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Narrative practitioners are responding to climate change in a wide variety of ways. But, as we know, the effects of climate change encroach far more on some communities than others, with direct and profound implications for people's lives, livelihoods and opportunities for continued subsistence. A group of workers at SOS Children's Villages in Rwanda are responding to complex new challenges that have arisen for families as a consequence of extended drought. In this interview, Liberal explains the green pilot project, which recognises how family, community and planetary survival are inextricably linked. By combining education in agroforestry and parenting skills, and using knowledge and metaphors of kitchen gardening, the project supports families and communities to remain together through the development of sustainable, local food production while nurturing the wellbeing of children. Liberal was interviewed by David Denborough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not much is known about the 17th-century Estonian and Livonian landscape architecture. Most of the information is based on the descriptions found in historical archival and literary sources and on some of the well-known engravings. According to these, a common idea of that era's landscape architecture is that it was humble in scale and design, and was similar to the practice of late-medieval times when there was no space or ambition to grow woody plants in small gardens of castles. But when diving into the Swedish manor plans dating back to the last decades of the 17th century, it can be noted that the layouts of manorial hearts are inherent to the spatial design of early baroque, which is characterized by a landscape that has strongly been redesigned and includes a decorative garden, kitchen garden and a park. This article focuses on the spatial composition of Estonian and Livonian manor parks of the second half of the 17th century and observes the role of trees and their use in these landscapes. This article is based on the results of a study about the planning of baroque manor hearts Understanding the Role of 18th Century Estonian Manor Ensembles in Contemporary Planning and Conservation (Eesti 18. sajandi mõisaansamblid 21. sajandi maastikuplaneerimises: avastamine, mõistmine, tõlgendamine) which was carried out by the author of this article. The map analysis results deal with the spatial structure of manor ensembles and the observations made during the analysis. The article examines the possible ways of using woody plants in 17th-century Estonian manors while looking at the manor ensemble as an architectonic of early baroque. Based on the research results it can be said that by the last decades of the 17th century the wealthiest manors had already built manor hearts with a modest but a clearly baroque style layout which is characterized by a regular and symmetrical ensemble core, a garden axially connected to the main building and avenues heading into the landscape. This type of approach enables to broaden the common conception of the era's garden and park architecture in the manor hearts of Estonia and Livonia. Based on what is highlighted in the article it can be said that the tradition and practice of garden art that has shaped the image of Estonian landscape had already been developed by the end of the 17th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Recent literature, largely from Africa, shows mixed effects of own-production on diet diversity. However, the role of own-production, relative to markets, in influencing food consumption becomes more pronounced as market integration increases.Objective: This paper investigates the relative importance of two factors - production diversity and household market integration - for the intake of a nutritious diet by women and households in rural India.Methods: Data analysis is based on primary data from an extensive agriculture-nutrition survey of 3600 Indian households that was collected in 2017. Dietary diversity scores are constructed for women and households is based on 24-hour and 7-day recall periods. Household market integration is measured as monthly household expenditure on key non-staple food groups. We measure production diversity in two ways - field-level and on-farm production diversity - in order to account for the cereal centric rice-wheat cropping system found in our study locations. The analysis is based on Ordinary Least Squares regressions where we control for a variety of village, household, and individual level covariates that affect food consumption, and village fixed effects. Robustness checks are done by way of using a Poisson regression specifications and 7-day recall period.Results: Conventional measures of field-level production diversity, like the number of crops or food groups grown, have no significant association with diet diversity. In contrast, it is on-farm production diversity (the field-level cultivation of pulses and on-farm livestock management, and kitchen gardens in the longer run) that is significantly associated with improved dietary diversity scores, thus suggesting the importance of non-staples in improving both individual and household dietary diversity. Furthermore, market purchases of non-staples like pulses and dairy products are associated with a significantly higher dietary diversity. Other significant determinants of dietary diversity include women's literacy and awareness of nutrition. These results mostly remain robust to changes in the recall period of the diet diversity measure and the nature of the empirical specification.Conclusions: This study contributes to the scarce empirical evidence related to diets in India. Additionally, our results indicate some key intervention areas - promoting livestock rearing, strengthening households' market integration (for purchase of non-staples) and increasing women's awareness about nutrition. These are more impactful than raising production diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is apparent that the dimensions of health within and under the auspices of schooling are open to contributions by other providers that exist outside of school systems. We acknowledge schools often resort to outside providers for a number of reasons; for example, to broaden the curriculum experiences for children, or to compensate for the absence of expertise within a school. The central focus for this paper is to try to understand these phenomena with particular reference to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden initiative. through the theoretical work of Basil Bernstein. Specifically, we were interested in the source of particular kinds of health knowledge for the purposes of acquisition by children, what journey does such knowledge travel to arrive in school classrooms and in the process, how and in what ways is it pedagogised under the conditions of outsourcing? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underutilized food plants (UFP) offer the opportunity to overcome issues that are currently facing sustainable food systems. The scarcity of data on them and the gaps found in the nutrition workforce are challenges that limit their approach. To addresses some of them, a community-based garden project was developed in an undergraduate program in nutrition at a federal university in northeastern Brazil. This paper aims to present the results obtained with this project in its first twelve months concerning the use of Garden-Based Learning (GBL). During 2018 eight plants were studied with the support of this method. The data gathered on UFP by students included: botanical family, vernacular names, origin, the biome of occurrence, food uses, and nutritional indicators. The use of GBL involved some strategies such as definition of theme, elaboration of a culmination product, and fostering the research of different kinds of knowledge. The GBL method mediated the educational process implied with concepts, practices, and attitudes. The plants studied have the potential to contribute with Food and Nutrition Security due some criteria such as adequacy to the biome of the study setting and variety of nutrients. Recognize native and adapted food plants resilient to the dry landscape is central to enhance environmental and human health. The resulting data served as a basis to promote sustainable diets with the surrounding community, from lectures to hands-on activities in the garden and kitchen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to evaluate the situation of Food Security of families with children of primary schools in the rural areas of the Vale do Paraíba Paulista. Methods: a cross-sectional and analytical study, in which it was applied a socioeconomic and demographic questionnaire, questions about the kitchen gardens and orchards plantation's in the houses, and Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistic and the hypothesis tests followed a significance level of 5%. Results: the participants were 98 mothers of children from 4 months to 6 years old, living in the countryside. It was verified that 51% of the families were in Food Insecurity, predominating the light form. It was found association between Food Insecurity and the variables: educated mothers, monthly income of the families and the receiving of social benefit. Conclusion: a considerable number of children assessed who live in the countryside are in Food Insecurity situation; the associated factors relate to the social vulnerability of families. It is necessary to take actions that in fact will improve the access to food and living situation of these families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present communication deals with the infestation of Helicoverpa armigera armigera (Hubner, 1805), the cotton bollworm, an invasive moth, in kitchen gardens of HariVihar-Ranjitpuram residential area (Vijay Park) located in western Dehra Dun city (Uttarakhand), with its systematics, host plants and control measures. Its invasion in kitchen gardens and flower beds has not been noticed earlier and hence taken up its study here for the general awareness of residents/gardeners. It is a highly polyphagous moth and does great harm to the host-plants, especially the important agricultural crops (linseed, maize, paddy, soybean, pulses, tobacco etc.), vegetables (beans, brinjal, capsicum, green-chilli, cucurbits, lemon, okra, peas, potato, tomato etc.) and some flowering plants (Chrysanthemum, Geranium, Rosa etc). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite different interventions to improve child nutrition conditions, chronic malnutrition is still a public health concern in Rwanda, with a high stunting prevalence of 38% among under 5-year-olds children. In Rwanda, only 18% of children aged 6-23 months are fed in accordance with the recommendations for infant and young child feeding practices. The aim of this study was to explore challenges to infant and young child feeding practices and the responses applied to overcome these challenges in Muhanga District, Southern province of Rwanda.Methods: Sixteen (16) focus group discussions were held with mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and community health workers from 4 rural sectors of Muhanga District. The discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed using qualitative data analysis software, Atlas.ti.Results: Two main themes emerged from the data. Firstly, there was a discourse on optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices that reflects the knowledge and efforts to align with early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, as well as initiation of complementary foods at 6 months recommendations. Secondly, challenging situations against optimal practices and coping responses applied were presented in a discourse on struggling with everyday reality. The challenging situations that emerged as impeding appropriate IYCF practices included perceived lack of breast milk, infant cues, women's heavy workload, partner relations and living in poverty. Family and social support from community health workers and health facility staff, financial support through casual labor, and mothers saving and lending groups, as well as kitchen gardens, were used to cope with challenges.Conclusion: Factors influencing IYCF practices are multifaceted. Hence, intervention strategies to improve child nutrition should acknowledge the socially embedded nature of IYCF and address economic and social environmental constraints and opportunities, in addition and above knowledge only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The efficiency of two mechanical pre-treatment systems for biowaste were compared. • Up to 99% of the plastics input could be removed. • Small plastic and inert particles were still found in the pre-treated biowaste. • Unpacking machine showed better impurities removal efficiency than piston press. The treatment of source-separated biowaste is still a challenge due to its high proportion of impurities. Biowaste bins are intended exclusively for the collection of biodegradable matter, such as food, kitchen and garden waste. However, plastics, metals, glass and textiles are also found in biowaste bins. If not properly removed, these impurities cause problems to the treatment facility and depreciate the quality of the final product, when the biowaste is converted to compost. There is ongoing discussion whether the existing treatment systems are able to remove impurities, especially plastics, from biowaste thoroughly enough to ensure that the produced compost complies with state regulations. In this work, two wet mechanical pre-treatment systems were tested for their efficiency to remove impurities. The first system consisted of a screw mill, a star screen, and a food unpacking machine (process I). The second system consisted of a shredder, followed by a piston press with 12 mm pore size (process II). Both processes produced a dry output, which contained the concentrated impurities, and a wet output, which could be used as substrate for anaerobic digestion. Results showed that, although 99% of the incoming plastics were efficiently removed in process I, the impurities concentration was still too high to meet the legal standards of plastics concentration in the final product, according to the German Federal Compost Quality Association (Bundesgütegemeinschaft Kompost e.V.). The removal efficiency of glass particles was low for both processes: at least 80% of the incoming particles were transferred to the wet output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home gardening has many socio-economic benefits for small farmers. Home gardening also called kitchen or homestead gardening. Home gardening study is necessary not only due to its social, food security and economic contribution, but its consideration's negligence in development agendas. Home gardening data provide complete agricultural input in a nation's domestic treasure. Therefore, the current study was carried out with the objective to assess small farmers' involvement in home gardening at district Tank, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa- Pakistan. Three hundred and twenty (320) small farmers were selected randomly on the basis of their involvement in home gardening via a pre-tested close ended interview schedule. Data were analyzed by SPSS. Results showed least small farmers involvement in home gardening might be due to lesser awareness and water scarcity. Small farmers' involvement in home gardening was significantly associated to nursery preparation, water management and manure composting training needs. Trainings for small farmers and women were recommended to create awareness for home gardening and water management at the garden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of diversity of syntopic (inhabiting the same habitat in the same time) small mammals in commensal habitats, such as farmsteads and kitchen gardens, and, as a proxy of their diet, their isotopic niches, was investigated in Lithuania in 2019–2020. We tested whether the separation of species corresponds to the trophic guilds, whether their diets are related to possibilities of getting additional food from humans, and whether their diets are subject to seasonal trends. We analyzed diversity, dominance and distribution of hair δ13C and δ15N values. Diversity and dominance was not stable and differed according to human influence. The highest small mammal species richness occurred in commensal habitats that provided additional food. The degree of separation of species was higher in homestead habitats than in kitchen gardens, where a 1.27% to 35.97% overlap of isotopic niches was observed between pairs of species. Temporal changes in δ13C and δ15N values in the hair of the mammals were not equally expressed in different species. The isotopic overlap may depend on dietary plasticity, minimizing interspecific competition and allowing co-existence of syntopic species. Thus, small mammal trophic ecology is likely related to intensity of agricultural activities in the limited space of commensal habitats.