According to Vandana Shiva’s “Poverty and Globalisation” BBC Reith 2000 Lecture, the biodiversity of traditional home gardens is staggering.¹ Shiva mentions that “[Javanese] small farmers cultivate 607 species in their home gardens,” while “rural families in Congo eat the leaves of more than 50 species of trees.”² Nevertheless, the productivity of these home gardens, which are mostly run by women farmers, has not been fully appreciated.

In Indonesia, Shiva explains that 20 percent of household incomes and 40 percent of domestic food supplies are contributed by home gardens managed by women.³ Furthermore, she cites an example where Mayan farmers in Chiapas “are regarded as unproductive” because of modest corn yields of 2 tons per acre, yet they successfully harvest 20 tons of food per acre when diverse varieties of beans, squashes and fruit trees are taken into account.⁴

How can such an important sector of our agricultural economy be underestimated? Have our measurement of agricultural potential in developing countries misled policy-makers? Shiva explains that women’s economic contributions have been traditionally underestimated by the market, especially in farming.⁵ Furthermore, the majority of home garden produce in developing countries finds its way to the consumer through the informal sector. Because most of the food supply chain involves only cottage-level industries and seasonal traders, records of government taxation are almost nonexistent. Thus, home grown produces are in fact invisible agricultural forces in many nations.

Nevertheless, both urbanization and intensification of agriculture disfavor the production model offered by these industrious households. Throughout the world, the last parcels of home gardens may no longer be viewed as sources of nourishment, but as sellable pieces of property. The demand put on women to work full-time alongside their husbands has sent mothers from villages to factories and urban service industries, away from the fragile nutritional treasure that is their backyard. Children no longer grow up learning the environmental knowledge that their communities once prized as a tool for survival.

Reversing this trend will require a coordinated grassroots movement that supports the establishment of community gardens in place of individual home gardens. In addition to providing an alternative source of food and herbal medicines, these shared green enclaves can provide much needed water catchment surface and public spaces that are in short supply throughout the world’s fastest growing regions.

1) 1) Vandana Shiva, “Poverty and Globalisation.” BBC Reith 2000 Lectures No. 5, May 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture5.stm (Accessed June 28^th, 2010)

2) 2) Idem

3) 3) Idem

4) 4) Idem

5) 5) Idem

References:

Shiva, Vandana. “Poverty and Globalisation.” BBC Reith 2000 Lectures No. 5. May 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture5.stm (Accessed June 28^th, 2010)