Families in Kabalore district have resorted to kitchen gardening to address the problem of food shortage. Kitchen gardening is growing a variety of foods, vegetables and fruits on small portions of gardens behind houses.
The gardens are normally 10m by 15m. The kitchen gardens are now a common sight in most of the homes in rural areas. The households grow traditional vegetables like Cabbages, carrots and tomatoes.
Beatrice Kugonza, a resident of Kitere in West Division says that she was forced to engage in kitchen gardening after she was laid off from her job and couldn’t raise money to purchase food for her family. Kugonza says that she had a little piece of land behind her house, which she later utilized. She now grows cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, and onions. Kugonza says that she depends on the traditional vegetables as sauce to accompany cassava, bananas and millet.
//Cue in: “I didn’t have a job…”
Cue out: “…I get sauce from vegetables.”//
Rosemary Baguma, a resident of Mukubo village says that in the past she was spending more than 10,000 shillings everyday to buy food and sauce for her family. Baguma says that since she started kitchen gardening last year, she is spending less because she is sure of sauce. She says that she can now save money to buy scholastic materials and pay school fees for her daughter.
According to Baguma, she plans to expand her garden and plant more vegetables and sell the vegetables so that she can earn income. Baguma also says that she has started sensitizing women in the area about the importance of kitchen gardening and how to prepare them. She says that many women are ignoring the spaces behind their houses. In some households, the kitchen gardens are also boosting the nutrition of young children and the elderly.
Some of the traditional vegetables which have a very high nutritive value like Amaranthus commonly known as dodo and Solanumaethiopicum (Nakati) have been grown. Florence Kadama, the chairperson of the production committee in South Division says that households are being encouraged not to waste their pieces of land and grow vegetables, because they can be of importance during periods of drought.
