The importance of having an integrated system of knowledge, in which tribal women will have the opportunity not only to share their experiences to overcome future challenges of nutrition and cultivation  of vegetables, but also to become active agents of change by being involved in the decision making processes.

1. More - and better - food available at all times

Home gardens can make an important contribution to food security as an additional food source or by supplying off-season production. In all but the coldest and driest climates, vegetables can be planted and harvested for most of the year.

2. Labor and time efficiency

Travel to and from crop fields can be arduous and time-consuming. Working in a home garden can give equally high returns from labor without the need to be far from home. Work in a home garden is generally not as physically demanding as field preparation and crop weeding, because the area is smaller and working conditions are better.

Reduced work effort, particularly for women and girls, helps to balance the household workload, most of which is usually done by women. Nutritious food is available from the home garden every day; it can be prepared freshly and safely at home. Feeding an infant will also be easier at home.

Other labor efficiencies can be gained from the home garden. Nursery beds can provide advanced seedlings, which when planted in fields require less weeding and take more rapidly than when seeded directly as field crops. Winnowing, drying, milling and other post-harvest processing may be more efficiently done in the home garden. Working in the garden near drying crops ensures that they can be brought in from rain; a gardener can also keep watch for browsing domestic animals. Waste from crops processed in or near the home garden provides feed for livestock and compost for garden fertilization.

3. Environment: improved working and living conditions

       The ecological association between people and plants in a home garden is an ancient one. People and plants thrive in places that have adequate shade, shelter, light, water and nutrition. This makes for better working conditions for:

• Highly intensive enterprises such as poultry and pig raising, nurseries, market gardens or floriculture;
• Post-harvest processing or value-adding activities;
• Non-farm employment such as clothes making and carpentry. Home gardens can provide environmentally sound opportunities for waste disposal. Composting is commonly used for household wastes including kitchen waste, paper and other materials.

4. Enhanced social standing

Home garden systems are readily accessible to the poor. While home gardening for subsistence is common and valuable to the household, gardens offer a way to generate a small income rapidly. A small investment in seeds and a small amount of labor can provide a return from the sale of vegetables within six to eight weeks. Limited access to land is often a characteristic of poor families, but need not be a major constraint - a home garden can be established on a small area.

Gender inequities increase the vulnerability of women to poverty and malnutrition, make it difficult for them to earn a livelihood - especially single mothers - and reduce their social standing. Marketing garden produce can be an important source of independent income for women, particularly in households headed by women or where men migrate for long periods, or in cultures where women traditionally feed the family through their own work.

Traditional divisions of labor and responsibility often mean that men sell major cash crops or staple food crops and control the resulting income. Income from gardens controlled by women allows them to purchase items that are important to improving their social status in families and communities where men have a dominant social position.

5. Better skills training

Acquisition of skills is facilitated by home gardens, because they are close to homes in the community, relatively small in scale, potentially viable with small investment and suitable for a wide range of people. Training can be given on low-cost sustainable farming practices. Better skills transfer and acquisition rapidly increases the variety of livelihood improvement options available to small farming families.

6. Added value to livelihoods and trade

Viable home gardens create opportunities for input suppliers, processors, small manufacturing, traders and other service providers, as well as generating income, much of which is spent in the community. Adding value to crops and livestock through processing, storage and small manufacturing increases the livelihood options for rural households. Many small-scale street vendors and food-stall holders can make a living for themselves and their families by processing or selling food.

Schools, training centers, research institutions and extension services can also benefit from this demand for inputs, services and products. When research and development is applied to the innovations being made in home gardens, viable commercial applications often result.

• Work should be done in areas where households have some experience with home-gardening; build on traditional methods to enhance household food security.
• Using a group approach and village leaders for technical training.
• Integrating nutrition awareness and education into garden planning.
• Involving whole families in garden planning and management, and especially women in the distribution of garden harvests and income generated.
• Flexibility with respect to choice of species and cropping patterns, encouraging diversity and use of locally adapted varieties.
• Encouraging reliance on local materials for soil, water and pest management and on household or community seed production; minimize "giveaways".
• Monitoring the project for regular feedback and fine-tuning of training and other needs.