Pedon Uganda Limited
Promotion of kitchen gardening
Following the nationwide lockdown instituted by the Government of Uganda, movement and gatherings were restricted. In addition, non-essential businesses had to close. This meant numerous women employed in the informal sector with no social safety nets, and living hand to mouth were left without sources of income. Malnutrition, domestic tensions, and ill-health increased. PEDON Uganda Limited mitigated this especially in their areas of operation in Kamuli and Bugiri districts in Eastern Uganda by having their field officers train farmers with skills in kitchen gardening on quick maturing, nutritious, and high yielding varieties which enabled them to grow simple vegetables like cabbages, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, eggplants, beetroot, and carrots. Through this initiative, families have used their backyards, verandas, discarded sacks, and plastic containers to practice kitchen gardening thus ensuring a continuous supply of fresh vegetables. These families have a variety of vegetables to pick from while saving over $10 that would be spent on sauce, spices, and vegetables weekly. That money is now used to meet other vital household needs. In addition to boosting food production, the intervention helped reduce the number of errands made to markets and crowded places where one could be exposed to COVID-19. Pedon’s efforts have resulted in over 200 households being able to grow nutritious foods on their own, leading to sufficient dietary diversity and access to nutritious food all year round.
A kitchen garden made from sacks