Factors Affecting Home Gardening as a Source of Enhancing Household Food Security: A Case Study in Mirigama Ds Division

Home gardens can make a significant contribution in meeting daily household needs for better nutrition and health. The study was based on primary data consisting of hundred and fifteen households in Mirigama DSD selected through stratified random sampling. A questionnaire survey and a site observation was conducted to collect information and to evaluate home gardens respectively. Evaluation and grading was done based on a predefined criterion. Chi-Square test was applied to examine the relationship between the severity of the factors based on the interviews, and the grades obtained. Results obtained implied that frequency of involvement in home gardening activities, proportion of land used for food crop production, pest and diseases, crop damage due to wild animals, basic knowledge in agricultural practices, knowledge on methods of obtaining quality seeds and planting materials, basic knowledge in animal husbandry, influence by the government assistance and women participation had a significant relationship with the level of home gardening. (


ABSTRACT
Home gardens can make a significant contribution in meeting daily household needs for better nutrition and health. The study was based on primary data consisting of hundred and fifteen households in Mirigama DSD selected through stratified random sampling. A questionnaire survey and a site observation was conducted to collect information and to evaluate home gardens respectively. Evaluation and grading was done based on a predefined criterion. Chi-Square test was applied to examine the relationship between the severity of the factors based on the interviews, and the grades obtained. Results obtained implied that frequency of involvement in home gardening activities, proportion of land used for food crop production, pest and diseases, crop damage due to wild animals, basic knowledge in agricultural practices, knowledge on methods of obtaining quality seeds and planting materials, basic knowledge in animal husbandry, influence by the government assistance and women participation had a significant relationship with the level of home gardening.
( Key words : Home gardening, Food Security, Evaluating Home gardens) 22

Background
The global population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. To cater the increasing demand for food with the rising population, there is a continuous need to increase food production and buffer stocks. In this scenario, countries around the world are resorting to various counter strategies to meet the growing demand and to avert food insecurity and famine. Over the recent years there has been growing interest to strengthen and intensify local food production in order to mitigate the adverse effects of global food shocks and food price volatilities.
Consequently, there is much attention towards home gardens as a strategy to enhance household food security and nutrition.
Food security is considered as a key factor to achieve "zero hunger" among the sustainable development goals. Over the past decade national agricultural policies were implemented with considerable emphasis on ensuring food security in household level. Improving availability of healthy and nutrient rich fruits and vegetables at a lower cost were among the objectives targeted through promoting home gardening and providing inputs and knowledge to encourage households to maintain home gardens.
During the past years, several government programs "Api wawamu Rata Regardless of the financial provisions and government intervention taken place in improving the food and nutrition level of households through home gardening promotion programs, a reliable mechanism has not been empowered to monitor the actual ultimate outcome of the allocated resources. According to the World Health Organization, the recommended level of daily consumption of fruits and vegetables is, a minimum of 400 g per person for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases. But the daily fruit and vegetable consumption level of an adult in Sri Lanka is 276 g which is far less than this recommended level. ( Perera & Madhujith, 2012).
According to the micronutrient survey carried out by the UNICEF, the percentage of anemic (Hb ,11.0 g/dl) children among 6 -59 months in Sri Lanka is 15.

Research Problem
Home gardening programs implemented by the government haven't brought a significant impact either on economic or social lives of people in Sri Lanka. Even though the inputs for home gardening are provided free of charge, the ultimate objective of enhancing the nutritional level of people by increased fruit and vegetable consumption is not achieved.
Even though the statistics reveal that larger segment of the population engage in home gardening, these figures do not directly reflect the home gardens contribution for uplifting the food security of the house hold. The household food security survey conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics reveals that the proportion of vegetables obtained through own produce is 9.3 per cent while 87.3per cent is obtained by purchases. According to this survey, only 24.8per cent of the total fruit consumption is obtained by own produce while 68.7per cent is obtained by purchases. (Department of Census and Statistics, 2017) These figures conclude that neither the available 61.5 per cent of home gardens scattered all over the country nor the government intervention and financial allocations for inputs have reached the ultimate objective of increasing the nutrition security through household food production.

Objectives
 To assess the level of home gardening in Mirigama division  To examine the constraints for food production in home gardens  To identify the main factors affecting home gardening as a source of enhancing food security This paper aims at identifying the factors affecting the food production in home gardens while examining the overall performance of home gardens in Mirigama DS Division

LITERATURE REVIEW Present status of food insecurity in Sri Lanka
Households with sfficient amount of nutritious food for regular consumption is considered to be a household with food security. The most prominent reason for food insecurity is considered as the unexpected price fluctuations of the food commodities. A survey conducted by the department of census and statistics reveals that the foremost reason for food insecurity in Sri Lanka is the unexpected price flutuations of food commodities as stated by 57 percent of the total respondents, while the second major reason is adverse weather conditions. The strategy used by majority of the food insecure households to ivercome food insecurity has been revealed as depennding on low cost food regardless of the nutritional requirement. Out of the total population, 61.5per cent households in Sri Lanka engage in home gardening. In Gampaha district 57.6 per cent of the population engage in home gardening. The village areas contribute for 87.8 per cent while urban sector and estate sector contributes for 9 per cent and 3per cent respectively for the total home gardens in the country.

Home Gardening in Sri Lanka
(Department of Census and Statistics, 2017)

Challenges for Home gardens
Lack of land has been identified as a common limitation for home gardening in many of the previous studies. For families without adequate and secure access to land, lack of land is the single most important barrier to home gardening. (Brownrigg, 1985) According to

Home gardening as a determinant of food security
In countries and regions that frequently suffer serious food shortages, such as those prone to drought, programmes in the agricultural sector are frequently complemented by public measures such as income and employment generation programmes and direct food transfers as a means of stabilizing household food security and maintaining nutrition levels for the poorest. A cost-effective but organizationally more demanding alternative, however, is a system of direct nutrition interventions. Community participation in achieving household level food security has been identified as a strategy to overcome food shortage which is prevalent in most of the African countries.

Evaluating home gardens
Although home gardens have been extensively described, in previous studies, Nair, 2001 has stated that there is a lack of quantitative data about their benefits. The main reason that they have not been studied is that rigorous, widely applicable methodologies are not available, and those that have been developed for single-species systems are not applicable to such complex systems (Nair, 2001).
The Ministry of Agriculture, Sri Lanka with collaboration with the Department of Agriculture has developed an evaluation criterion Capacity to produce food that is nutritionally adequate and safe through income, own production and transfers

Sustainable Access
Households are able to produce, purchase and obtain through transfers sufficient food in a manner consistent with sustainable resource use and management and maintenance of productive assets Households are able to produce, a daily basket of safe nutritionally adequate food to meet the nutritional needs of each household member Mechanism to stabilize the capacity to procure food continually, particularly in times of timely shortfalls and in crises faced by households

Household Food Security
Stability of flow to assess the home gardens considering all the key features related to food production in a home garden. This evaluation criterion was selected for the study purpose as it can be considered a more reliable measure to identify the level of home gardening as food production unit.

Components of the evaluation criterion for home gardens
This evaluation system consists of fourteen main factors to measure the level of a home garden as a food production system. The factors are as follows.

Proportion of land used for food crops
The proportion of land used for growing food crop out of the available land area of the household was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. (Table 2) The Chi-Square p -value (0.00045) is less than 0.05. Therefore, Ho is rejected. This implies that the proportion of land extent used for food crop cultivation has a significant relationship with the grade obtained for home gardening.

Frequency of Involvement in Home gardening
The involvement in activities of home gardening was observed as a frequency ranging from daily to rare. The frequency of involvement in home gardening activities was examined based on the sequence of involvement eg: daily or 6-7 days per week, 4-5 days per week, 2-3 days per week, only one day per week or rarely. The results obtained were tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The Chi-Square p -value (0.000) is less than 0.05. Therefor Ho can be rejected. This implies that frequency of involvement in home gardening activities has a significant relationship with the grades obtained for home gardening.

Pest and Diseases
The severity of the pest and disease problem was tested against the grade obtained. The Chi-Square p -value (0.0010) is less than 0.05. Therefore Ho can be rejected. This implies that severity of the pest and disease problem has a significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening. Table 4 depicts the cross-tabulation results of severity of the pest and disease problem against the grades obtained for home gardening.

Crop damages due to wild animals
The severity of the problem of crop damages due to wild animal attacks was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The Chi-Square p-value (0.003) is less than 0.05. Therefor Ho can be rejected. This implies that damage due to wild animal attacks has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening.  problem for the improvement of food production in home gardens.
Therefore, the results reveal that the damage due to wild animals in home gardens needs considerable attention though it is sometime being neglected.

Knowledge in basic agricultural practices
Basic knowledge on agricultural practices such as land preparation, seedling establishment, seed bed preparation, pest and disease management are essential for maintaining a better home garden.
The level of knowledge on basic agricultural practices was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The Chi-Square p-value (0.016) is less than 0.05. Therefor Ho can be rejected. This implies that knowledge on basic agricultural practices has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening. Table 6 depicts the cross tabulation results of knowledge level on basic agricultural practices against the grades obtained for home gardening.

Basic Knowledge of Animal Husbandry
Availability or unavailability of basic knowledge in animal husbandry was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening.
The Chi-Square p-value (0.002) is less than 0.05. Therefore, Ho can be rejected. This implies that basic knowledge in animal husbandry has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening.

Knowledge on methods of obtaining quality seeds and planting material
Availability or unavailability of knowledge on method of obtaining quality seeds and planting material for own home garden was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The Chi-Square p-value (0.023) is less than 0.05. Therefore Ho can be rejected. This implies that awareness on method of obtaining quality seed and planting materials has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening. Table 8 depicts the cross tabulation results of knowledge level on method of obtaining quality seeds and planting materials against the grades obtained for home gardening. home garden were aware of sources to obtain quality seed and planting material.

Influence by government assistance
The level of assistance provided by the government for improving the quality of home garden was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The sufficiency or insufficiency of the government assistance provided to improve the home garden was examined based on responses ranging from "Sufficient" to "Highly insufficient". The Chi-Square p-value (0.001) is less than 0.05.
Therefore Ho can be rejected. This implies that assistance provided by the government has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening. Table 9 depicts the cross-tabulation results of the level of government assistance against the grades obtained for home gardening. The results on basic knowledge in agricultural practices ( see Table 6) further confirms this interpretation of the nature of the assistance provided.
While providing more assistance and knowledge for the better home gardens for maintaining their food security level and sustainability, this study highlights the need of uplifting the supportive mechanism to empower and motivate lower level home gardens. Nearly 45 per cent of the total sample has stated that the assistance provided by the government to improve the quality of the home garden is sufficient or moderately sufficient. None of the households having Grade 1 home gardens has claimed the assistance provided by the government as "insufficient" or "highly insufficient".
But 9 out of the 12 households having Grade 4 home gardens have stated that the assistance provided by the government as "insufficient" or "highly insufficient". This indicates that government assistance on improving home gardening has been more accessible for high grade home gardens than for the lower grade home gardens. The majority of the people having a positive attitude towards the government assistance were already having a high or moderate level home garden with regard to enhancing food security. This offers some important insight to the home gardening promotion programs implemented by both government and non-government organizations in prioritizing activities and identifying the beneficiaries.

Women Participation
The gender of the households involved in home gardening was tested against the grade obtained for home gardening. The Chi-Square p-value (0.025) is less than 0.05. Therefor Ho can be rejected.
This implies that gender of the households engaged in home gardening has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening.  home gardens too was initiated by women. Accordingly, we can conclude that even though the women participation has a significant impact upon the grade obtained, the women participation alone would not lead to higher levels of home gardening.

Other factors considered in this study but not significant
The severity of the problem of adverse effects of climate

Pest and Disease Problem
A greater percentage of the respondents out of the total population have claimed that pest and diseases as major problem (26.8per cent) or as a moderate problem (40.1per cent). Higher proportion of these respondents was having grade 3 home gardens.
Accordingly, these observations indicate that pest and disease problem might adversely affect the overall improvement of the home garden, ultimately leading to a lower grading of the home garden. This issue has been observed mostly among the lower grade home gardeners as they a more prone to lack of knowledge in preventive and control measures used to reduce the loss of productivity due to pests and diseases which is a common problem at any level of cultivation. Therefor the higher number of responses claiming pest and disease problem as major or a moderate problem, inevitably draws our attention to the underlying causes of lacking the knowledge on pest and disease control measures.
The respondents facing "major" or "moderate" problems related to pest and diseases were hardly aware of natural pest control measures and methods of identifying the real cause of the pest or disease condition.
This knowledge gap has adversely affected the level of production as well as the psychological benefits that could be gained through maintaining a productive home garden.

Damage due to wild animals
Higher percentage of the sample have stated damage due to wild anima attack is a "strong" or a "moderate" problem that restricts the progress of their home garden. The wild squirrel, porcupine and monkeys were the animal with a highest destructive effect according to the statements of the respondents. Loss of production and damages done to the cultivation at the developing stage negatively effect on the overall production of the home garden and demotivate the people engaged in home gardening.

Knowledge Gaps
Based on the analysis, lack of relevant guidance on key areas of establishing and developing a home garden can be identified as a constraint to achieve higher level in home gardening. As an example Lack of knowledge in animal husbandry has been identified as a factor affecting the overall food production of home garden, only 34.8per cent of the total population was having basic knowledge in animal husbandry. Only 6 households (5per cent) were performing milk or egg production.
Moreover, severity of the pest and disease problem has been identified as a significant factor affecting the level of home gardening. This implies that relevant knowledge at different stages of home gardening has not been delivered to majority of the households.
67.9per cent of the total population have stated that pest and disease problem is a major or a moderate issue limiting the overall performance The respondents having better home gardens were more connected with the agriculture extension services while the lower grade home gardeners did not have a good relationship with the extension services. Therefore, strengthening the links between the beneficiaries and extension service providers is of fundamental importance in developing home gardens.

SUMMERY AND CONCLUSION
This study provides evidence to conclude following aspects as factors having significant impact on home gardening with regard to enhancing household food security. The proportion of land extent used for food crop cultivation has a significant relationship with the level of home gardening. But the total land area available for home gardening does not have a significant impact upon the level of home gardening. Damage due to wild animal attacks has significant impact upon the level of home gardening. The knowledge on basic agricultural practices has significant impact upon level of home gardening.
Assistance provided by the government has significant impact upon the grades obtained for home gardening. Government assistance on improving home gardening has been more accessible for high grade home gardens than for the lower grade home gardens.
Women participation has a significant impact upon the level of home gardening. This findings has been confirmed by previouse studies.
According to Marsh (1998) Olajide-Taiwo B., 2010) Based on the above factors, following constraints can be identified with regard to developing home gardens for enhancing household food security. Pest and disease problem, damage due to wild animals, low proportionate use of land and lack of appropriate guidance at different stages of home garden can be concluded as limitations for food production in home gardening.