Value and potential of home gardens Home gardens have an established tradition in many rural communities throughout Africa, especially in humid and sub-humid areas (FAO, 2001a). They constitute a relevant agricultural space that typically contains notable plant diversity, including particularly crops with high micronutrient properties. Home garden crops represent a supplementary source of food and a privileged basis for nutritional quality in rural households. They can also become a source of income. They are helpful to cope with food shortage periods and failures of staple crops. Home gardens embrace a genuine portion of agrobiodiversity with distinctive agricultural, food and nutrition roles, relevant in both food security action and AIDS mitigation (box 25). The crop diversity that home gardens typically or potentially hold can provide a wide range of resources, such as nutritious foods, marketable products, firewood, herbs, spices, and medicinal plants. Home gardens are usually managed by rural women, who use them as diversified agricultural spaces to fulfil a variety of household needs, from feeding their children and the sick, to cultivating vegetables and spices that are important ingredients in local diets, and to generating some income.

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