Vegetable growing is a good fit for the needs of poor rural and peri-urban families because vegetables can be a source of both nutrition and income. The term “agrobiodiversity” refers to how wide-ranging the crops are which a population grows in their farms and gardens. Increasing agrobiodiversity boosts nutrition, income, and resiliency to disaster.
Unlike seeds for staple foods, vegetable seed supply chains are narrow—there may be few or no sources reaching remote areas where people are hungry. Seed sources are unreliable. “What’s in the package isn’t even the same species on the label,” one partner in Haiti told us.
Vegetable gardens can be transformative. Compared with other crops, the harvest is quick and diverse in nutrition. One vegetable garden can help a family move from aid dependency to self-sufficiency. One box of SPI seeds can grow 100 vegetable gardens – 5 tons of food.
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