Integrated home garden interventions combine training in gardening practices with education about nutrition knowledge. Such interventions have been shown to improve nutrition behaviour in low income countries. However, to date rigorous evidence is lacking for their long-term impact. We test the impact of an integrated home garden intervention on vegetable production and consumption three years after the intervention ended. We analyse three rounds of survey data for 224 control and 395 intervention households in rural Bangladesh. Three years after the intervention, the average impact on vegetable production per household was 43 kg/year (+49% over baseline levels; p < 0.01), and the effect was not statistically different from the impact one year after the intervention, which demonstrates that impact was maintained in the long-term. The impact on the micronutrient supply for iron, zinc, folate and pro-vitamin A from home gardens was maintained in the longterm. These impacts may have been driven by the long-term improvements in women's nutrition knowledge and gardening practices, explaining the sustainability of the behavioural nutrition change. We also identify positive impacts on women's empowerment and women's output market participation, highlighting how integrated programs, even if modest in scope, can be drivers of social change.
School gardens have become a widely used approach to influence children's food knowledge, preferences and choices in low- and high-income countries alike. However, evidence indicates that such programs are more effective at influencing food knowledge and preferences than actual food choices. Such finding may occur because school gardens insufficiently influence the food behavior of parents and because healthy food items are not always available in children's homes. We tested this hypothesis using a one-year cluster randomized controlled trial in Nepal with 15 treatment and 15 control schools and a matched sample of 779 schoolchildren (aged 8–12) and their caregivers. Data were collected before and after the intervention during the 2018–2019 school year. In addition, children's food consumption was monitored using a monthly food logbook. Average treatment effects were quantified with a double-difference estimator. For caregivers, the intervention led to a 26% increase in their food and nutrition knowledge (p < 0.001), a 5% increase in their agricultural knowledge (p = 0.022), a 10% increase in their liking for vegetables (p < 0.001), and a 15% increase in home garden productivity (p = 0.073). For children, the intervention had no discernible effect on food and nutrition knowledge (p = 0.666) but led to a 6% increase in their liking for vegetables (p = 0.070), healthy food practices (p < 0.001), and vegetable consumption (October–December +15%; p = 0.084; January–March +26%; p = 0.017; April–June +26%; p = 0.088). The results therefore indicate both schools and parents matter for nudging children toward healthier food choices.
Background Training women in home gardening and nutrition has been shown to increase household production and consumption of nutritious food and contribute to women’s empowerment, but evidence is limited to short-term effects. Here, we investigate whether home garden support leads to long-term improvements in household nutrition and women’s empowerment. To do this we use four waves of household-level survey data collected over a 7-year period (2013–2019) from an intervention (n = 395) and a control (n = 224) group in four rural districts of Bangladesh. We estimate the intent-to-treat effect using a difference-in-difference estimator. Results We find an immediate increase in the quantity of vegetables harvested from home gardens (+ 29.6 kg/year; p = 0.01) and this effect is sustained in years three (+ 42.3 kg; p < 0.01) and six (+ 37.0 kg; p < 0.01). The nutrient yield from the gardens also remained positive and significant, but the effect declined due to changes in the composition of vegetables. The effect on per capita vegetable intake, significant in years one and three, turned not significant in year six. Effects on nutrition knowledge, food preparation practices, and women’s empowerment all remained significant in year six. Conclusions Home garden interventions in Bangladesh create sustained impact on a range of social, economic and nutritional outcomes. Refresher training after 5 or 6 years may help to maintain the full range of impacts observed.
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