Evaluation of the “Grow Everything to Eat and Eat Everything to Cultivate” Project: A Case in Subsamortod Sub-District, Bung Samphan District, Phetchabun Province, Thailand

Abstract

The "Grow everything to eat and eat everything to cultivate project" in the Subsamortod municipality occurred in 2012 and finished on 30 October 2013. This study attempts to answer the question, "Did the project succeed or not?" This study focuses on an effective way to grow everything one eats and eat everything one cultivates, and was conducted using a qualitative approach for collecting and analyzing data. The project had three criteria to be successful: 1) a villager must have a backyard garden, and in the garden, the plant diversity must be more than 5 species, 2) the village must continue the process, and 3) villagers' food expenditures must decrease. After the project, we found that 1) the villager had produced enough in the backyard garden to support the family, 2) the village saved about 0.75 USD per day, or 276.5 USD per year, 3) villagers still have their backyard gardens, and 4) the average number of plant species in the backyard garden was 7.687 species per backyard garden. Therefore, the project is sufficient for extension in the village.