Contribution of Home Gardening to Household Dietary Intake among Peri-urban Households of Imo State, Nigeria

Rapid urbanization, industralization, land grabbing and dwindling land resources is fast eroding the practice of home gardening in peri-urban areas. This has altered the dietary intake pattern of peri-urban households who hitherto could augment their meals from products of gardens around their homes. The study assessed home gardening contribution to dietary intake among households in peri-urban areas of Imo State. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain the types of home gardening practiced, the contribution of home garden to the household dietary intake and identify the constraints of peri-urban households in practicing home gardening. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted in the selection of sample. Okigwe, Orlu and Owerri-West Local Government Areas (LGAs) were purposively selected from each of the agricultural zones in Imo State for their peri-urban nature. Four communities were purposively selected from the three LGAs were home gardening was mostly practiced. A survey was conducted to find out households which practiced home gardening. Ten households each were then randomly selected from these communities, making a total of one hundred and twenty (120) respondents for the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency and percentage). The result showed that majority (54.2%) of the respondents practiced mixed crop home gardening while 43.3% practiced mixed farm home gardening. The level of contribution of home gardening to dietary intake among households was (53.3%). A fairly high number (47.5%) of peri-urban households expressed experiencing high constraints to practicing home gardening. It is recommended that peri-urban households should be educated on other methods of home gardening where land is in limited supply to improve household dietary intake.