With three million Nepalese working abroad, remittance is the second largest source
of income after agriculture. The remitted cash does not entirely offset the absent farm labor,
which not only decreases the farm production but also adds physical and psychological
pressures to women. But, on the other hand, by women taking more responsibility for
agricultural activities their influence in family decision-making has markedly increased.
Capitalizing the opportunity to work with women for increased farm production of such
smallholder farming communities, LI-BIRD promoted home garden approach targeted to
disadvantaged groups, where women comprised 70% of beneficiaries (n=7,700). It included
various capacity building trainings and various material supports like composite vegetable
seeds, fruit saplings, small animals, mushroom and honeybees. In 2009, baseline data was
collected through household survey on 10% randomly selected households. Again same size
of sample was considered to measure the change in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, using the
same questionnaire. According to the findings the smallholder families were able to increase
income through home garden surplus from $ 35 to $ 95. The average number of home garden
species that were consumed by such families was increased from 13 to 28. About
Discriminated women who used to beg vegetable from their neighborhood have stopped the
practice as they can now grow vegetables on their own. With women farmers engaged in
production and marketing of home garden produces, they have ventured into taking
commercial vegetable production, which indicates that home gardening could be an entry
point to lure women into commercial farming. Hence, providing necessary technical support
coupled with trainings and credit facilities for homestead production can create an alternative
opportunity for women, of the migrant families for nutrition/food security, supplementary
income leading to household resilience.