Helping gardens grow
Somawathi Gunapala, from Pillanduwa village, in central Sri Lanka picks ripe snake beans from the vegetable garden she has established with four other community members, with Oxfam Australia’s support Photo: Maureen Bathgate/OxfamAUS
Environmentally friendly home gardens are helping poor families in Sri Lanka grow more food to eat and earn an income.
Quintos Andesinghe walks in from the garden, his face beaded with sweat, a warm toothy smile spread across his face. In his hands, he holds a metal dish piled high with freshly-picked vegetables — purple eggplants, bright green bitter melons and long yellow snake-beans.
“We don’t buy any vegetables from the shops now,” he says. “All our vegetable needs are met right here in our garden. If we have any extra, we sell them. Our life has improved.”
Quintos is one of five community members from Pillanduwa village, near Kegalle, in central Sri Lanka, who have joined forces to establish a model home garden with the training and support of Oxfam Australia partner Development Communication Foundation.
Janapada
Villages in this region are what are known as Janapada. Janapada communites, inhabited by landless poor who settled in the hills of Warakapola in the central province of Sri Lanka, are some of the poorest in Sri Lanka. The geography of the region makes it very difficult to create a viable income from it. Uncontrolled population increases have resulted in extensive deforestation and soil erosion affects much of the land. There is severe water scarcity during the dry months of the year. The slopes themselves are infertile and unable to support families. The people of the region are therefore highly vulnerable to exploitation. They lack an awareness of the factors causing them to live in poverty, and are not self organised within their community.
Since 1999 Oxfam Australia has supported the Development Communication Foundation in its work with the Janapada communities. DCF has extended its activities into other villages of the Kegalle district in the Sabaragamuwa province. The gardening program is designed to reduce poor families' day-to-day food expenses, and ensure that there is more food available to eat within their communities, promoting good health through good nutrition.
Photo: Maureen Bathgate/OxfamAUS
Gardens program
Under the program, families learn how to grow traditional vegetables, fruits and herbs using environmentally-friendly gardening techniques. As well as receiving start-up seeds and plants, they are taught how to create small kitchen gardens using coconut husks, plastic sheeting, plant waste, animal manure and compost; improve soil fertility; prevent soil erosion; and make organic fertiliser and chemical-free pesticides. This training is combined with education in better rainwater harvesting techniques, food processing and good nutrition, as well as support to build wells and access local markets so they can sell any excess produce.
So far more than 5,000 families across Sri Lanka have been involved in the home gardening program, with more than 80 per cent going on to start home gardens.
Benefits of the program
Development Communication Foundation trainer Dipika Priyadarshini says that the home gardens are placed next to the home so that kitchen waste such as rice water, vegetable scraps, waste water and cooking ash can be discarded onto it.
“These gardens don’t need too much labour — family labour can be used and with minimal expenses,” Dipika explains. “Then, when family members see the garden growing so well, everyone gets the incentive and encouragement to work on it, even the children.
“This method of home gardening is particularly good for places where there is less water or a lot of stones. It helps to make the soil more fertile.”
Group member Somawathi Gunapala says that group members divide the harvested vegetables evenly between them for home consumption and then sell any extra to make a small income.
“I take [any excess vegetables] to the market fair and sell them. We also have regular customers who come and buy them from us because it is organic, poison-free food. There is a doctor who lives in the village and he comes and buys from us here,” Somawathi says.
“Monthly we will get an income of approximately 3,000–4,000 rupees (AUD $32–$42). Then we divide it between all the group members.”
“Last week we harvested eggplants,” Quintos adds. “From that particular harvest we got about 150 rupees (AUD $1.60) each after taking some for home consumption.”
Fellow group member Piyatha Nandasena says the home gardens had improved the lives of many community members who normally relied on irregular and low-paying work as rubber-tree tappers.
“Before we had home gardens, we didn’t have that many vegetables to eat,” Piyatha says. “Now we get our vegetables from the home garden… We spend less money on food, have a large quantity of vegetables to eat and excess to sell... We are healthier.”
Author: Maureen Bathgate