FAQ

1Million Home Farmer Challenge

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Project Description

Sri Lankan Government officially declared the worst economic crisis in the country in 73 years. In August 2021, an emergency for food was declared. However, the government denied food shortages. It is acknowledged the crisis could lead to a financial disaster. Home gardens have been proposed as an option for consumer food price hikes. food and nutritional security in disaster, conflict, and other post-crisis situations are worsening, creating a generation of both,  malnourished children, and pregnant mothers Families tormented by civil war, agricultural downfall, and drought heavily depended on their gardens for food. This trend still continues, and home gardens continue to significantly supplement household food security and sustenance. In addition, home gardens when properly managed provide a four-in-one solution to the food and nutrition problem by increasing household food availability, enabling  greater physical, economic, and social access, providing an array of nutrients, and protecting and buffering the household against food shortages, which is why the Blue Wings believes its tiny ripples of action plans can bring about some positive change into the lives of the underprivileged. And here we are at Blue Wings to promote healthy and sustainable livelihoods for rural, urban, and urban dwellers in the villages across Sri Lanka. This will be achieved by the promotion of sustainable, grassroots agriculture interventions by the Blue Wings and Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka.
The home garden consists of annual, biennial, and perennial crops including livestock production. Plants with different canopy depths are located in these home gardens and then known as multi- specified and multi-storied cropping systems. The synonyms are mixed garden, compound farm, kitchen garden, household home garden, and home garden Agroforestry system. The basic structures of the home garden varied from place to place, based on their ecological, socio-economic, and cultural factors. Generally, home gardening is practiced on a small piece of land that is close to the family residents. The cultivated materials are usually added to the daily nutrient supplements of the family members to manage their expenses spending on over-priced plant-based foods.

✓ List species and cultivars, traditionally grown by the farmers in the flood-affected
area (cereals; field crops; root and tubers; fruit crops; vegetables, perennial
horticulture, and industrial crops)
✓ Local counterpart institutions and NGOs through which to act and follow-up
✓ Availability of seeds, planting materials and Agrochemicals
✓ Local seed suppliers and plant nurseries
✓ Damages to agricultural land: Area affected by salt intrusion, erosion, and levelling
✓ Damages to irrigation infrastructure (irrigation canals, water reservoirs, drainage
systems, infrastructure against sea/salt intrusion, etc.)
✓ Availability of water for irrigation purposes (including water microbiology and
chemical analysis)
✓ Locally available substrates for soilless micro garden systems (rice-hulls; coconut
fiber; river sand, etc)
✓ Emergency as well as medium/long-term rehabilitation needs

The overall objective of the project is to promote the diversification of home farming based
on comparative advantage; improvements in value addition and market exploration for revenue generation; and improvements in rural livelihoods through better integration of
smallholder farmers into modern agricultural value-chains in line with the government’s new sector program and policies and keeping up with the current food and vegetable price
hikes in Sri Lanka.

✓ Minimize monetary investment for the purchase of key inputs like seeds, fertilizers,
and plant protection chemicals from the market

✓ Maximum use of the useless agricultural land for the cultivation
✓ Get multi nutrients for a family
✓ Make Recourse recycling and cost reduction in farming
✓ Efficient use of irrigation water

To introduce, uplift, develop and support home farming across areas in Sri Lanka and to lend a hand to small-holder farmers to produce competitive and marketable commodities, improve their ability to respond to market requirements, and move towards increased commercialization.

Expected outcomes

(a) Increased capacity of smallholder producers to respond to business and market
requirements.

(b) Increased productivity in primary production of key marketable commodities,
supporting and in line with the Government’s National Food Programs in the future

(c) The production infrastructure upgraded to sustain the introduced innovative
technology packages; and

(d) Improved capacity of government institutions to respond to the demands and needs of the agricultural sector

Direct beneficiaries

The eligibility criteria are set by the project. Such criteria can be defined in terms
of poverty score, wealth index, a specific age group of children, geography, etc

✓ Producers and Consumers
✓ Local People
✓ Farmers
✓ The unemployed
✓ Retired individuals
✓ Volunteers
✓ Mothers
✓ Children

Indirect beneficiaries

Consequently, an indirect beneficiary is any household, whether eligible or not, that receives the intervention from sources other than the project and partners, that is informally from the direct beneficiary through household relationships or social networks.

✓ family
✓ friends
✓ group and religious organizations to which they or their family and friends
belong

Under the Ministry of Agriculture, the following project-relevant units and entities would be set up. A ministerial leading group, along with a handful of members and volunteers of the Blue Wings would be set up to guide overall component implementation, in particular: site selection for project interventions, distribution of seeds, free grow bags, plant pots and selection of technology innovations and equipment handling to be demonstrated, capacity building, and farmer training will be provided as well as a selection of productive infrastructure investments under sub-components.

Social impact

The sale of products from home gardens significantly improves the family’s financial status. Mostly home gardening is a subsistence-level of farming method that can fulfil the daily meal requirement of a family.

Economic impact

Due to the product from the garden, their self-sufficiency is improved and the earnings from excess can be used to purchase other items than daily food needs. Home gardens contribute to a cohesive social environment and improve household status and wealth.

Environmental impact

Home garden is a multi-cropping system and also it is a kind of integrated farming system due to crop farming and animal husbandry are simultaneously practiced in the same land area. Recycling of nutrients is happening in the soil. Solar energy is converted into photosynthetic energy to produce food which is consumed by both animals and humans.

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