A 55-year-old widow from Freshwota, Annie Louis, said backyard gardening has helped her sustain her family with fresh vegetables.
She said she started planting vegetables in her yard well before COVID-19 and continues to do so today.
Mrs. Louis is one of the beneficiaries of the integrated backyard gardening project launched during COVID-19 and funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
There are 100 beneficiaries in Port Vila, including Mrs. Louis, and 50 in the northern town of Luganville.
Under Output 1 of the COVID-19 Response for Affected Poor and Vulnerable Groups Project, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) successfully implemented the Backyard Gardening (BYG) component in Port Vila and Luganville, supporting vulnerable households, particularly women, to improve food security, nutrition and household resilience through increased access to household food production.
The intervention has received strong uptake among beneficiaries and has contributed to improved access to fresh vegetables, reduced household food expenditure, strengthened food security and increased community involvement in household food production activities.
Mrs. Louis said BYG helps her have daily fresh vegetables to feed the 12 members of her family with safe food.
She said she no longer goes to the market because she has what she needs in her garden.
She said this year she has already harvested five times.
“It helps our family lifestyle with different varieties of vegetables on our tables. We feed many families and visitors at our home. This project helps us mainly by reducing spending on purchasing greens, vegetables and island food from the markets due to the high prices of goods. Now we just harvest what is from our doorstep. We have fresh and healthy vegetables for our family,” she said.
Daily Post visited her residence in Freshwota and found that Mrs. Louis has a rich garden with various vegetables such as white beans, round cabbage, lettuce, snake beans, tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant and green cabbage.
She also has a small poultry area and a home-made fertiliser system.
Before COVID-19, BYG was popular in Port Vila, with many households starting small gardens in their own yards where possible.
Donor countries such as France funded the project to encourage people in Port Vila to produce safe food.
Project Manager James Bob said that to maintain and continue planting in small spaces in their yards, residents of Port Vila and Luganville need to produce their own seedlings.
“We have learned to receive, but we cannot continue like this. We have to equip ourselves, which is why we have to involve our people in producing their own seedlings from their BYG,” he said.
Mr. Bob said the next step of the project is to equip people to sustain their gardens all year round.
He said beneficiaries will also learn how to make their own compost.
Mr. Bob encouraged people in Port Vila to plant their own vegetables in their yards due to the high cost of vegetables in markets.
Currently, a takeaway box of tomatoes costs VT500 and island cabbage costs VT250.
