“Kitchen Gardening and
Role in Economics”
Presented to : Dr. Zahoor Ahmed Sajid
Presented by : Muhammad Mushtaq
M.Phil. (Regular)
Roll # 05
CONTENTS
Kitchen gardening concept
Particularities of kitchen gardening
Basic steps of home gardening
Examples of plants of kitchen gardening
Role of kitchen gardening in Economics
kitchen gardening in Pakistan and Economical role
Future concerns
3
What is Kitchen gardening?
‘Kitchen gardening’ is
defined as to grow food
(vegetables, herbs and
some fruits) in or around the
house for household use
(Evans & Jespersen 2001).
4
Concept of kitchen gardens
In fact, most researchers acknowledge that there cannot be
a standard definition of home gardens, given their
diversity (Kumar & Nair, 2004).
Particular system of supplementary food production at
small-scale managed by the members of the household,
consisting of a variety of plant and animal species that
mimic the natural ecosystem (Hoogerbrugge & Fresco,
1993), (Eyzaguirre & Linares, 2010), (Krishna, 2006).
5
Characteristics of a Home garden
Michelle and Hanstad (2004) enlisted following intrinsic characteristics
of home gardens:
1) are located near the residence;
2) contain a high diversity of plants enough for balanced food;
3) production is supplemental rather than a main source of family
consumption and income;
4) occupy a small area; and
5) are a production system that the poor can easily enter at some level.
6
Particularities of Kitchen gardening
Production target household consumption
Source of work family (women, children, elderly)
Occupancy part – time
Harvest frequency daily, seasonal
Use of space horizontal or vertical
Location Near/ within the house
Harvesting structure Irregular
Technology simple hand tools
Inputs costs Low
Areal rural and urban
Experience horticultural and gardening skills
Specialized assistance minimal or non-existent
Adaptation after Niñez VK, 1985, quoted in Galhena et al, 2013 7
Basic Steps of Kitchen gardening
Site selection
Select your plants
Preparation of soil
Design a plan
Sowing and transplanting
Watering
Keep weeds out
Give space to your plants
Use of fertilizers
harvesting 8
Site selection
near to residence
plenty of sunlight
Proximity of water
Ample space
Level area
May be containers
9
Select your plants
Select what to grow
New growers easy to grow
e.g. carrots, beans, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce.
Some compatible combination:
e.g. Basil, Chives & Pepper
Eggplant, Beans, Thyme & Spinach
Tomatoes, Basil & Marigold
10
Preparation of soil
Loosen the land 10-12
inches
Not should be too wet
Mix the compost and
manure
Check the acidity and
alkalinity of soil
11
Design a plan
Different growing seasons for different plant
Don’t sow all seeds at the same time.
12
Crop planning
Month Crop A Crop B Crop C Crop D Crop E
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
June
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
13
Sowing and Transplanting
In case of direct sowing, it
is good to sow seeds 7-14
days after compost filling.
Sow 3-4 seeds in a 2-3 cm
deep trench in case of pots.
After a month of
germination, a healthier
seedling should be kept, and
the rest should be removed.
14
Source: JICA Project team
Transplanting
In case of transplanting seedlings, it
should 7-10 cm tall with 4 - 5 true
leaves in each seedling.
Water before transplanting
In case of growing more than one
pumpkin plant, bottle gourd or sponge
gourd, the space should be at least 1.2
– 2.4 meter apart. Cucumber varieties
can be spaced 0.9 meter apart.
15
Watering
Furrow irrigation Sprinkler watering Drip irrigation
16
Precautions for Watering
Do not ever let the soil completely dry out as cucurbits family plants
need a lot of water.
Collecting the wastewater from kitchen and bathroom can also be
used for the vegetable in kitchen garden.
Wastewater from dish washing utensils and bathroom can be
collected by digging small pit or in a plastic tank or bucket.
water in the morning
Water the vegetables in the base.
17
Keep the weeds out
Preventive measures tillage mulching
18
Give space to your plants
Thinning Pruning
19
Fertilizers
Can be purchased.
Mostly organic fertilizer used in kitchen gardening.
Commercial NPK
Organic fertilizer
20
Harvesting
Harvest when fully
ripened.
Neither too early nor
too late.
Leave a bit of stem
(the peduncle) attached
to the fruit.
21
Summer vegetables
Names Ways to use/consume
Cucumber Salad, pickles
Pumpkin Shoots and curry
Bitter gourd Pickles, curry
Sponge gourd Curry
Bottle gourd Curry
Tomato Chutney, curry
Lettuce Leafy green
22
Winter vegetables
name Way to use
Cabbage Curry
Cauliflower Curry
Radish pickles, Curry
Broad leaf Mustard Leafy green
Green
Kidney bean Curry, Pulse
Fava bean / Horse Gram Curry. Pulse
Coriander Pickles, Spice
Onion Spice
Garlic Spice
Turmeric Spicer
Fenugreek green (methi) Leafy green, Spice
23
Potato Pickles, Curry
How to make the work easier in the Kitchen
Garden?
Domestic wastewater collection can be used for irrigation in the
kitchen garden
Ash, water, hair, etc. Composting re-sources from the house to the
land
Seeds from the garden to house and from house to garden
Sweepings from the house and courtyard
Liquid manure also used to control pests and disease
Mulch material from the live fence and edges
Fodder from the land and live fence, and compost returned to the land
24
Role of kitchen gardening in Economics
By studying a number of cases, Mitchell and Hanstad (2004)
indicated that family gardens contribute to the economic well-being
of households in several ways:
Self employment
Their products can be sold to earn extra income (Eyzaguirre &
Linares, 2010) (Ninez, 1985);
The savings a household makes by consuming its own products can
be targeted for other family friendly purposes.
25
Self employment
In traditional settings, any member of the household can
be found in the garden, and adult men and women,
children and the elderly often have specialized roles in
home gardening (Brownrigg 1985).
Women contributed 80% and 75% of the total labor for
managing kitchen gardens in Dodoma and Morogoro,
respectively (Rybak et al, 2018).
26
Extra income
Vietnamese mountain families earned more than 22% of
their income through gardening activities (Trinh et al.,
2003).
Also, a study on a South-East Nigerian region reported
that home gardens products (vegetables, fruits and
animals) accounted for more than 60% of the household
income (Okigbo, 1990).
27
Kitchen gardening in Pakistan
Pakistan is blessed with a variety of climatic and geographic
regions, which create diversified agro-ecological conditions
suitable for growing almost all kinds of vegetables.
The total crop area of Pakistan is about 22.94 million hectares.
Out of which vegetables and condiments in Kitchen gardens
are grown on 0.35 and 0.18 million hectares, respectively
which is about 2.30 % of total crop area.
Punjab contributes its share in area by 52 %,
Sindh 26.15 %,
KPK 10.85 % and
Balochistan 11 % of the total area under vegetable crops.
28
Economic importance
Environmentalists argue that not only does eating home-
grown vegetables and fruit protect health, but it also helps
save money. Environmentalist Dr Jawad Chishtie said that
at the moment most families in Pakistan spend 60 to 70
percent of their budget on food. (Dawn Newspaper-4 Nov
2014).
29
Kitchen Gardening Helps Fight Poverty
The biggest example ever
about the role of Kitchen
Gardening in economy
“The story of a woman,
named Shehzadi”
Wazir Bux Khoso Village, Kashmor
District of Sindh Province.
(FAO)
30
Future Concerns
The global population is growing at a rapid rate and is
expected to reach over 9 billion by 2050 (Ghanem 2010).
The need to feed the continually growing population is
crucial.
It has been projected that average daily energy need could
reach 3050 kcal (equal to 375 gram veg) per person by
2050 requiring global food production to increase by 70%
(Grofova & Srnec, 2012).
31
Conclusion
From overall literature review it is concluded that
kitchen gardening is a small scale agricultural
practice with very low investment and providing
food security and enhancing economic growth.
32
References:
Alexandratos N: World Food And Agriculture to 2030/2050: Highlights and Views From mid-2009. Rome,
Italy: In Proceedings from FAO Expert Meeting on How to Feed the World in 2050; 2009
Evans C, Jespersen J. 2001. Kitchen garden. “Near the House – Zones 1-2” Chap. 2, The Farmers’
Handbook (Vol. 2).
Food and Agriculture Organization: World Agriculture: Towards 2030/2050. Rome, Italy: Interim report;
2006.
Galhena et al.: Home gardens: a promising approach to enhance household food security and wellbeing.
Agriculture & Food Security 2013 2:8.
Ghanem, H. (2010). The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010: Addressing Food Insecurity in
Protracted Crises. 2010: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Girard, A. W., Self, J. L., McAuliffe, C., & Olude, O. (2012). The effects of household food production
strategies on the health and nutrition outcomes of women and young children: A systematic review.
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 26(S1), 205– 222.
Hoogerbrugge I, Fresco LO: Homegarden Systems: Agricultural Characteristics and Challenges. London,
UK: International Institute for Environment and Development; 1993. Gatekeeper Series No. 39.
33
Landauer K, Brazil M. editors. 1985. Tropical Home Gardens: Selected Papers from an International
Workshop at the Institute of Ecology. Japan: Padjadjaran University, Indonesia, December 1985, United
Nations University Press.
Landon-Lane C: Livelihoods Grow in Gardens - Diversifying Rural Income Through Home Garden, Volume
2. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2011
Mitchell R, Hanstad T: Small Homegarden Plots and Sustainable Livelihoods for the Poor. Rome, Italy: LSP
Working Paper 11; 2004
Niñez VK: Household gardens: theoretical and policy considerations. Agr Syst 1987, 23:167–186.
Rowe WC. 2009. “Kitchen Gardens” in Tajikistan: the economic and cultural importance of small-scale
private property in a Post-Soviet society. Hum Ecol. 37:691–703.
Rybak, C., Mbwana, H. A., Bonatti, M., Sieber, S., & Müller, K. (2018). Status and scope of kitchen
gardening of green leafy vegetables in rural Tanzania: implications for nutrition interventions. Food
Security, 10(6), 1437-1447.
United States Department of Agriculture: Definitions of Food Security. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-
nutrition-assistance/food-security-inthe-us/measurement.aspx (accessed January 2013)
34
