home gardens produce bangladesh -...
TRANSCRIPT
29 June 2012 www.avrdc.org
Home garden production:
How Helen Keller
International brings better
nutrition and health to
women and communities
pages 8 &11
Home gardens produce
success in Bangladesh
Through the Horticulture Project, women are growing healthier lives for their families
In the village of Shikarpur in
Bangladesh’s Barisal District, Parul Begrum’s home garden has got the
neighbors talking.
Parul was one of 250 women farmers who received training in
producing vegetables at home from
local nongovernmental organization BRAC and the
Bangladesh Agricultural
Research Institute (BARI), partners in the United States
Agency for International
Development (USAID)-funded
Horticulture Project run by AVRDC – The World Vegetable
Center and the International
Potato Center (CIP). The classes combined information about the
nutritional value of eating
vegetables every day with practical demonstrations of home gardening
techniques.
The most valuable lesson, however, was the realization that one small
piece of land 6 m x 6 m could meet
the nutritional requirements of a four- to five-person family.
Peter Hanson (l), AVRDC Plant Breeder, visits a farmer and her family in Bangladesh. New gardeners start with easy-to-grow leafy vegetables. As they gain confidence, BRAC provides
training for crops requiring more complex management.
2
The garden design, developed by
AVRDC in the 1980s and introduced to Bangladesh in the
1990s by M.L. Chadha, retired
AVRDC Regional Director for South
Asia, was revised to incorporate orange-fleshed sweet potato in the
planting rotation. The tuber has
high levels of beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A.
Lack of this essential nutrient is the
leading cause of preventable
blindness in children.
Six weeks after planting seeds of
amaranth, spinach, okra, gourd, beans, and cucumber, Parul
harvested more than 78 kg of
vegetables — far exceeding the
needs of her five-person family. The surplus has provided an
opportunity for her to earn extra
money to support her family’s needs. According to BRAC’s project
coordinator, neighbors now visit
the home gardens and ask to
purchase vegetables, which often are sold at prices a little lower than
those at the nearest market.
Parul also distributed some of the
extra produce as gifts—and in the
best gift of all, shared her knowledge about the benefits of
eating fresh vegetables with the
recipients. As the neighbors
exchange tips on growing vegetables and preparing
vegetables for meals, the
community’s stock of agricultural and nutritional knowledge is
expanding.
BRAC works with each gardener for a year to ensure they understand
the full production cycle. BRAC, Lal
Teer Seed and other seed companies market small packets of
vegetable seeds for gardeners.
Access to good quality seed is vital
for the success of home gardens.
In Bangladesh, women in female-
headed households typically have only one year of education and
most have limited knowledge about
nutrition and food handling to
improve their family’s health. The home is their sphere; if a woman
gardener produces a surplus of
vegetables, her husband will be the one to sell the produce at the
market. The Horticulture Project is
empowering women by providing
access to information about growing produce using modern
methods and positioning them as
the guardians of family nutrition. According to project partners, in
just a few months it has boosted
discussion about diet and nutrients
and motivated many women in the community to start their own
vegetable gardens, leading to
increased self-confidence.
The Horticulture Project aims to
improve nutrition of at least
100,000 poor households in Southern Bangladesh by exploiting
the full potential of crops, including
vegetables and sweet potato.
The International Potato Center contributed
some of the information for this story.
(top to bottom)
Parul Begrum tends her garden; the surplus
is sold to neighbors.
Okra is a popular home garden crop in
Bangladesh; it is productive, hardy, and
nutritious.
AVRDC Plant Pathologist Jaw-fen Wang
(pink shirt) and Nutritionist Ray-yu Yang
(white shirt) met with home gardeners and
their families.
With better access to vegetables, a young
home gardener can look forward to a lifetime
of better nutrition and health.
The Deccan Chronicle reported on the bitterless bitter
gourd powder prepared by researchers Hsin-I Wang and Sandra Habicht at AVRDC for upcoming trials
with project partner the Avinashlingam University
for Women in Coimbatore, India.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/sci-tech/others/tn-
varsity-working-bitter-free-gourd-297
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/soon-
bitter-gourd-without-bitterness-303
3 CORNUCOPIA
The Center in the news
Candid shots: Robert Holmer, Regional Director, AVRDC East and Southeast Asia;
Lawrence Kenyon, AVRDC Virologist;
and Roland Schafleitner, Head, AVRDC
Biotechnology/Molecular Breeding visited the Center for Agricultural
Biotechnology at Kasetsart University’s
Kamphaeng Saen Campus in Thailand.
http://www.cab.kps.ku.ac.th/activity/2012-03-06-
001/
welcome
Mohamed Dhamir Kombo, an MSc
student from Wageningen University, joined the Regional Center for Africa in May
2012 for three months to research “Variety
evaluation and selection of leaf amaranth
genotypes” under the supervision of plant breeder Chris Ojiewo.
Maya Fromstein, a BSc student in
International Agriculture and Food Systems at McGill University in Canada, is spending
her 2012 summer break at the Regional
Center for Africa studying economics of
vegetable production, nutrition, farmer group formation, and other topics under the
supervision of Chris Ojiewo.
Karl Sadkowski, a 2012 World Food Prize
Borlaug-Ruan Intern from Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA will study agricultural
economics, food security, and poverty
reduction at the Regional Center for Africa
this summer. Karl is AVRDC’s third 2012 World Food Prize intern, along with
Michelle Laterrade based at headquarters
and Meredith Bruster at AVRDC South Asia.
You have been AVRDC's
pepper breeder for more than a decade. How have
developments in plant
breeding changed the way you
conduct your research?
Before coming to AVRDC, my
pepper breeding experience focused on improving traits that were
important for dehydration and
production of high quality paprika
powder—traits like high color, low pungency, high solids, early
maturity, etc. Cosmetic
characteristics like fruit shape were
not important, as the fruit were
destined to be dried and milled to powder. Similarly, disease
resistance was not a priority, as the
semi-arid, temperate climate in
coastal California reduced disease
pressure to a minimum, and occasional defects were quickly
masked by the postharvest
processing.
Peppers at AVRDC, though, were
almost like a completely different
crop to me. My breeding objectives shifted toward addressing the
problems that make pepper
production a risky challenge for
farmers in tropical locations, and I began working on the incorporation
of disease resistance and tolerance
to environmental stress. I have
been fortunate to have the support
of many skilled plant pathologists at the Center. Numerous
cooperators including researchers
and extensionists in national
4 CORNUCOPIA
Farewell
Paul Gniffke, Plant Breeder
(Pepper and Bulb Allium), will retire on 30 June 2012 after 10
years of service to AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center. Paul led
breeding activities for the two crops from his base at
headquarters, and also served as Deputy Theme Leader for
Breeding since September 2008.
His major contributions include development of advanced chili
lines carrying multiple diseases resistance, release of more than 10
new lines of pepper distributed to more than 20 cooperators in at
least 16 countries, and introgression of hot pepper
restorer lines into sweet pepper. Colleagues will miss his lively wit
and sharp perceptions of the
global agricultural scene. Paul is looking forward to retired life in
Sequim, Washington, USA, in the rain shadow of the Olympic
Mountain range.
We couldn’t let Paul go without a
few final words:
Highlights at AVRDC (clockwise from top left):
International Open Day, 2007.
Pepper Hybrids Demonstration, 2009.
vBSS training workshop, 2008.
AVRDC-APSA workshop, 2004.
(...continued on page 5)
agricultural research systems, seed
companies and farmers have allowed me to see how my
selections perform under a wide
range of weather conditions and
cultural practices.
I have been very impressed with the
use of molecular markers in the AVRDC tomato breeding program
under Peter Hanson, and we have
attempted in small ways to bring
this strategy into the pepper program, in anthracnose resistance
and CMS restorers. Marker-assisted
selection has not been justified in resistance breeding for some
diseases, as sources of resistance
have been identified, and resistant
plants can be selected at the seedling stage at a low cost. I have
no doubt, though, that markers will
take an increasingly important role in pepper breeding as access to the
tools improves.
What was most challenging
about your work?
Communication would probably be the area with which I struggled
most, especially in eliciting
progress reports from some of the cooperators that contributed to our
project-related activities. Cultural
differences sometimes left both
sides dissatisfied in our exchanges. Even so, this area might at the same
time be considered one of the most
rewarding and exciting aspects of
the job. I certainly have grown from
the struggles, learning patience and careful listening, and I hope that
others also benefited in some way.
What's so intriguing,
professionally and personally,
about peppers?
Peppers have fired me up since my
high school days in New Mexico
(where the enchiladas and chiles
5 CORNUCOPIA
(clockwise from top left):
Dishing out a spicy treat during the International Food Fair, 2006.
Leading the chorus on stage during the 2003 Annual Party.
Participating in the World Diabetes Day “Walk for Health” with colleagues Peter Hanson (left) and Srinivasan Ramasamy, 2011.
(...continued from page 4)
(...continued on page 6)
rellenos can’t be beat!), but I didn’t
become a true chilihead until later in college, when friends challenged
each other to see who could take the
HEAT. It was only then that I
learned about the diverse potential and history of peppers. After
Capsicum was brought back from
the Americas by Columbus, it spread around the world in a matter of a few
decades. It became naturalized and
engrained in local cuisines so quickly
that knowledge of its true origin was sometimes forgotten, and some
types were given the name Capsicum
chinense. Some historical evidence suggests that paprika arrived in
Hungary from Asia, through Silk
Road merchants, rather than more
directly from Spanish or Portuguese traders. Peppers are nutritious; the
Hungarian physiologist Albert
Szent-Gyorgi received a Nobel Prize for discovering and characterizing
vitamin C in pepper. Peppers display
an immense range of fruit types,
flavors, and uses. There are sweet bell peppers that can almost be
served as a dessert fruit…and then
there is ‘Bhut Jolokia,’ the world’s hottest pepper, which can be placed
on fences to deter elephants from
trespassing or used by police in riot
control. How can you not love peppers?
Plans for the future?
My new home in northwest
Washington state, USA, will have a shorter and cooler growing season
than I have enjoyed in the tropics.
But it is still an area where
vegetables and other specialty foods and crops are appreciated. The area
is well-known for Dungeness crab,
and seasonal runs of three or four distinct species of salmon, each
more delicious than the last. Former
dairy farms in the area are being
converted into boutique horticultural specialty businesses;
the region has the largest
concentration of lavender production in the USA, various
producers of hydrangeas, dahlias,
rhododendrons and other
ornamentals, and is proud of its tradition of locally grown organic
vegetables. In my home, I’ll have a
little garden and perhaps a greenhouse, to indulge my impulses
to grow a better pepper, and perhaps
to contribute to the organic
vegetable seed industry. While I can, I will still travel, and hopefully I can
share some of my experience and
opinions in vegetable breeding.
Share one memorable moment
out of so many during your
time at the Center…
I will not soon forget the dinner
prepared for us at the conclusion of the first phase of the GTZ Chili
Project, with team members from
India, Thailand, Indonesia, and our hosts from Hunan Province in
China. Every dish that was served—
and there were dozens— included
peppers in one way or another: stir-fried with beef, a shredded topping
on shrimp, soups, and my favorite, a
mild chili sautéed in a light oil, so that the seared, waxy cuticle slipped
off effortlessly, leaving a delicious,
tender morsel of throat-warming
goodness. Of course no Chinese party is complete without frequent
toasting of the guest of honor with
eager invitations to gan-bei (“drink it all”)! I was the honored guest, and
I hadn’t learned the art of politely
declining…it seemed that the line of
people hoping to wish me well never ended. I certainly don’t remember it
ending.
And so it is with AVRDC. I have
cherished my time here, and I want
to wish all my friends and
acquaintances the very best for the future.
6 CORNUCOPIA
(...continued from page 5)
Seminars
Mandy Lin, Assistant Specialist, Global Technology Dissemination,
shared her experiences in “Training Trainers and Farmers on Summer Tomato Integrated Crop Management in Bangladesh” with colleagues on
7 June 2012. Summer tomato is a high value crop that can bring farmers
a net income of USD 8000-10,000 per hectare (compared with winter
tomato at USD 2500-3000 per hectare), but growing tomato in the hot-wet season is challenging. Tested technologies, including simple rain
shelters and grafting, were among the crop management skills and
methods participants learned during the training courses conducted by Mandy and her colleagues and project partners in Bangladesh.
Wen Qian Chung, entomology intern from Universiti Putra Malaysia,
stung the audience with a biting question: “Bees and bitter gourd: Can the lasting relationship be lost?” in her presentation to AVRDC staff on
11 June 2012. Her research aimed to assess the lethal effects of pesticides
on honey bees and to determine the sublethal effects of pesticides on
honey bee memory retention and response to water and sucrose. Pollination by bees increases the number of bitter gourd fruits per plant
and the overall yield, so it is important to use safe pest control methods
and products that do not harm bees when cucumber moths, army worm, melon fly or other pests attack the plants.
7 CORNUCOPIA
Yun-che Hsu, Principal Research Assistant, Entomology, discussed the
management of striped flea beetles (Phyllotreta striolata, SFB) on vegetable brassicas in a presentation on 14 June 2012. SFB lacks natural
enemies and has developed resistance to several pesticides. She reviewed
the Center’s research in screening accessions of radish, pak-choi and
Chinese cabbage for resistance or tolerance to SFB; testing the effectiveness of allyl isothiocyanates (AITC), a volatile and toxic
compound in plants; push-pull strategies with trap crops; and the use of
male-produced aggregation pheromones.
Jackie Hughes, AVRDC Deputy Director General –
Research, introduced the ASEAN-AVRDC Regional Network in her talk "AARNET: what, whom and why?" on 29 June 2012. The network serves
as an important entry point for the Center’s research and development
outreach in ASEAN countries. Current initiatives include local field trials
of promising vegetable lines, translation of AVRDC pest identification field guides into six languages, and an expert consultation slated for
August 2012 in Bangkok.
8 CORNUCOPIA
Visitors
Nancy J. Haselow, Vice President and Regional
Director for Asia Pacific, Helen Keller International (HKI), came to headquarters on 18 June 2012 to
discuss opportunities for collaboration with Center
management and staff. HKI aims to prevent blindness
around the world through its eye health programs to address cataracts, river blindness, trachoma, and
diabetic retinopathy, and to improve the nutrition and
health of the world’s most vulnerable populations with vitamin A supplementation, food fortification, and
homestead food production. HKI and the Center have
similar visions for home garden programs in Asia and
plan to explore new initiatives for joint activities.
Nancy J. Haselow (r), Vice President and Regional Director for Asia
Pacific from Helen Keller International (HKI) and Jackie Hughes,
AVRDC Deputy Director General - Research exchange gifts and
information during a coffee break with AVRDC staff.
Thirty-four trainees from the
Taiwan Foreign Service Institute (FSI) received an introduction to
international agricultural development
work from Maureen Mecozzi (top left)
Head, AVRDC Communications & Information during their visit to
headquarters on 27 June 2012. The
group, led by Phoebe Yeh (above, w/umbrella), Deputy Director of FSI and
accompanied by nine FSI staff, also
received a tour of the Demonstration
Garden from Willie Chen (above, w/hat).
Ji-Gang Kim (left) from the National Institute of
Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Korea, visited headquarters on 25 June
2012 to meet AVRDC staff including Jackie Hughes,
Deputy Director General-Research, and to consult with
his colleague Myeong-Cheoul Cho, RDA seconded scientist currently working in Pepper Breeding at
AVRDC.
Visitors
9 CORNUCOPIA
On 29 June 2012 the Taiwan Turnkey Project
Association, an organization commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, brought a group of 14
agricultural producers, processors and marketers
from the Philippines to visit AVRDC’s research
facilities and genebank. The group included Gerald Jone O. Uygongco, Vice President, La Filipina Uy
Gongco Corp.; Paul Felipe Cruz, President,
Herbanext Laboratories Inc.; Phillip L. Ong, President, Santeh Feeds Corp.; Jusie Roxas,
President, Farm Links; Alejandro Escaño,
President, MFI Foundation Inc.; Bernadette
Arellano, Managing Director, SBE Farms Enterprises, Inc. The group was accompanied by
Benedict M. Uy, Deputy Director for Commercial
Affairs, Manila Economic and Cultural Office, Philippine Representative Office in Taiwan.
Esther Njeru, Outreach
Assistant at the Regional Center for Africa, Arusha,
Tanzania, left the Center
on 15 June 2012 after two
years of service. Esther assisted her colleagues in
researching marketing issues along the
vegetable value chain in Tanzania and Cameroon. We wish her all the best!
Farewell
Reshma Sanal (l)
received an undergraduate internship certificate from
Director General Dyno
Keatinge after studying the
molecular characterization of legume pod borer
(Maruca vitrata) and its
natural enemies in Entomology at
headquarters.
Alejandro Escaño (right), President, MFI Foundation Inc.
In Africa, GIZ meets to discuss food security in a changing climate
More than 100 members of
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),
including professional staff of the
International Centrum for Migration and Development
(CIM) projects working in Africa,
met in Windhoek, Namibia recently to focus on food security and
climate change in plenary sessions
and working groups. GIZ has been
a long-time donor to AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, and has
supported a number of Center
projects over the years.
Ibrahim A. Mayaki, Chief
Executive Officer of the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning
and Coordination Agency, gave the
meeting’s opening remarks. He analyzed the challenges to
achieving food security as the
climate changes, and noted a
multidisciplinary approach focused on regional cooperation, youth and
education should be given more
attention to find solutions to the most important development
questions facing Africa.
In presentations, workshops, and strategic discussions, the
participants examined the success
of farmer business schools, green economy approaches, agribusiness
for pro-poor growth, and natural
resources management in
promoting food security and resilience of rural livelihoods in
sub-Saharan Africa. New donor
strategies were explored.
The problem of postharvest food
loss drew particular attention. The
group decided to conduct a survey on postharvest practices and
related issues to identify existing
practices and unsolved problems. The results will guide future
research activities.
The event concluded with a three-
day field trip to visit several
German-Namibian cooperative
projects related to fisheries, land tenure, and natural resources. The
next meeting in February 2013 in
the Ivory Coast will examine results from working groups on household
resilience and postharvest food
loss.
10 NEWS FROM THE REGIONS
(left): Ibrahim Mayaki (2nd from left), Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD); Vera Scholz, Andreas Proksch, Stephan Krall (l to r) Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Africa Department in a plenary discussion.
(center): A fishery project in northern Namibia.
(right): Farmers answer questions during the field trip.
(left): Local associations explained their activities to protect natural resources.
(right): Theresa Endres (l), AVRDC Community Development Specialist (Nutrition), in Mali with a colleague from Democratic Republic of the Congo.
3
inside insight
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 11
When and why did HKI begin
exploring home food production?
HKI has long sought to combat
blindness resulting from vitamin A deficiency. In the countries where
we worked, we noticed three types
of gardens: traditional, seasonal scattered plots of just a few
vegetables; improved, typically on
fixed plots but not used year-round;
and developed, which produced a wide range of vegetables and fruit
throughout the year. Evidence
indicated children from homes with developed gardens consumed 1.6
times more vegetables and had a
lower risk of night blindness than
children in homes without homestead gardens, as they had
access to a diversity of homegrown
fruit and vegetables rich in certain forms of vitamin A. So HKI began a
pilot project in 1990 in Bangladesh,
working with 1000 households to
establish year-round home gardens and provide nutrition education.
The pilot succeeded, and we began scaling up the initiative in 1993,
bringing in more local NGOs as
partners. Today, 52 local NGOs are active in HKI’s Homestead Food
Production Program for 900,000
households in Bangladesh,
benefitting more than 4.5 million people. The program is also active
in Burkina Faso, Cambodia, and
Nepal.
How do the activities
promoted in HKI’s Homestead
Food Production Program differ from other home garden
initiatives?
One difference in our program is
the inclusion of animal sources—
poultry, goats, fish—as part of that production system. The eggs and
other animal foods raised by the
gardeners support the body's ability
to utilize the micronutrients in the vegetables and fruits grown in their
homestead gardens. Produce from
the gardens ensures the availability of vitamins and minerals essential
for proper immune system function
and full physical, intellectual and
cognitive development.
The integration of animal
husbandry does add a measure of complexity to the program,
however. For instance, poultry
require immunization and caging,
and keeping animals may require more labor and capital, thus
reducing the cost effectiveness of
the program. But the nutritional benefits from milk, meat and eggs
outweigh the challenges animals
may present.
How is the program
implemented?
HKI looks at home food production
as a system, one that starts with the
individual but ultimately has impact on the entire community.
We provide technical and
managerial support as well as start-
up supplies, such as seeds, seedlings, saplings and chicks to
local nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). They in turn integrate Homestead Food
Production into their ongoing
activities.
To promote home food production,
we usually delineate a district of
about 1200 households, and then within that district encourage 15-20
Nancy Haselow, Vice
President and Regional
Director for Asia Pacific,
Helen Keller
International (HKI), gave
AVRDC staff an overview of
“Helen Keller International’s
Homestead Food Production
Program: an integrated
(agriculture and nutrition)
model for addressing
undernutrition” on 18 June
2012. The organization,
which focuses its efforts on
eye health, nutrition and
neglected tropical diseases for
the world’s most vulnerable
populations, emphasizes
scalability in its projects and
frequent monitoring and
evaluation to determine
effectiveness.
interested individuals to establish
Village Model Farms. The model farms demonstrate the best
techniques and methods available
for growing vegetables and rearing
small livestock, and sometimes incorporate plant nurseries. These
model farms become important
sources of information and places to teach new home food production
skills.
How does the program benefit participants?
The Homestead Food Production Program has combined greater food
availability with nutrition
education, and this has led to increased consumption of higher-
quality food—and in Bangladesh,
increased vitamin A intake among
women and children.
The program empowers women,
who organize 90% of the gardens; they begin contributing to the
economic stability of their families
and make sure their children
consume the nutritious food they grow. The gardens also provide
families with income from the sale
of surplus goods and increase the technical knowledge and capacity of
local NGOs.
Lessons learned from HKI’s experience in home food
production?
Perhaps the most important:
Nutrition education and behavior-
change communication must be a high priority to translate food
production into improved diets and
better health. Strong links between
the agriculture and the health
sectors are needed. Building on
local practices with existing organizations ensures better
integration with community
activities. Be flexible, but follow a
standard program design to ease replication. And finally, invest in
the information systems to get solid
feedback that can be applied to improve and adjust ongoing
interventions, and keep donors,
governments and other partners
informed.
3
inside insight
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 12
Fresh, 26 June 2012
Fresh is published bi-weekly by
AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center
P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan 74199
Taiwan
Editor: Maureen Mecozzi
Graphic design: Kathy Chen
Photographic guidance: Ming-Che Chen
Contributors: Theresa Endres, Paul Gniffke,
Peter Hanson, Ray-yu Yang
Comments, ask a question,
add a name to our mailing
list: [email protected]
www.avrdc.org
A garden grows self‐confidence alongside vegetables. In Bangladesh, home gardeners gain prestige and standing in their communities.