Home Gardens for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods
Earthscan Food and Agriculture Series

Home Gardens for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods demonstrates how home gardens hold particular significance for resource-poor and marginalized communities in developing countries, and how they offer a versatile strategy toward building local and more resilient food systems.

With food and nutritional security being a major global challenge, there is an urgent need to find innovative ways to increase food production and diversify food sources while increasing income-generating opportunities for communities faced with hunger and poverty. This book shows that when implemented properly, home gardens can become just such an innovative solution, as well as an integral part of sustainable food security programs. It provides a conceptual overview of social, economic, environmental and nutritional issues related to home gardening in diverse contexts, including gender issues and biodiversity conservation, and presents case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America highlighting home gardening experiences and initiatives. The volume concludes with a synthesis of key lessons learned and ways forward for further enhancing home gardens for sustainable food security and development.

This book will be a useful read for students and scholars working on local food systems, food security, sustainable development and more broadly development strategy.

Preface and Acknowledgement, List of tables, figures, boxes and photos, List of contributors, Foreword by Ruddell Freed, 1. Understanding the Global Practice of Home Gardening, 2. Home Gardens for Nutritional Security of Men, Women and Children, 3. Keeping it Close to Home: Home Gardens and Biodiversity Conservation, 4. Gender and Home Gardens: Towards Food Security and Women’s Empowerment, 5. Home gardens for Better Health and Nutrition in Mozambique, 6. Home Garden Experiences in Costa Rica, 7. Bio-innovations towards Sustainable Agriculture: Success Stories from India, 8. Home Gardens as a Resilience Strategy for Enhancing Food Security and Livelihoods in Post–Crisis Situations: A Case Study of Sri Lanka, 9. Complementarity Between Home Gardening and Livestock Production System in Nepal, 10. Kitchen Vegetable Gardens for Food and Nutritional Security of Poorest in Rural India–Experiences of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, 11. Lessons Learned and the Way Forward on Home Gardens, Index

D. Hashini Galhena Dissanayake is Assistant Professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and James Madison College.

Karimbhai M.  Maredia is Professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University.