Impact of Perma-garden Intervention on Household

Vegetable Consumption and Income.

February 4, 2015

Medhanit Wube, Technical Director Yekokeb Berhan Program for highly

vulnerable children,FHI360.PhD candidate, MPH, BSC, RN

Yekokeb Berhan Programfor Highly Vulnerable Children

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Presentation outline – Background– Program objectives– Purposes of the Study– Methodology– Primary Outcomes & Measurements– Impact Evaluation Results– Conclusion– Limitations and recommendation

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Background: Importance of vegetable gardening

• Home vegetable gardens have been documented as an important supplemental source contributing to food and nutritional security and livelihoods of vulnerable households.

• It enables poor households to produce fresh vegetables and fruits with limited resources and cost and introduce more dietary varieties for children.

• Researches have shown that micronutrient deficiencies contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality among children.

• In addition to nutrition benefits, provides additional benefits such as income and livelihood opportunities for resource-poor families.

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Background

In two years implementation of Permagarden with the targeted households, there are encouraging outcomes on both the nutritional status of the family(family vegetable consumption) as well as on the income generated by sales of excess produce to neighbors.Overall, it is encouraging to witness that of the total trained caregivers as of March 2015, 15006(86 %) were successfully practicing Permagarden and 10,289 (70.4%) were using the products for household consumption. Further, 5874(39.1%) are able to earn income and cover necessary provisions to improve their living condition but there are limited evidence that show the impact of permagarden interventions in improving the nutrition and income of households of highly vulnerable children in YB program. Feb 4/2016 4

The goal and Objectives

The goal and Objectives• The goal of the study is to determine the impact of Yekokeb

Berhan’s permagarden intervention on the level of vegetable consumption (variety and frequency), the improvement of economic status, nutritional status of children under-five years old, improved knowledge and skills as well as and the willingness to continue practicing permagarden among HVC households.

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The goal and Objectives.

Specifically, this study is planned to answer three main research questions.• Has permagarden intervention resulted in the increased

vegetable consumption among HVC households? • Has permagarden intervention resulted in improved household

income among HVC households? • Has permagarden intervention has improved the attitude

beneficiaries towards vegetable consumption?• Has permagarden intervention increased the skill and

willingness to engage in home vegetable gardening in the future among HVC households?

• Has permagarden intervention resulted in better nutritional status of under-five years old highly vulnerable children?

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Methodology• The study was conducted in 7 woredas in Amhara and Tigray

regions where YB program was implemented.

• The study was based on a quasi-experimental design that has intervention and control groups.

• The study was based on post-intervention cross-sectional survey quantitative &qualitative data.

• Sample size determination: two-samples proportions comparison approach is used to calculate the required sample size.

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MethodologyStudy participants selection technique:

Intervention households: selected randomly proportionate to the sizes of households in respective woredas using list of targeted households of YBP for HVCs as the sampling frame.

Control households: randomly drawn from the list of HVCs households who were in the same sociodemographic characteristics and sites as intervention HHDs and targeted by YB program, but not trained and supported for Permagarden intervention .

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Methodology

• Quantitative study covered 854 primary households of HVCs (427 interventions and 427 controls).

• For qualitative study 14 key informants (2 from each Woreda) were selected by purposive sampling technique.

• Respondents for key informant interviews are Community care Coalitions and implementing partners’ representatives who are responsible for Permagarden implementation.

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Outcome indicatorsMain outcome indicators include:i. Vegetable consumption habit in a HHDii. Diversity of vegetable consumediii. Frequency of vegetable consumptioniv. Household income

• Average monthly income from vegetable sellingv. Diarrhea incidence among under age 5 childrenvi. Health condition of U5 children as subjectively rated by

primary caregiver of childrenvii. Nutrition status of children

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Data Analysis1. Quantitative data:Used PSM analysis to minimize selection bias using the

STATA module psmatch2 developed by Leuven and Sianesi(2003).

Impacts measured by percentage point differences in positive in main outcome indicators between intervention and control groups. Independent T-test was used analyze the difference

2. Qualitative Data:First, KII transcriptions were organized by major topics

and specific questions. Then concepts and ideas were coded, categorized and

salient themes identified and analyzed.

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Impact evaluation results on Permagardening program outcomes using PSM method

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Program outcomes

Intervention Group Mean Difference

t-test

Intervention

(n=396)

Control(n=405)

HHDs consumed vegetable in thelast one week (%)

94.9 78.5 16.4 4.53**

HHDs consumed vegetables at leasttwice in the last week (%)

83.3 55.8 27.5 5.86**

HHDs consumed more than onetype vegetable in the last 24 hours(%)

46.6 37.3 9.3 1.97*

Monthly HHD income in Birr(Mean)

478 416 62 2.10**

Note: numbers in parentheses are number of cases with non-missing values** p<0.01, * p<0.05

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Incidence of diarrhea among

under age 5 children

Care givers rated under

age 5 children health

conditions ‘excellent

Wasted Severely wasted Underweight Severely underweight

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75

22

9

24

13

32

57

28

18

34

21

Intervention group Control group

The difference is statistically significant (p<0.05)

Impact evaluation results on Permagardening program on Health & Nutrition Status of Children <5 years.

Qualitative ResultsImpact on changes in attitudes:• Qualitative study reveals attitude changes towards

vegetable gardening and consumption among the communities as a result of Permagarden.

“Before the project begins, the community used to think that there is no suitable space for vegetable growing in towns. Second, they were convinced that they can’t be productive and profitable working on small land. … After the project started, those views changed and the community begins to think vegetables farming can be done on smaller land fragments in a modern way and it can be profitable. That change in the way of thinking is the result of Yekokeb Berhan’sawareness raising effort.”

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Qualitative ResultsImpact on changes in communities Practices:

• A male beneficiary of gardening skills training from Dangilatown described how knowledge and practices of Permagardenskills expanded rapidly in his community.

“Before the training was offered, the community considers it as a laborious task. Now that they have the knowledge and its benefit is evident, everyone wants to be involved. They joined the project watching their fellow village people who are successful. Previously, the community had no idea of vegetable gardening. After we started a team, many people want to join our group… There is no one in my village who doesn’t have a garden. Following me as a role model, all my neighbors have planted vegetables on small plots they have in their backyard.”

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Qualitative ResultsImpact on changes in gardening skills:• A female beneficiary from Dangila town described how

the new techniques helped her to control termites that used to destroy her garden before she was trained on Permagarden.

“The training was very realistic. We had practical sessions like the digging steps, pesticide and compost preparation lessons were wonderful. Before I was trained by Yekokeb Berhan, I used to grow vegetables. ... Often times, termites destroyed our crop. Employing the lesson Yekokeb Brehan offered us, we are able to control the pests and plant diseases. This time we had enough to consume for ourselves and to sell for markets. The garden is very attractive for the eyes let alone the benefits.”

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Qualitative ResultsImpact on Vegetable consumption:• A female beneficiary, Sessen Aredom aged 45 from Mekele

town, described household vegetable consumption and family health benefit of the project.

“Our household vegetable consumption has improved in terms of quantity, variety, and frequency. It supplements the family food requirements for 8 household members, we consume vegetable 5 times per week, and sometimes two times a daily.” We are also very pleased that vegetable consumption contributes for our health improvement.”

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Qualitative ResultsImpact on financial income:• In addition, program beneficiaries reported the financial

benefits of home vegetable gardening.

• A male beneficiary from Adgirat described the financial benefit his family obtained from vegetables gardening.

“The family can get additional food by growing vegetables. If it is grown on somewhat large area, it can bring income. For instance, I use all the produce I collect from the backyard garden for domestic consumption. I sell all the produce I grow on my land besides the Finch river. This months , I sold cabbage worth Birr 2 000 ($ 100). I am growing carrots, cauliflower, etc.”

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Conclusion and Recommendation

• In general, the results of this study confirmed that the PermaGardeningintervention had positive and significant effects in terms of higher households’vegetable consumption, more diverse vegetables/fruits consumption, increasedmonthly household income, nutritional and health status of the children < 5years of old and greater intention to grow vegetable in the future by theintervention group than the control group.

• In the long-term, vegetable gardening and consumption by households withHVC may help to increase micronutrient supply to poor households andreduced diarrhea incidence and malnutrition among children under age 5years, and improve overall wellbeing of HVC.

• Future research should explore whether these observed positive effectswill be sustainable over time and how the program affects thelivelihood of households and children’s health and nutrition status.

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Acknowledgement • This impact evaluation study of the Permagardening interventions on the lives of highly

vulnerable children in Ethiopia was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Cooperative Agreement Number AID - 663 - A - 11 - 00005. The contents are the responsibility of FHI360 and its Yekokeb Berhan Program for Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC) partners, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

• Yekokeb Berhan Program is grateful to the staff of implementing partners (REST, ADA, TSDA, and ANPPCAN),community volunteers, CCC/CCs, BOWCYA/BOLSA and WOCYA for their insightful commitment and dedication in the overall coordination of data collection activities at grassroots level.

• We also take this opportunity to extend our special thanks to our colleagues at Pact and Child Fund for their input and support. Everything we do at Yekokeb Berhan is a team effort, and this assessment is no exception.

• We would also like to extend our deep appreciation to the FHI360 country office as well as regional teams that led the evaluation and prepared of this report. We also extend our special thanks Dr. Kassahun Asres for analyzing the data and supporting interpretation of results

• Last but not the least, we would like to thank all respondents for their willingness to respond to our questions throughout the process of data collection.

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