Identification of gaps in homegardens in coping with household resilience

Abstract

Adverse conditions in weather, economy and diseases are perceived universally leading to the global food-insecurity. Homegardens could play a crucial role in building resilience at the household level to cope with these extremities to minimize food-insecurity. Since homegardens in the existing forms are not efficiently utilized in this regard, identify hindering factors and overcome them are vital. In this context, two administrative districts in Sri Lanka, Matale and Jaffna were selected as cases having diversified and unique homegardens, respectively, and K-means cluster analyses were performed to group homegardens. The variables important for grouping homegardens were identified through discriminant function analysis. The characteristics of the identified variables were used to differentiate groups of homegardens, where those groups in the two districts could be described by socio-economic and ecological variables. The mean annual income of better groups of homegardens in Matale and Jaffna was 39,341 LKR and 31,609 LKR, respectively. Results revealed that the common factors that hinder efficient utilization of homegardens in two districts were insufficient amounts of food sources, lack of productive and income-generating trees species, inability to incorporate annual and perennial crops without altering existing environment, absence of poultry or livestock, labor shortage, low investment and insufficient technical knowledge on farming. Accordingly, households interacted with homegardens at varying levels of absorptive and adaptive capacities in building resilience. Therefore, consideration of correct blend of floral and faunal components and the variables that strengthen the capacity and efficiency of homegardens to cope with extreme situations is a key to minimize food-insecurity.