Climate change conditions (such as irregular rainfall and farm encroachment), COVID 19 pandemic, access to land and tribal conflict have made it difficult for farmers across the world, to produce sufficient food to feed the nations. This is especially true for Africa and other low resource regions. The shortage of agricultural produce has immensely sky rocketed food prices, making food inaccessible and unaffordable for many households, thereby increasing the likelihood for hunger and malnutrition across age groups.
Back in the day, regardless of family and land size, about 4 in 5 households in Nigeria have a food garden. However, in recent times, only about 1 in 50 households uphold this tradition, except for old residential areas. There’s hardly the thought of a food garden at the conceptualisation and design phase of a building or residential area. The system needs to change.
With the world’s population projected by UN to grow to 8.5 billion and about 10 billion in 2030 and 2050 respectively, there will be more mouths to feed. Clearly, it is imperative to develop innovative sustainable, affordable, and accessible methods of achieving good food for all.
GARBA aims to tackle this challenge by supporting and empowering households to cultivate and eat local crops as well as other readily available vegetables. We will lobby and advocate for policies that will enable the integration of food gardens into residential and commercial buildings, schools and communities, so that more families can have access to good and healthy food.