Abstract
ABSTRACTThis study quantifies the impact and cost-effectiveness of training poor rural women in Bangladesh in home gardening and nutrition. We use baseline and follow-up data for 646 intervention and control households and apply a difference-in-difference estimator. We find that the intervention significantly (p < 0.01) increased vegetable production (+16.5 g/person/day), vegetable consumption and the micronutrient supply from the garden. Using the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) approach, we show that the intervention can be considered cost-effective in abating iron, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies. Home garden interventions can therefore make an effective contribution to addressing micronutrient undernutrition.
Highlights
There is growing interest in the potential of home-based food production to address micronutrient undernutrition in developing countries (e.g. Keatinge et al 2012; Olney et al 2015; Weinberger 2013)
Since 2011, the Center has worked with two local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement home gardens as part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project
A comparison of data between the control and intervention groups (Table 3) shows that women who received the training made a large number of changes to how they managed their home garden
Summary
Poor women are trained how to grow crops rich in micronutrients on small plots of land near their homestead, and how to do this year-round. Women are assumed to establish a home garden (or improve an existing one) and address production constraints such as water supplies, labour time, pest control and basic input supplies. This leads to increased production of micronutrient-rich food, while households are assumed to consume most of it rather than sell it. Compelling the basic concept, the evidence base for the link between home garden interventions and nutrition outcomes is small
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