown in the table 4.1 below.
Table 4.1 Village Distribution of the Respondents
Flowers
Frequency
35
Percent
24.6
Kaproret 19 13.4
Kapsongoi
Kitumbe
Medical
Tiluet
30
23
5
30
21.1
16.2
3.5
21.1
Total 142 100.0
I had more flower workers available and hence a slightly higher percentage sampled than it would normally be in a purely stratified sense.
26
4.1.2. Distribution of Respondents by Sex
From the 142 respondents thirty six point six percent of the respondents were females while the rest were men. No data was available to compare with the households gender data and hence this is not a reflection of the farm but for those who were available in their homes at the time of survey.
The higher male percentage was perhaps due to the different tasks done by both women and men. Many men work in areas that set them free during daytime when the study was done. Machine tea harvesters who are predominantly men work early in the morning and are back in their homes in mid morning
Table 4.2 Gender
Gender
Female 52
Frequency Percent
36.6
Male
Total
90
142
63.4
100.0
4.1.3 Marital Status
Majority of the respondents (83.1%) were married which would point to some level of seriousness in handling household needs. About 13% of the respondents were single as shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Marital Status
Marital Status
Married
Separated
Single
Widowed
Frequency Percent
118
4
18
2
83.1
2.8
12.7
1.4
Total 142 100
27
The higher percentage of married gives the research more weight as married people are normally directly involved in food provision to their households.
4.1.4 Distribution of Respondents by Age
Majority of the workers fall in the so called youth group with respondents aged between 21 and 40 years making a total of 71.1% of the respondents.
The high percentage of the youthful workers agrees with the national outlook where the youth forms the majority of the nation (United Nations
Development Programme, 2013). The youthful range could also be a result of turnover of old workers who could be going for greener pastures away from the low paying agricultural sector.
Table 4.4 Age Group Distribution
Age group Frequency Percent
21-30yrs
31-40yrs
48
53
33.8
37.3
41-50yrs
51-60yrs
Above 61yrs
29
6
1
20.4
4.2
.7
Total 142 100.0
28
4.1.5 Education level
Majority of the respondents had the primary level of education (47.9%) with almost an equivalent number with secondary (43.7%). Seven % have tertiary courses while 1.4 % had only pre-primary education. The high level of secondary school graduates in JFK agrees with the availability of skilled manpower in Kenya which places the country at a comparative advantage over its neighbours. This could also be an indicator of high level of unemployment in Kericho forcing educated people to take the only available slots in the agricultural sector
Table 4.5 Education level
Education level
Pre-primary
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Total
Frequency Percent
2 1.4
68
62
10
47.9
43.7
7.0
142 100
4.2 Main Findings
4.2.0 Introduction
The research was able to answer all the questions that it sought to answer in the objectives as detailed below.
4.2.1 Kitchen Garden Set Up
The first objective sought to understand how the Kitchen gardens were set up. To do this a reflection of the food security status was sought from the Kericho District
Agricultural Officer (DAO). Kericho district is a high productive area and save for the workers in plantations the district is relatively food secure. The district was 60 % food secure in 2012 according to the DAO. A Kipsigis elder helped to lay a background of food security perception of the community.
29
One 83year old Kipsigis elder says, “ to the Kipsigis food security involved the availability of Finger millet, milk from cows and African leafy vegetables like black nightshade (soyik), spider plant ( kilchik)
To the Kalenjin extreme lack of food like in major draughts is referred to as “rubeti”.
Moderate food availability where staple food accompaniment like vegetables and milk are lacking is referred to as “Munyasta”. People who live in abject poverty with meager food availability are said to experience “Sineti”.
Before colonization the Kalenjin did not use sugar in their diets and it’s only much later by around 1930. Table salt in the old times was not available and instead water was made to pass through the ashes to serve as the food sweetener. Kalenjins have seen three major famines, kimauto Sigiri( where the draught was so severe that the
Kipsigis ate the donkey an animal they abhor). The other famine was Kimauto Kisii where the Kalenjins sold their children to the Kisii´s in exchange of food. The other famine was Kimauto muhogo (where cassava flour was the only food available).
Floods in 1961 swept a lot of food away and whatever remained developed into manure inside the stores). On the overall the Kipsigis people occupied a very productive land and food has been in abundance until recently due to population pressure.”
The idea of formal kitchen garden was approved by the management to reduce the
Munyasta condition among its workers in 2003. It was not until 2006 when the first gardens were set in Masobet village occupied by Finlays Flowers employees. A consultant, Ms Grete Davey was engaged to lead the program with an objective to help employees in the villages improve on family food supplies and nutrition year round, through sustainable kitchen gardens.
As observed by many stake holders during the FGDs, the villages before the onset of the program were untidy and messy with free for all outlook with only the very industrious people who had resemblance of gardens and which were mainly with one crop (kales) on the periphery of the villages. The same gardens were poorly cultivated and as result soil erosion had taken its toll.
30
Plate 4:1 Demarcation of the Gardens at the onset of the Project
(the fencing was done to mark out areas for garden and other uses of the ground area as spelt out in the policy)
There were no demarcations of the play areas or individual private areas and people were roaming all over depriving the residents of any sense of privacy. Every place was a playground or drying space for the laundry. Any attempts of recreation were bringing in social conflicts between the families.
The company strategized to provide information on improvements employees can make through a kitchen garden so that they are able to improve their wellbeing.
By and large tidy, pleasant and attractive villages with well kept and well cultivated sustainable organic kitchen gardens would be realised. Neat compounds with tidy hedges and well defined paths which introduced privacy and aesthetics would improve the workers self esteem. The vegetables and fruits from the gardens would bring a necessary nutritional diversity required for a healthy family. The size of the garden was done to give sufficient production for the family but small enough to fit in the ever decreasing land sizes at home.
To jumpstart the program the company initially provided seedlings like Cabbage, spinach, Sukuma wiki (kales), tomato, indigenous vegetable seedlings, sweet potato slips, climbing spinach, bunching onions, marigold flowers, gooseberry fruit seedlings. Beans and soya seed were given for direct sowing. Climbers like pumpkin and cucumber were provided. Tree tomato, loquat, mulberry and pawpaw seedlings
31
were provided for fruits. Indigenous trees were provided for aesthetics. Plenty of mulch was provided from the company organic waste (tea and flowers) program while labor was mobilized from the camp workers and household owners.
Entrance
Side Garden
Hibiscus edge
Plate 4.2 Kitchen Garden Layout
(showing the agreed positioning of various activity areas in relation to the house meant to create order and harmony in operation)
32
Plate 4.3 Hibiscus Hedge used for Demarcation
(the fence was meant to protect the garden and bring in beauty and sustainability compared to the wooden fence)
Demarcation of the compound was done with red hibiscus hedge as shown in plate 4.3 above. This was a big contrast from the previous tea hedges which were at the periphery of the villages as shown in plate 4.4. The recommended measurements were
4 meters to the front of the house, 2 meters at each side (See plate 4.6), 3 meters at the back of the house. These measurements are not always possible round some of the houses, so these measurements are a guideline. The sides and back of the compound to be dug up and the grass removed. The front should not be dug up, as this area is used for recreation needs.
33
Plate 4.4 Tea Hedge as Appeared before the Program
(this hedge was monotonous and especially to the tea workers who spend the whole day in tea plantations)
Once the back and sides are dug, then compost manure was scattered over the dug up area, and then re-dug to a depth of at least one foot, more if it is possible resulting in a good soil manure mix. In any side of the house, digging would not be allowed within
2 feet from the foundation.
Plate 4.5 Workers in One of the first Gardens
(as with every new innovation the participants put in their best and soon blooming gardens were realized)
34
As with all pioneers the first group was very enthusiastic with the gardens and the palte above(4.5) explains it all.
4.2.2 Size of gardens
JFK has different kinds of houses which have been set up in different times of company history. The circular houses have bigger garden area and the households there in have gardens in excess of 10 square meters. The newer villages have block houses which have more families together. As a result their gardens are smaller but
Table 4.6 Size of the Garden
Size Frequency
<10m 20
11-50m 115
51-100m 7
Total 142
Percent
14.1
81.0
4.9
100.0 still within the 10 square meters. In Villages where the area is really limiting households are given equivalents plots within the periphery of the village. Eighty one percent of the gardens were between 10 and 15 square meters as shown in Table 4:6
35
Plate 4.6 Side Garden in Umoja Village at Tiluet Estate
( Durantus sp hedge now demarcates the gardens replacing the hibiscus which was not responding well to clipping. The side garden enhances the total area under production and helps to improve the crop rotation planning as seen in small sub-plots in this plate)
For the waste management the households digs holes in the garden where they dispose their organic waste from the house as well as garden debris (see plate 4:7).
Plate 4.7 Compost Pit in One of the Gardens ( the compost pit is covered as a safety precaution and when in use it’s covered to keep off bad smell from the house. The plate also display a drying rack for utensils, a structure that helped to bring order and hygiene to the villages
)
Ash and water are added , occasionaly turned untill its ready for use as manure. Anew pit is dug when the old one is full. The plastic, metalic and glass waste is seperated
36
and deposited in clearly marked holding areas awaiting central collection by the company refuse team. The meatalic waste is sold to scrap metal dealers and proceeds used im vilage maintenance.
After successful rollout in the flowers villages the innovation was introduced to the tea area in 2010 in all villages. Initialy hibiscuss hegdes were used to demacate the the gardens but with time they proved not to respond well to treaming and the more recilient Durantus sp (plate 4.6) was identified and after a few trials a decision was made to replace the hibiscus. The old villge setup had tea as hedges giving the monotous green look. In the begginning the households were not allowed to keep animals but with time households were allowed to keep two chickens in small cages.
4.2.3 Source of Help and Organization
The project used a top-down approach with the human resource department being incharge of the program. This perhaps explains why a high percentage of respondents didnt recognise design help from any quater as shown in the table above. To improve on positive uptakde by the workers a village comitee headed by village champion oversees the implementation.
Figure 4.1 Sources of design help
(over 50 % of the respondents did not recognise the help of the company in setting up the gardens. Many did not understand the link between the project consultant and the management thus not crediting her contribution to the company)
37
Demonstration gardens were set near the dispensaries with the medical teams every morning explaining the benefits of healthy eating to the patients who come to seek treatment. Grete Davey, the project consultants alo conducts cooking lessons in which households are taught how to prepare mixed vegetables and retain good acceptable tastes. The company also maintains nurseries for fruit, ornamental and hegde plants for the program, a job done by the team that maintains the overall cleaness of the village. The project seems to have failed in the pimary group phase where effective relationship and sence of belonging among the participants cultivated.
4.3 Kitchen Garden Food Security Effect
The second objective was to find out how effective the kitchen gardens are in addressing food security. Both the recipients and the managers agree that the program has improved the food security of the workers.
“Before the gardens were introduced, only a few workers had sukuma wiki gardens. Over the weekends workers were going to Kericho and its environs and come back with bags full of vegetables. Today I see the same bags with vegetables but moving in the opposite direction”, says estate
Manager Tiluet. From the 142 household respondents 47.9 % do not buy vegetables today as compared to 4.2% who were not buying vegetables before. This shows that more households are now relying on their gardens for vegetables supply as table 4:7 below suggest. Before the gardens many workers had to buy the most inexpensive vegetable (kale) and one that was readily available. This is the same in many communities where this resilient vegetable (kale) has been widely accepted. The mixed vegetables was second in demand perhaps from the predominant Kisii and
Kalenjin communities in the tea sector who traditionally love vegetables in their meals.
38
Table 4.7 Vegetables Bought Before
Vegetables Frequency Percent
Kales 65 45.8
Indigenous vegetables 16 11.3
Mixture
None
55
6
38.7
4.2
Total 142 100.0
Out of the 142 respondents only one who didn’t think that the garden helped at all in food supply with 99.3% saying that the garden has improved their food supply. As the vegetables became available through the kitchen garden workers had to alter their behaviour parten and buy less vegetables from the market. The smarter workers sell or exchange their excess vegetable products with cash or use it to build their social capital explaining the outward movement of vegetables as observed by the managers.
Table 4.8 Vegetables Bought Today
Vegetables
Frequency
None
Kales
Indigenous vegetables
Mixture
Cabbage
Spinach
68
9
19
21
24
1
Total 142
Percent
47.9
6.3
13.4
14.8
16.9
.7
100.0
39
People do not buy what they have but rather what they don’t have. Many workers produced their own vegetables making many households attain self sufficiency explaining the high number of workers not buying vegetables today (47.9%).
Apparently a higher percentage of workers now buy indigenous vegetables (14.8% compared to 11.3%) than before. This indicates that the awareness workshops and the knowledge attained from them may have altered the altitudes of the workers towards indigenous vegetables. Additionally more disposable income from the savings of not buying the vegetables is now available to buying non available indigenous vegetables,
4.3.1 Value of Food Supply
Majority of the respondents think that the gardens have helped with the highest scale of “extremely a lot response” (32.4%) as table 4:9 below shows. As aluded to by the many during te FGDs the gardens have become a major source of food to the workers.
Table 4.9 Value of Food Supply to the Respondents
Response Frequency Percent
A lot 38 26.7
Extremely a lot 46 32.4
Fairly 46 32.4
Not at all 1 .7
Sparingly 11 7.7
Total 142 100.0
Table 4:9 shows that all except one put some value to the kitchen garden in regard to food supply. The garden quickily gave the workers a new form of self-efficassy. This was perhaps enhanced by the short growing periods of the vegetables which brings results quick enough to be repeated. Watching neighbours harvesting vegetables from their own gardens presnts favourable vicariuos experiences which further enhances self-efficassy. The verbal pursuasion in workshops and the choice of using an external consultant may have done the trick.
40
4.4 Kitchen Garden Effect on Nutritional Diversity
The third objective sought to find how the kitchen gardens have influenced
Nutritional diversity to the workers. From the first respondent the nutritional diversity was obvious. She had just picked some vegetables for lunch from the garden and there were more than three varieties in her basket. Through the help of the consultant and the medical team the workers have embraced the garden as a source of diversity.
Figure 4.2 Number of Varieties grown in Households
Variety inventory had over 17 names from the sampled villages which indirectly suggest that the workers have a great value for the nutritional diversity. They have attributed good health to the eating of mixed vegetables. Majority of the respondents have more than four varieties growing in their gardens as shown in figure 4.2 above.
Chief shop steward says, “ The teachings we received from the first workshop by
Mama Kiko, agreed very well with the teaching we get from our SDA church in health eating. Our church emphasizes on eating a mixed vegetables to improve our health as opposed to animal proteins. The management has really helped us in the form of these gardens and especially to us the vulnerable workers who cannot afford the expensive animal protein. We really thank the management for introducing these gardens as they have helped us to get the vegetables at our convenience. A lot of these indigenous vegetables are not available in the market and even when available not as fresh as from our gardens”.
This agrees with Miller and Donald principles of fundamental to
41
learning; drive, cue, response and reward (Encyclopedia.com articles, 2011). The need for vegetables food could have been the drive. Religious values play a big role in self identity and could also have played a big role as members made efforts to conform to their beliefs as explained by the shop steward. The SDA teachings instill strong cognitive components on its followers which greatly influences their altitudes to kitchen garden.
4.4.2 Nutritional Diversity from Kericho District
From Kericho district vegetable inventory the kitchen gardens seems to have brought in all the diversity of the community in terms of the number of varieties(Table 4:10 below) compared to 17 varieties found in the kitchen gardens sampled.
42
7
8
5
6
9
3
4
1
2
Table 4.10 Vegetables/Fruits Grown in Kericho District (source- Kericho District agriculture office)
CROP
Cabbages
ACHIEVED HA
2011 2010
48 37
Spinach 4 4.6
2009
50
4
Kales
Tomatoes
Bulb onions
Capsicum
110
42
5.5
2.5
49
19
5.5
2
120
10
5
2
Carrots
Eggplants
Butternuts
2.5
2.5
4
0.6
8.5
4
0.2
1
10
11
12
13
Watermelons
Saget ( Spider plant)
Eggplants
Spring Onions
10
12
2.5
17
6
10
0.6
1
30
0.2
14 Irish Potato 36
Vegetables and fruits found in the market place forms the cognitive aspects as far as diversity component is concerned. This formed the target that the participants would be trying to achieve. Other sources of diversity were the homes where the workers came from as well as the information received from the project consultant explaining why they achieved a higher diversity. The social capital in the form of knowledge
43
gained from decades of traditional farming in different cultural set-ups was put to use resulting in the amazing diversity.
4.4.3 Value of Nutritional Diversity
When asked about the value of the garden to their nutritional diversity, most of the respondents think that the gardens have given them great value as the bar chart shows in figure 4:3.below.
Figure 4.3 Respondents Value of Diversity
Diversity was one of the pillars of the project and the project consultant. The value expressive function of altitude required that diversity is attained and appreciated by the participants. The push by the medical team and associating consumption of indigenous vegetables to good health formed a good cue to the participants.
44
Plate 4.8 A Banana Stool in One of the Kitchen Garden
(part of the fruits introduced in the villages both for food and income generation)
Village champion for Kitumbe village says,
“The gardens have brought sanity in our villages. Now each house has the necessary privacy for a household brought about by the demarcations with the live and lovely looking hedges. The introduction of chickens has brought a lot of value to us. We can now get eggs and sometimes meat from them. Fruits like bananas give us additional income. One bunch of banana fetches as much as ksh 700”.
The extra income from the sale of the garden produce forms part of the reward system critical in repeating the response in this continued attachment to the kitchen garden.
Before the gardens were implemented respondents used to answer the diversity elements with buying expensive meat and usually on credit which was not sustainable as revealed during focused group discussions.
4.4.4 Vegetables as a Source of Protein
The management stopped the check-off system in meat buying which has helped to turn to the traditional vegetables for their protein source. Although there is no baseline to compare with, the respondents are not buying as much meat today (figure 4.4 below).
45
Figure 4.4 Frequency of Buying Meat
Besides the vegetables the inclusion of fruit trees improved the nutritional diversity.
The recent inclusions of chicken will also enhance this diversity through the eggs and occasionally when they slaughter the chickens for meat. Almost every household has a banana plant which has high potassium content.
A survey of the Mama Mboga Kiosks in the villages showed alsmost complete absence of common vegetables on the shelves. The predominant vegetable on display was the english potatoes. The shops in the villages stocked value added grocries like bread, sodas, sweats , soaps, detergens and toiletries like tooth paste.The donkeys that seems to be the main means of transport of food items to the villages could be seen carrying only maize bags.
4.5 Challenges Faced by the Kitchen Garden
The third objective sought to establish the challenges faced by the kitchen gardens and what was being done to overcome them.
From Table 4:11 pest and diseases were cited as the biggest problem facing the gardens. Poor lifespan of the indigenous vegetables was also cited as a major setback to the project in terms of diversity. The seeds they get from the market are of poor quality. The high moisture of the region hampers the harvesting of seeds from their own gardens. The annual nature of majority of the indigenous vegetables against the resilient perennial Sukuma Wiki (kales) makes a few workers to stick to Kales.
46
Various types of monkeys and baboons are found across the villages and limit the diversity of some gardens as they feast on certain preferred plants like onions making them conspicuously absent from some villages.
Some workers appeared discouraged by overzealous managers who regularly order the cutting back off tall sukawiki plants and worse so when the workers are absent.
In the beginning the diversity campaign was hampered by cultural believes as opined by the medical staff. The predominant Ugali eating cultures take Ugali (starch) as the main dish and anything else as an accompaniment. The nutritionist advise to bring
Table 4.11 Challenges faced by the Kitchen Garden
Challenges Frequency Percent
Wild animals 23 16.2
Pests/Diseases 43 30.3
Water supply 10
Poor lifespan of indigenous vegetables 10
Loss of soil fertility with time 13
7.0
7.0
9.2
None
supply of quality seeds
Small Size of Garden
Theft
39
1
2
1
27.5
.7
1.4
.7
Total 142 100.0 down the Ugali ratio to a third of the total meal tends to reverse this argument and especially so with the general workers who naturally need a lot of energy in their work. One of the challenges that elicited a lot of emotions is the stealing of vegetables from the gardens by some workers (recorded as pests). This is common with all many parts of the country where food has become a major source of conflict. Many youths have been accused in this country of shying away from farming considered as dirty
47
and only thriving in errant behaviour of acquiring other hard earned proceeds. The moral breakdown of the social fabric could be responsible for this evil. Twenty seven point five % reported no challenges at all. This is a lower figure than those who are self-sufficient in vegetables indicating more is required in improving the gardens.
Success brings with it satisfaction and along with it a strengthening of the relation of the experience. The project should build on this success depicted by the number of people who think that the garden has no challenge.
4.6 Correlation between Attendance and Food Supply Value
While collecting the data a trend appeared where respondents who put their own labour and other resources in the garden were attributing a higher food supply vale to the garden. The project consultant cites laziness as the main hindrance to success as people have to dig and work their own gardens on top of supplying their own seeds.
This prompted the researcher to correlate attendance and food supply scores by the respondents.
Table 4.12 Correlation between attendance and food supply value attendance Value of food supply
Attendance Pearson
Correlation
1 .145
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Value of food supply
Pearson
Correlation
142
.145
.085
142
1
Sig. (2-tailed) .085
N 142 142
When attendance and food supply value to the respondents were correlated a positive relationship was established although it failed the significance test at 95% confidence
(Table 4:12). Those who don’t work on the garden have low emotional attachment and could score the gardens poorly.
48
Figure 4.5 Solution to the challenges
4.6.3 Solution to the challenges
Various efforts have been put to address the challenges facing the Kitchen garden. As shown in figure 4:5, over 60% of the respondents are satisfied with the project as it is.
Loss of soil fertility overtime is mitigated by supply of manure and mulch as a number of respondents suggested.
The gardens with high levels of mulching had low levels of complains whether its water stress, or pests menace as they tend to have more health plants which can withstand a myriad of problems. As the consultant explained the project was founded on organic concept where fertilizers and pesticides were to be avoided. Crop rotation even in a small area has been started to help mitigate against soil pests and diseases.
The incorporation of pests’ repellant plants like marigold has helped to address the pest problems.
A number of respondents still do not understand the organic concept and as such they suggested to be supplied with pesticides and fertilizers to improve their gardens.
49
Regular workshops helps to continually keep the workers informed on the importance of the gardens. Demonstration plots located near every dispensary help to reinforce the importance of the kitchen garden.
Plate 4.9 Nutritional board near one of the dispensaries (
The board explains the nutritional content of some indigenous vegetables against sukuma wiki)
4.6.4 Improvement recommended by respondents
Health personnel have been trained to preach the gospel of nutritional diversity and to demonstrate the possibility of achieving this from one own garden. These trainings are targeted not only to the health of the family but their entire wellbeing
The cultural disposition that Ugali and Sukumawiki (Kales) is the only life supporting dish need to be demystified as identified by the consultant through continuous awareness campaigns. The cultural/religious disposition of the workers was greatly influenced by the Seventh Day Adventist teaching which emphasizes on plant/ vegetable diets for nutritional needs as was captured through the key informant interviews, a few households complained of insufficient areas for the kitchen gardens
50
Figure 4.6 Improvement Recommended
Improved container technology can help alleviate this problem. Containers made from plastic but conical in shape would improve the surface area available for putting sufficient no of plants to sustain productivity in relatively very small ground area like shown the improvised containers in the strawberry greenhouse in the picture. Many models as shown in the pictures below of sacks and banana stems (Plate 4:9-4:13 below) can be used to improvise and increase surface area for crop production. The challenge here is will be in the need to water the plants regularly and losing the rain fed benefit.
4.6.5 Vegetable production in Containers
Containers come in handy where space for a vegetable garden is too small for reasonable production (plate 4.1 to plate 4.13). A patio, doorstep, a balcony or even a window seals can provide sufficient space for producing sufficient vegetables and fruits for the family.
51
Plate 4.10 Strawberry growing in improvised containers (face book, 2012013)
(The vertical space created by the poles tremendously increases the surface area for production and creates the most economical way to use the expensive green house enterprise).
Although containers come with a higher demand in plant care they have the added advantage in that they can help to resolve the problem of common soil borne diseases and root pests like nematodes by adopting alternative media to soil. In container gardening plants that take little space and those which are productive for longer periods are preferred.
Plate 4.11 Banana stems used as containers for vegetable production
(Agricultural the 21st century style, 2013) (
The banana stem fibres beside increasing the surface area,offers some nutrients like potasium to the plants as they rot. This is a very inovative of using locally available resourses as captured in the rural university conceipt)
52
Plate 4.12 vegetables growing in upright sack containers (AGFAX, 2010
) (the vertical/upright sack containers are the most common plant pots in urban agriculture where they improve production area as well as where the soil media is absent like in paved backyards and rooftops ).
As one moves close to shade it’s important to use plants that are shade tolerant.
Container vegetable production can improve the aesthetics of the surrounding by brightening dull areas just by placing beautiful growing vegetables like the curly kales.
Many possible containers can be used for gardening like clay pots, plastic, metal and even wood like in plate 4.10 and plate 4.11 containers. The key is that the container must be big enough to support plants when they are fully grown, hold the growing media without spilling, have adequate drainage and should not have been used for products that are harmful to people or the environment. Locally available material like wood, banana stems like in plate 4.11 can be used in an innovative way to generate space. Baskets lined with plastic with drainage holes punched in it, pieces of drainage pipes and even sacs form good containers as in plate 4.13. Treated wood is not good for food production and should be avoided.
53
Plate 4.13 Vertical Multistory Garden
(Youth Agro-Environment Initiative, 2011) (The vertical multistory garden improves the production area such that well planned three sacks can supply the needs of a small household.The multistory garden can be made from variuos kind of bags that can hold the planting media and the plants in place)
Plastic gunny bags like in plate 4.12 and plate 4.13 are in use in many parts of the country especially in slums. They offer excellent drainage but they are made to be used for a short time and disintegrate quickly under ultra-violet light. Light weight welded wire shaped into cylinders and lined with moss can make excellent gardens
(University of Arizona, 1998). Most plants require containers 6 to 8 inches deep for adequate rooting. With imagination and innovation there are a myriad of locally available material can make good containers. With low volume of soil watering is more important than in dealing with soil.
Use of hydroponics can also make space not suitable for plant growth produce vegetables for the family. Ideally the soil supplies nutrients and also anchors the plant.
If the nutrients are supplied to the plant and anchorage provided mechanically like in this case by using floaters the plants will still grow.
54
Plate 4.14 vegetables growing on water without soil media in a farm in Limuru
(innovative hydroponics where the plant nutrients are put in water for the plant)
Higher yields have been reported from this system as compared to conventional agriculture (Infor Dev, 2013). The challenge here is the loss of organic component of the project.
55
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
The findings from the research indicate that the kitchen gardens at JFK have had a positive effect in food security and nutritional to the workers households. Clearly many people have reduced the buying of vegetables since the introduction of the program. As an organic project which is normally slow in uptake as results have to go through full natural cycles, the results obtained are appreciable. The measure to role of the kitchen gardens were indirectly measured in the comparing the sourcing patterns of the vegetables not only in the in the JFK households but also the relationship with the rural homes in terms of replication.
5.2 Summary of Findings
The kitchen gardens have helped to lower vegetables bought by the JFK workers.
Today 47.9 % of the workers do not buy vegetables compared to 4.2% before the program was initiated. With 99.3 % of the respondents saying that the garden helps them in food security the gardens has an effect in food security. Although 71.1% of the respondents had gardens before the fact that 84.5% have replicated the gardens in their rural homes from their own free will further suggests that they have attached appreciable value to the kitchen garden.
The replication also shows that the program has weathered the typical top-down resistant to innovation uptake. Ninety seven point nine percent of the respondents have learnt a new gardening skill which perhaps explains the high level of replication even with a people who are not new to gardening.
The predominant sukuma wiki garden has been replaced with a mixed garden rich with indigenous vegetables which has helped to improve on nutritional diversity.
Ninety eight point six percent of the respondents feel that the garden has helped them to increase their nutritional diversity.
The biggest challenge cited by the respondents was pest and diseases which is much related to the soil fertility. The respondents wanted pesticides, fertilizers and mulch supplied to them to improve productivity. This response from workers who work in
56
agriculture production fields where such problems are tackled by provision of pesticides, fertilizers, and even high quality seeds is only natural. From the organic layout of the project the project has made tremendous gains in achieving food security and nutritional diversity.
5.3 Conclusion
The Kitchen gardens in JFK have helped to improve the food security and nutritional diversity for the workers. While the management would perhaps have expected a miraculous rollout of the program and immediate uptake by the workers the organic approach is normally slow and results are achieved over a long period of time as the project entails changing the perception of the recipients and worse so in an environment that conflicts with the companies own practices which uses inorganic fertilizers and other chemicals in production. The project has shown that there are yield increases in food production from the system which has lowered procurement from the open market. This is in agreement with other findings that show that organic agriculture increase productivity rather than decreasing in tropical Africa (United
Nations Confrence on Trade and Development, 2008). This is in the quantity of food as food produced by households leads to members of the same household having access to food. The nature of some jobs as well as geographical location deprives workers ample time to go and shop for food. The fact that the garden is adjacent to house gives the worker access to food as and when required. Some vegetables like
Amaranthus only require a fertile open ground to supply to the mankind needs. Here the kitchen garden has acted as a trap to this natural resource for the benefit of mankind.
The organic approach of the kitchen garden innovation at JFK has increased the ability of the workers to use better understanding of the holistic nature of farming that helps them to adapt and change when faced with new challenges and become more resilient in the ever changing environment. This is evident from their replication in their rural homes and the urge to set up similar gardens wherever they will reside. The land tenure issue has been partly shown by this research not to be the main hindrance to food production. The workers do not own the land they are now cultivating. You only need a people friendly policy in handling land and food production like in this
57
case the kitchen garden policy at JFK. The size also demonstrates how one can produce sufficient food in relatively small areas.
The kitchen gardens at JFK are a good example of how one can combine the natural,
Social, physical and human capital to produce enough food for the households in a sustainable way. The kitchen garden is an in situ on site household production with the use of low cost local materials and technologies. This eventually improves self reliance and substitute’s human capital for costly external inputs which agrees with many researchers in this field ((United Nations Confrence on Trade and Development,
2008).
From the research about 71% had kitchen gardens previously which means they were privy to the traditional systems of production that have evolved through centuries and addresses local environmental and cultural conditions. It is then important to continue recognising the recipients wide cognitive abilities and pointing to them where and how their knowledge can be used to address local challenges central to human existence like food security and nutritional diversity.
5.4 Recommendations
5.4.1 Recommendations to JFK
The kitchen garden project is of great value to the workers and should be encouraged.
De-linking the workers from what they do in their daily lives and what they do after work would need a lot of sensitization and reinforcement. Higher levels of success are achievable as enough drive and cue exists within the workers. The total picture of an organic kitchen garden is that, that not only grows plants beneficial to man as food but also should incorporate some animals to achieve the holistic mix required in life. At present the gardens in Kericho are predominantly having plants and efforts to include animals have not fully succeeded. While a few estates in tea are now having chickens the roll out in flower villages has failed. The cure to this is sensitizing of the workers on the benefits of having animals in the system. The key here is to encourage workers to develop a new culture which takes training and reinforcement. There seems to be a tread that households where the heads are involved in working on and maintaining the garden seem to attach a higher value to the gardens. Further research should be
58
carried out to ascertain this phenomenon and help guide the training model for the project. In areas where space available to the households is too small, container vegetables growing can be adopted. Households have many containers which bring other household groceries which can be used in plant production. This would bring such households to per with their colleagues who have enough land space and reduce the feeling of discrimination.
The organic garden can be improved by using Finlays Integrated Pest Management and crop improvements which has inexpensive organic products like Rhizatec and
Vermitec which can improve the indigenous vegetable root system ability to harness water and nutrients and in turn improve both their longevity and productivity
(Dudutech ltd, 2012). Incorporate bone meal in the kitchen garden to address the phosphorous supply to improve the productivity (United Nations Confrence on Trade and Development, 2008). Adopt a more participatory approach where the village team should be given a bigger role in compliance.
5.4.2 Recommendations to other investors in Agriculture
Healthy workers are more productive. Improving productivity, workers health can be achieved as the case of JFK not just by investing in health infrastructure but by adopting such innovations like kitchen gardens. Such innovations improve the workers confidence in their ability to participate in solving their own problems.
Involving workers in producing part of their own food helps to develop effective relationship necessary for harmonious growth. Food security and nutritional diversity is so basic and is a strong foundation for a productive society. The kitchen garden can be an effective motivation tool that would mitigate against workers turnover by giving the workers a sense of belonging.
5.4.3 Recommendations to Government
The kitchen gardens can be a panacea to the vulnerable households in Kenya in providing a form of food security and nutritional diversity. This research showed that there is a lot of potential in the knowledge accumulated in societies over time and only require the right trigger to unlock it for the benefit of the same societies and the nation at large. Encouraging the vulnerable Kenyans to adopt kitchen gardens could be one way to meet the new constitution requirements of ensuring that no one suffers from hunger. Adopting the kitchen garden which identifies with many cultures would also help in achieving the first millennium development goal of ending poverty and
59
hunger as envisaged in the first millennium goal. Disposal of organic waste which is a big headache to municipal authorities can also be eased as the organic waste would be used to fertilize the organic kitchen gardens. The peri- urban agriculture should be encouraged but made as simple as possible taking into consideration the available resources to the vulnerable groups
5.4.4 Recommendations to Development Agents
Most of the development agents today target capacity building without tying it to other productive factors like land. Building competence need to be tied to the opportunities available to the recipients. Proper strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT) need to be carried out for effective and meaningful community development. As captured in this research communities have rich knowledge derived from many decades through society values which only need a trigger to bring the intended change. All we need is to identify those strengths and encourage them to thrive in well planned programs. Reinforcement through well trained personnel is all that is required to change communities. The household labour is one of the biggest assets that the vulnerable groups have for gainful exchange.
Programmes that encourage and tap this asset are bound to be successful.
5.4.5 Further Research
A quantitative research involving the weighing and costing of the vegetables harvested from the gardens would help to shed more light on the impacts in terms of the biomass and the actual cash saved by the households. Correlations between the attendance and food supply value need to be established in a further research to guide the consultants of the target groups in terms of further training.
60
REFERENCES
A GFAX. (2010, june). Vegetable Growing in the Slums . Retrieved july 11/07/2013,
2013, from www.agfax.net: http://www.agfax.net/radio/detail.php?i=347&s=b
Agobia. (1999). Community Draught Mitigation Project,south African region.
Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Agricultural the 21st century style. (2013, july 01/07/2013). facebook . Retrieved july
11/07/2013, 2013, from Agricultural prodct link: https://www.google.co.ke/
Alaimo, K. P. (2008). Food and Vegetable Intake among Urban Community
Gardeners. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, VOL40 , 94-101.
Alexandratos, B. (2012). World agriculture towards 2030/2050.
Rome: FAO.
Alouko-Ondingo, A. (2009). Dertemination of Poverty ; Lessons leant from Kenya.
Geojournal , Vol 74.
Amaroso, T. a. (2012). Combating Micronutrient Deficiencies. FAO .
Asaduzzaman, N. S. (2011). Benefit-Cost Assessment of Different Vegetable
Gardening on improving Household Foood and Nutritional Security in Rural
Bangladesh.
Pittsburgh, Pensylvinia: Agricultural & Applied Economics
Association’s 2011 AAEA & NAREA.
Asiema. (1994). Africa's Green Revolution. Biotechnology and Development Monitor
(No. 19, p. 17-18.), No. 19, p. 17-18.
Beddington, A. F. (2011). Achieving Food Security In the Face of Climate Change.
Copenhagen: Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change.
Berg, A. a. (2011). Gardening Promotes Neuroendocrine and Affective Restoration from Stress. Journal of Health Psychology .
Biodiversity International, Rome. (2006). Workshop on Enhancing the Contribution of Home Garden to On-farm Management of Plant Genetic Resources and to Improve the Livelihoods of Nepalese Farmers: Lessons Learned and Policy Implications.,
Pokhara (Nepal), 6-7 Aug 2004.
Pokhara (Nepal): Biodiversity International.
Burns. (2011). The Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of
Society. AP Environmental Science .
Chaplowe. (1996). Havanas Popular Gardens.
City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban
Agriculture.
Christopher, B. (2006).
Food Aid’s Intended and Unintended.
Rome: Agricultural and
Development Economics Division (ESA).
61
Coast, R. a. (2008). The Concept of the Household: From Survey Design to Policy
Planning.
London: ESRC.
Cotthem. (2012). iiri news . Retrieved from http://www.irrinews.org/Report/95140/PHLLPPINES-OMG-Eat-your-vegetales campaign
Denver Urban Gardens. (2012). Denver Urban Gardens.
Retrieved December 15th,
2012, from Denver Urban Gardens: http://dug.org/gardens/
Department for International Development (DFID) . (2004). Agriculture, hunger and food security.
London: DFID.
Dibsdall, L. B. (2011). Low-income consumers' attitudes and behavior towards access availability and motivation to eat fruit and vegetables. American Journal of Public
Health: August 2011, Vol. 101 , 159-168 .
Dudutech ltd. (2012). Dudutechs Beneficial Insects and Biopesticides. , Nairobi,
Kenya: Finlays Horticulture K ltd.
Encyclopedia.com articles. (2011). Medicine,psychology and psychiatric . Retrieved september 20, 2013, from Encyclopedia.com: www.encyclopedia.com
Eyzaguire, W. a. (2001). Homegardens and In situ Conservation of Plant Genetic material.
ipgri.
Facebook. (2012013, February). https://www.facebook.com/ . Retrieved july thursday,
2013, from Mukilima young: https://www.facebook.com/
FAO. (2005). Building on Gender, Agro-biodiversity and Local Knowledge.
Rome:
FAO.
FAO. (2012). The Sahel Crisis.
Dakar, Senegal: FAO.
FAO. (2012). The State of Hunger.
Rome: JFAD, WFP, FAO.
FAO. (2003). Trade Reforms.
Rome: FAO.
Great Britain Ministry of Food. (1946). How Britain was fed in war time: food control, 1939-1945.
London: Ministry of Food by H.M.S.O., 1946.
Infor Dev. (2013). Climate smart Farming in Kenya . Retrieved September 22, 2013, from http://www.infodev.org/highlights/climate-smart-farming-kenya-yields-successand-many-more-tomatoes: http://www.infodev.org/highlights/climate-smart-farmingkenya-yields-success-and-many-more-tomatoes
Kenya (NESC), T. N. (2007). Globally Competive and Prosperous KenyaVision
2030.
Nairobi: Government printer-kenya government.
62
Kimutai, E. K. (2012). Bacteriological contamination of farm and market kale in
Nairobi and Environs.
Nairobi.
Lathrop, P. C. (1919). Vegetable Gardening;World War 1914-1918.
Philadelphia: J.P.
Lippincott Company.
Mathai, R. J. (1985). The Rural University: The Jawaja Experiment in Educational
Innovation.
Popular Prakashan.
Michael, R. a. (2011). Direct Observation and Key Informant Interview Techniques for primary data collection during rapid assessments.
Better Assessment Better Aid.
Miller. (2012). An Introduction to A Thousand Gardens in Africa.
Berkeley: The
Edible Schoolyard Project.
Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Kenya. (2012). Retrieved decenber
15/12/2012, 2012, from www.kilimo.go.ke: http://www.kilimo.go.ke
Mushi, K. a. (1993). Nutrition-Relevant Actions in Tanzania.
Adelaide: UN
ACC/SCN.
Mwaniki, O. a. (2008). Cataloguing and Evaluation of Available
Community/Farmers-Based Seed Enterprises on African Indigenous Vegetables
(AIVs) FOUR ECA COUNTRIES.
kisumu: Lagrotech Consultants.
National Council for Law Reporting. (2010). Bill of Rights. In K. Government, The
Constitution of Kenya (p. 31). Nairobi: National Council for Law Reporting.
Nerth, H. a. (2005). The World Summit on Sustainable Development.Johanusburg confrence.
Dorderecht, Netherland: Springer.
Ninez. (1984). Household Gardens. Potatoes in food systems , 15.
Ninez. (1984). Household Gardens. Potatoes in Food System .
OECD. (2005, Dec 21). Glosary of statistical terms . (OECD) Retrieved Feb
15/02/2013, 2013, from http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=1873
Oiye, S. a. (2009). The Contribution Of African Leafy Vegetables (Alvs)To Vitamin
A Intake And The Influence Of Income In Rural Kenya . African Journal of Food
Agriculture Nutrition and nutrition .
Oniang’o, O. S. (2009). The Contribution of African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs).
Africa journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development , vol 9 no 6.
Onim, M. (2008). Cataloguing and Evaluation of Available Community/Farmers-
Based Seed Enterprises on African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVS) Four ECA
Countries..
Kisumu: Lagrotech Consultants.
63
Pastakia, O. (2011). livelihood Augementation in Rainfed Areas.
Gujarat, India:
Development surport Centre(DSC).
Phillip, R. (2004). Poverty and Vulnerabilty.
Bonn: ZEF.
Rasanathan, K. (2011). Action on social determinants of health is essential to tackle noncommunicable diseases.
Geneva: WHO.
Remans, F. D. (2003). Assessing Nutritional Diversity of Cropping Systems in
African Villages. Journal.pone.0021235
.
Richman. (1995, JULY 20/07/1995). The International Population Stabilization and
Reproductive Health Act. CATO .
Rogers. (1995). Diffusion of innovations.
Frederick: Free Press.
Scanlan. (2003). Food Availability and Access in Lesser-Industrialized Societies: A
Test and Interpretation of Neo-Malthusian and Technoecological Theories.
Schwarzwalder. (2012). Hunger, Plenty, and Population .
Washington: Family
Research Council.
Shiundu, O. (2007). Marketing African Leafy Vegetables: Challenges and
Opportunities in the Kenyan Context. Afrin Journal of Food, Agriculture,Nutrition and Development , Vol 7 No 4.
Silvia, N. a. (2012). International Food Prices.
ROME: FAO, IFAD,WFP.
Smit, J. N. (2001). Urban Agriculture. Food Jobs and Sustainable Cities .
Smith. (1997). participant observation and informal education.
Retrieved JAN
12/01/2013, 2013, from www.infed.org.
Strochlic. (2011). Increasing Food Security Among Agricultural Workers In The
Salinas Valley Of California. REEIS .
Strochlic, R. (2010). Increasing Food Security Among Agricultural Workers In The
Salinas Valley Of California.
Davis, California: REEIS, USAID.
Thomas. (2010). Food Deserts and the Sociology of Space. International Journal of
Human and Social Sciences .
Tittonell, G. (2012). When yield Gaps are Poverty traps; The Paradigm of Ecological
Intensification In Africa Smallholder Agiculture.
Trochim. (2006, Octomber 20). Research methods Knowldge Base . (Social Recearch
Methods) Retrieved Feb 25, 2013, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/unitanal.php
Turner. (2012). Solution to World Hunger.
Potcom,USA: Food for Life.
64
UN. (2012). Kenya Food Security outlook.
Nairobi: kenya government.
UN. (2013). Millenium Development Goals Beyond 2015.
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals
UN. (2102). Sustainable Development:.
Washington: United Nations.
United Nation. (2013). The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.
New York:
United Nation.
United Nations Confrence on Trade and Development. (2008). Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.
New York and Geneva: United Nations.
United Nations Development Programme. (2013).
Kenya’s Youth Employment
Challenge.
New York: Bureau for Development PolicyUNDP.
University of Arizona. (1998). Container Garden. Vegetable Garden Manual .
University of Arizona.
USAID. (1992, April 13). Defination of Food Security.
Retrieved April 5th, 2013, from www.usaid.gov: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAV468.pdf
USAID. (2012, DEC 14/12/2012). KENYA .COUNTY FACTS SHEET . Retrieved from http://kenya.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/profiles/Kericho_Dec2011%2028.pdf
Wambugu, K. a. (2011). Productivity Treads and Performance of the Dairy Sector.
Wanjek. (2005). Food at Work;WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS FOR MALNUTRITION,.
Geneva: ILO.
WHO. (2004). Comaparative Quantification of Health Risks.
Geneva: WHO.
WHO. (2001). Iron Deficiency Anaemia.
WHO.
Wikipaedia Free Encycropaedai. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy
(2013). Retrieved from
World Bank. (2009). Kenya Poverty and Inequality Assesment.
Washington: World
Bank.
World Carrot Museum. (2012). Carrot History - Carrots in World War Two.
Retrieved Nov 15/11/2012, 2012, from www.carrotmuseum.co.uk: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history4.html
WorldBank. (2011). Poverty.
Washington: World Bank.
Yount. (2006). Populations and Sampling . (Research Design and Statistical Analysis for Christian Ministry) Retrieved Jan 15, 2013, from www.napce.org: http://www.napce.org
65
Youth Agro-Environment Initiative. (2011, SEPTMBER 11TH). Multi-story
Vegetables Gardening for Food Security in Kenya.
Retrieved JULY 20TH, 2013, from Yagrein.blogspot.com: http://yagrein.blogspot.com/2011/09/multi-storeyvegetable-gardens-for-food.html
66
APPENDIX 1
QUESTIONNAIRE
The Role of Kitchen Gardens in Food Security and Nutritional Diversity:
“A Case study of James Finlay Kericho”
Introduction
My name is John Mburu. I am a student at the University of Nairobi sociology department. I have come to your village to ask you about the role of the Kitchen gardens in your household food security and nutrition diversity. The information I will collect could be used by the Company to introduce more innovations that can improve your wellbeing. I would like to use the next 30 to 45 minutes in this exercise.
The information you will give will be treated in strict confidence.
Name........................................................
Village.................................house no............
Date..........................................
1.
Sex?
Male
Female
2.
What is your marital status?
Single
Married
Separated
Divorced
1
Widowed
3.
What is your age bracket?
Below 20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61 and above
4.
What is your level of formal education?
Pre- primary
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Others (specify)
5.
Which department do you work at JFK?
Flower harvester
flower grading and pack house
clerical
Spray and fertigation
General work,
Tea plucking
2
Supervision
Security
Other (specify)_______________________________________
6.
For how long have you worked at JFK?
0-5 YRS
5-10YRS
10-15YR
15-20YRS
OVER 20YRS
7.
Which of the following workers committees/organizations have you served?
none
union
health and safety
Fair trade
Gender
8.
How much do you earn or make per month in Kenya Shillings?
Below 10,000
10,001- 20,000
20,001- 30,000
30,001 and above
3
9.
Do you own land anywhere in Kenya?
Yes
No
10.
Do you own a house or a plot?
Yes
No
11.
Did you have a garden in JFK?
Yes
No
12.
What size is your kitchen garden?
………………………………………………………………..
13.
How did you design your Kitchen garden?.......................................................
14.
Did you get external help in setting your garden
Yes (if yes from whom?)...............
No
15.
Do you still get any help in running your garden?
Yes (if yes from whom?)...............
No
16.
Did you have a garden before you came to JFK
4
YES , if yes where?.................................
NO
17.
How many times do you get your food from the kitchen garden in a week/
once times a week
twice times a week
thrice times a week
more than three a week
18.
What kind of plants do you grow in your Kitchen Garden?.
.............................
19.
Before you started a kitchen garden what vegetables did use to buy?...................................
20.
What vegetables do you still buy after the establishment of the Kitchen garden?...............
21.
Has the Kitchen Garden helped to improve your food supply?
Yes
No
If yes above by how much in a scale of 1 to 5 ( 1being the lowest and 5 the highest)
1
5
2
3
4
5
22.
Has the kitchen gardens improved the variety of food for your household?
Yes
No
No
If yes above by how much in a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 the highest)
1
2
3
4
5
23.
During the lean times did the garden supply your needs?
Yes
No
If yes in a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest
1
2
3
6
4
5
24.
During drought times did the garden supply your needs?
Yes
No
If yes in a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest
1
2
3
4
5
25.
Who attend the Garden?
wife
children
whole family
self
hired labor
26.
Have you learnt any new gardening skill
yes
no
27.
Would you do a kitchen garden after you live employment with JFK?
Yes
7
No
28.
Have you replicated the garden in your rural home?
Yes
No
29.
What challenges do you have in your kitchen Garden?...........................................
30.
How are these challenges being overcomed?............................................................
31.
What improvements do you think would improve the benefits from Kitchen garden?..............................................................................................................
32.
How many times do you buy animal proteins other than milk in a month?
More than 4 times
Four times
Two times
Rarely(less than twice a month)
33.
How much cooking fat/oil do you buy per month in kgs /liters
6
4
2
1
Less than 1
8
34.
How many times do you eat fruits a(Avocadoes, bananas, mangoes, papaws, passion etc) per week
Daily
>three times
Twice
<twice
35.
In the last 30 days did you or any household member eat any food that you did not want just because you did not have resources?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
36.
In the last 30 days did you worry that your household will not have enough food?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
37.
In the last 30 days did you or member of your household had to eat lesser meals in a day because there were no enough food?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
9
Often (more than 10 times)
38.
In the last 30 days did it happen that there was no food to eat of any kind in the house because of resources
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
39.
In the last 30 days did it happen that you or any of the household member had to eat a smaller meal that you felt you needed just because there was no enough food?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
40.
In the last 30 days did it happen that you or any member of the household went to sleep at night hungry because there was no food?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
10
41.
In the last 30 days did it happen that you or any of your household members went for a whole day and night without eating anything because there was not enough food?
None
Rarely (one or twice)
sometimes (3-10 times)
Often (more than 10 times)
11
APPENDIX II
KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW GUIDE
The Role of Kitchen Gardens in Food Security and Nutritional Diversity: “A
Case study of James Finlays Kericho”
Name of interviewer: __________________________________________
Date of the interview: __________________________________________
Name of the community leader ____________________________________
Role in the Community; _____________________________________________
1.
How were the kitchen gardens set up?
2.
When were the kitchen gardens set up in James Finlays?
3.
What were the objectives of setting up the gardens?
4.
What kind of plants is found in these gardens?
5.
What was the food security position (food supply) before the kitchen gardens were introduced?
6.
Has the Kitchen Gardens made any change to the food supply?
7.
In what ways have gardens improved the variety of food to the participants?
8.
What benefits do participants get from the kitchen gardens?
9.
What was the position of food varieties (Nutritional diversity) to the workers before the gardens were introduced?
10.
Are there any changes in variety food (nutritional diversity) to the workers after gardens were introduced?
11.
What kind of problems do workers face in implementing the kitchen gardens?
12.
In your view how can these problems be addressed?
12
APPENDIX III
FGD GUIDE
The Role of Kitchen Gardens in Food Security and Nutritional Diversity:
“A Case study of James Finlays Kericho”
My name is John Mburu. I am a student at the University of Nairobi sociology department. I have come to your village to ask you about the role of the Kitchen gardens in your household food security and nutrition diversity. The information I will collect could be used by the Company to introduce more innovations that can improve your wellbeing. I would like to use the next 30 to 45 minutes in this exercise.
In our discussion try to be as objective as possible and give all speakers the right to express themselves fully without fear. The information you will give will be treated in strict confidence.
Ice breaker/introduction
Which department and area of expertise do you come from?
What is a kitchen garden to you?
How is the kitchen garden designed?
What inputs do you need for a kitchen garden?
Which plants are grown in the kitchen garden?
Where do you participants get planting materials?
In what ways Have kitchen gardens improved food security (supply of food to workers)?
Have the kitchen gardens improved nutritional diversity? If yes how?
What challenges do kitchen gardens face?
How can these challenges be solved?
What are your thoughts on the way forward
13
14
