Home garden: a potential strategy for food and nutrition security in HIV households : a case study in rural Ghana

Keywords: Home garden, HIV and AIDS, dietary diversity, plant species diversity, coping strategy index, food security, Ghana. The aim of this thesis was to explore how rural households with HIV and AIDS in Ghana are employing home garden management strategies to enhance food and nutrition security and also to examine the seasonal dimension of coping with food insecurity in these rural households through documentation of the frequency and severity of the food&ndash;related coping behaviours adopted during periods of peak seasonal food shortages. In Sub-Saharan Africa, home garden cultivation is considered to be a potential strategy for rural households with HIV and AIDS to cope with labour constraints and to improve food and nutrition security. However, existing research that has addressed the relationship between HIV and AIDS, home gardens and food security focused on predictions; there is severe dearth of empirical evidence. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used in this study. Data collection methods included focus group discussions, interviews with key informants, a questionnaire-based survey, in-depth interviews in case studies and participant observations. A 24-hour qualitative dietary recall was used to assess dietary intake of households studied and the Coping Strategy Index was used to assess the severity of household food-related coping behaviours. Data on biophysical aspects of the home gardens was obtained through a home garden survey. The results showed that when labour constraint reduced field cultivation in rural households with HIV and AIDS, labour input in home garden significantly increased; rural households did not cultivate a greater diversity of plant species in home gardens, but rather relatively more food items of the essential food groups were consumed from home gardens. This contributed significantly to dietary diversity. Uncovering the effect of the interaction between household HIV status and gender of the household head on home garden biodiversity indicated that female-headed households with HIV and AIDS depended more on home gardens than their counterparts without HIV and AIDS in producing crops for sustenance and dietary diversity. Exploring the biodiversity in home gardens of rural households with HIV and AIDS when home garden cultivation is also meant to generate cash income revealed that rural households experiencing HIV and AIDS illness in cultivating commerce-oriented home gardens cultivated a dual purpose home garden that provided cash income and also supplied subsistence food. Assessing the frequency and severity of the food-related coping behaviours adopted by farm households with HIV and AIDS during the post-harvest period and in the lean season showed that farm households with HIV and AIDS were more vulnerable to food insecurity in both the post-harvest and lean season; this vulnerability was also reflected in their poverty, family care burdens (larger number of dependents and ill persons), lower education level and meagre income earning opportunity. It is essential that concerted efforts are made to improve the general well-being of farm households with HIV and AIDS by empowering rural households with HIV and AIDS in terms of capacity building, access to livelihood assets and access to finance. <br /> &nbsp; <br /> &nbsp