Growing at home for health

Home gardens increase the off-season vegetable supply and contribute to healthier diets in Cameroon’s far north.

Story and photos: Regine Kamga | August 19, 2020

Mrs. Inndia in her garden. She appreciates having fresh vegetables close at hand.

The World Vegetable Center’s UNICEF/USAID integrated agriculture-nutrition-heath project in the far north region of Cameroon to improve diet diversification among children in the Mokolo health district is yielding good results. Project participants join in hands-on gardening training held at demonstration and community gardens. Those with space available for a garden, a water supply, and a child younger than 15 months in the household receive seed kits to establish vegetable gardens at home.

“Onion was the only vegetable produced in Mosso during the dry season,” said Oumarou Hamadou, chief of Mosso village, where 28 home gardens were established. “Other vegetables were grown only during the rainy season because we did not know the importance of eating vegetables year-round.”

Chief Hamadou said the villagers previously were interested only in growing off-season maize just after the onion harvest. With advice from the UNICEF/USAID project, the community is now more aware of the nutritional benefits of vegetables and eager to learn how to produce vegetables, especially during off-season when fresh produce is scarce in the market.

Villagers in Mosso enjoy the project’s cooking demonstrations, which show how to prepare vegetables for maximum nutritional benefit. “We’ve added more vegetable dishes to our daily family meals,” said Haman Alouki, a community health worker. “The project has changed the way we cook.”

Djabou Inndia, another community health worker, said the increased availability of vegetables from home gardens is helping to reduce malnutrition in Mosso.

“WorldVeg brought new vegetable crops and varieties,” said Théophile Sermidou, a project participant. “We never knew that jute mallow and amaranth need to be grown in a nursery and then transplanted. That’s a new practice for us, but it really works!”

Mosso plans to become a reference vegetable production area for Mokolo district. When visitors from other villages see Mosso’s home gardens, the first thing they ask is how they can set up gardens of their own.