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The study carried out in a vegetable garden from Orlești village, Vâlcea county, aimed to identify useful and harmful fauna by collecting insects. For this purpose, eight Barber traps were installed, one in each crop: onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, beets and corn. Following the systematic determination and categorization, the following insect orders were identified: Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. The traps were operated from April through August 2023, and samples were collected while crops were in full vegetation. Insects were collected from the traps on a weekly basis, preserved, labelled, and identified using specialized identifiers. In total, 275 specimens were collected, with most species captured from the tomato crop totalling 92 specimens. The analysis of the captured species revealed that 87.53% of the insects belonged to the useful entomofauna, while 12.47% were crop-specific harmful species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two major tribes in the Lower Subansiri district, namely Apatani and Nyishi. The Apatanis belong to the Tibeto-Mongoloid stock. All Apatanis trace their ancestry from one legendary ancestor, Abotani. The inhabitants of Apatani Valley use a distinct dialect, dress, and custom of living from the tribesmen of the adjoining hill country. A solid tribal sentiment, a consciousness of their basic separateness, self-importance in their establishments and traditions, and emotional bonding to their motherland, turned by never-ending labour into a vegetable garden, unite all Apatani and set them apart from the surrounding population which represents them to the outside world. Apatani society is branded with great stability among themselves. Geographic mobility is as limited as social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroecological-based practices (ABPs) play a vital role in urban vegetable gardens, enhancing the quality of life. However, factors driving ABP implementation and their impact on crop production and diversity are not fully understood. Our study assessed the influence of socio-economic and environmental characteristics on ABP adoption, crop diversity, and total weight vegetable production in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Through interviews and a multi-model inference approach, we found that ABP implementation is tied to gardener experience and formative assets (e.g. horticultural experience, specific training). Crop diversity, integral to ABP, is affected by farming practices and farmer characteristics (Farm animals, Pollinator-friendly practices, Experience, Additional training and Environmental knowledge). The Total weight produced was primarily influenced by the type of garden, the gardener's experience and some ABPs. Long-standing commercial and community objectives and the use of farm animals and commercial seed led to greater production. Strengthening key drivers, such as farmer training, through public policies (e.g. income generation, financing, specific training, land access) can bolster the role of urban gardens in providing a healthy environment and promoting food sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Florida ranks second in the United States for vegetable production, and the second largest industry in Florida is agriculture. However, the on-going loss of agricultural land to development, increasing labor costs, and decreasing water resources creates a need for alternative agricultural systems. Hydroponic food production can produce similar yields as traditional agriculture using less water, land, and labor. Equipping urban audiences with tools to grow food hydroponically provides new options for feeding the growing urban population in non-traditional environments. "Set it and forget it" hydroponics is a simple, affordable, and successful introductory hydroponic method. This technique is great for growers new and experienced and is especially well adapted for classroom experiments.

Recent changes in U.S. federal law have recognized the genetic and chemical differences between hemp and marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.), resulting in the legalization of hemp in the United States. The barriers to this plant's growth in the state of Georgia are not well understood due to its prohibition for the past 80 years. Among the many possible obstacles is fungal disease. Fusarium oxysporum (Schlecht. emend. Snyder & Hansen) is a fungus that damages various crops and was previously researched as a biocontrol agent for C. sativa. Thus, this study surveyed hemp farms in Georgia to determine the prevalence of F. oxysporum in native soils via qPCR and correlate their abundance with the physicochemical properties of the soil (soil moisture, pH, ammonium, nitrate, and total inorganic nitrogen). Home vegetable gardens were also surveyed to be compared to the F. oxysporum abundance of hemp farms. We found that 5 out of 20 of the hemp soil samples and 1 out of 8 of the vegetable garden samples tested positive for F. oxysporum. Correlation analysis revealed a strong negative correlation between F. oxysporum abundance and soil moisture (r = -0.850, P=0.031). Although there were several plants reported to have symptoms matching that of fusarium wilt, no hemp farmer reported a substantial loss of crops from fungal disease. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that F. oxysporum may not pose a significant barrier to hemp farming in Georgia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of conflating green with a social and moral good is a historically specific social process. The purpose of this article is to show how that process has made particularly good company for carceral humanism and legitimisation. By tracing initiatives integrating gardening at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex, I argue that projects and narratives cloaked in visions of green, nature, and sustainability obscure and reproduce both popular and institutional claims to expansionist carceral reform in the name of offering an inherently rehabilitative service. Drawing on conversations around commodity fetishism, urban political ecology, sustainability, and carceral reform, this article shows how holding nature as an inherent source of moral high ground that, by default, rehabilitates all who take advantage of it, is to disregard the social mechanisms that in turn naturalise the prison‐industrial complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of the production of space in rural and urban territories and the dialectical relation with agency and environmental activism. The data came from a collective ethnographic action research conducted at the Unified Educational Centre Uirapuru and its surroundings in the periphery of São Paulo in Brazil. In this article, I analyse the narratives which are part of interviews with a primary teacher and a community leader, one responsible for the Green Unified Educational Centre Project and the other for the vegetable garden of Vila Nova Esperança. Both subjects have become environmental agents or transformative activists. I inquire if this has to do with their memories of places and their importance of such memories for their praxis and personalities and asked about their rural past or another situation which may have produced their environmental awareness. Focusing on concepts such as production of space, place as a lived and felt space, and perezhivanie, I analyse the dynamics of transformations through these narrative interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rural areas have long been backward in development, and many villages have completed poverty alleviation with the help of the government. Facing the requirements of sustainable development, it is necessary to change the development path, continuously increase social capital, and effectively connect with government investment resources. The existing research and practice mostly construct the strategy of social capital from the inside of the village, lacking interaction with the superior government. This paper argues for the method of planners' intervention. The advantage is that it links the power of government and villagers, creates a perceptible, experiential, valuable material environment, and promotes collective action. Through this process, the knowledge interaction and social relations in the village can be improved. The purpose of this paper is to study how participatory planning affects the content and mechanism of this process mentioned above. Taking Hongtang village as a case study, we analyze the in-depth changes that participatory planning has brought to the rural space and social level. In the participatory planning practice of Hongtang village, college rural planners took a small vegetable garden as the breakthrough point to stimulate villagers' participation. In the process of the upgrade, planners evolved the interaction between the village committee and villagers in the path of IMEE, which is "Intervene, Motivate, Enable, Empower". Moreover, planners always maintained contact with the higher-level government. Through the upgrade of small vegetable gardens, the villagers' initiative was brought into practice, the social capital was fully explored, and an effective link with the government's resource allocation was realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerning the dependence of land taxation on the cadastral or market value of lands in developed and developing countries, the role of land resources in the system of socio-economic development is quite high. World studies show the presence of methodological problems related, among other things, to the composition of price-forming factors of mass assessment. In relation to garden and vegetable garden lands, the issue of taking into account factors related to the immediate environment and soil quality is especially relevant, which is associated with the social justice of land taxation. The current paper aims to determine the influence of factors of the immediate environment and soil fertility on the cadastral value of the lands under consideration by determining which methodological apparatus has been built. Modeling of the specific indicator of cadastral value (SICV) of land plots is performed on the example of five gardening and vegetable gardening partnerships of the Belgorod district, where 79% of the territory is occupied by agricultural lands, which are quite diverse in soil composition, relief, and other studied factors. A linear model of dependence between local factors and the UPCS is proved. The reliability of the model is confirmed by testing for homoscedasticity, autocorrelation, and statistical significance of factors. The results of determining the cadastral value demonstrated an average change of 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Given the benefits of gardening for physical and psychological health, we explored whether gardening was associated with lower risks of subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a precursor of dementia, and SCD-related functional limitations. Methods: Included in this cross-sectional study were 136,748 participants aged 45 + years old from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2019 survey, who were then categorized into three groups according to self-reported exercise status: non-exercisers, gardeners, and other exercisers. SCD was assessed via a questionnaire, and SCD-related functional limitations were referred to as having difficulties in engaging in household or social activities due to SCD. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to assess the associations of gardening with SCD and SCD-related functional limitations, adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, and health status. Mediation analyses were conducted to examine whether the observed association between gardening and SCD was mediated by energy expenditure (MET-hours/week), depression status, and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Results: Overall, 11.1% and 5.4% of participants self-reported experiencing SCD and SCD-related functional limitations, respectively. The adjusted OR for gardeners vs. non-exercisers, was 0.72 (95% CI 0.62–0.83) for SCD and 0.57 (95% CI 0.44–0.73) for SCD-related functional limitations. The observed association between gardening and SCD was explained by higher energy expenditure (39.0%), lower likelihood of having depression (21.5%), and higher consumption of fruits and vegetables (3.4%) (P<0.05 for all). Similar patterns were observed for SCD-related functional limitations. Conclusion: In this nationally representative sample, gardening was associated with better cognitive status, which may be mainly attributed to better depression status and energy expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of People & Nature is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi's rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi's rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi's urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the few researchers who have approached Alonso de Herrera's Libro de agricultura, the accuracy and richness of its terminology would be two of its main features. Under this premise, in this paper we focus on the fourth book of this six-volume treatise on agriculture, which is dedicated to the knowledge of everything related to the vegetable gardens. After an appropriate lexicological classification of the selected vocabulary, we examine the effect that these words has haved on the Spanish lexicographic tradition, with particular attention to the Diccionario de autoridades--after being Herrera selected as one of the classics of the Hispanic literature for its preparation--, as well as the Covarrubias' Tesoro (1611)--in this case is due to its noticeable encyclopedism, which connect with the rich and assorted information supplied by Herrera--. After our analysis, we conclude the low impact of the Libro de agricultura in the first academic dictionary. On the other hand, we detect a greater harmony between Covarrubias and Herrera, having found several lexicographical articles from the Tesoro with information of vegetable gardens clearly coinciding with the Libro de agricultura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 60,000 food pantries in the United States are well known for charity-based emergency food assistance and edible food recovery, serving 53 million people in 2022 (Feeding America, 2023a). Thousands of urban gardens emphasize vegetable production and food justice, but lack strong connections to food pantries. We explore how food pantries and urban gardens could partner to transform pantries into distribution sites that also become food justice education and organizing spaces. To assess this potential, we engaged in participatory action research with a leading social services provider that offers programs supporting both organized urban gardeners and a large urban food pantry in San Jose, California. We conducted and analyzed 21 interviews with food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners affiliated with the same agency, and eight interviews with other urban gardeners and food pantry staff from external organizations. We found that while both food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners expressed concerns about increasing healthy food access and reducing food waste, pantry volunteers were often unfamiliar with food justice and uncomfortable talking about race and culturally rooted food preferences. These findings were similar with the informants from external organizations. To support urban gardener and food pantry volunteer collaboration, we developed a food justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste management in which both groups co-create onsite vermicomposting infrastructure and partner with a university to design a training program focused on diversity, justice, and systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recurring debate in cities and in the literature is whether gardening food to eat is essential or recreational. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, some political jurisdictions closed gardens, deeming them non-essential to life – including the province of Ontario where fieldwork for this study was conducted. This paper analyzes mixed methods data generated pre-pandemic to understand the role of urban agriculture in the lives of gardeners in Toronto, Canada. When people produce food for the home, is their activity recreational or an essential source of food? We employ a social-ecological lens and find that gardening supported health and wellbeing and provided participants with an important food source, oftentimes culturally significant. Qualitative and quantitative data describes the rich experiences of gardener participants in the diverse city. We argue that gardens are essential and seeing them as part of culinary infrastructure makes space for nonmarket food production in food systems analyses. Viewing gardens as essential should prompt policy decisions, particularly during crises, which support social-ecological, nonmarket food sources as important parts of culinary infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Dietary diversity is key in determining the quality of a person’s diet by including the consumption of several food groups. Vegetable gardening is a holistic approach to producing nutritious food and reducing food insecurity. Higher vegetable consumption is closely associated with better diet quality and dietary diversity score. Objective This study aims to analyze the vegetable consumption and diet diversity of households with vegetable gardens and households without vegetable gardens. Methods The study used a quantitative method and a descriptive and inferential research design. Given the specific profile of respondents, purposive sampling was employed. However, quotas per profile were set. The data were collected using quantitative tools such as guided questionnaires and a 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire. Results The majority of the gardeners were female, ages 54 to 64, mainly living in the Barangay UP campus, with high school as their highest educational attainment. The non-gardeners were Vegetable gardeners who earned less than ₱20,000 compared to the non-gardeners who earned. Vegetable gardeners were likelier to meet the recommended vegetable consumption and had a higher Dietary Diversity Score. Conclusions The respondents who met the recommended vegetable intake of three to five servings were mostly vegetable gardeners. Thus, vegetable gardening aids in increasing the vegetable consumption of households because of the accessibility they have to nutritious foods compared to households that do not practice home gardening.

This paper shares the first reflections of an agroecology experience carried out by women - rural and urban-from the department of Valle Viejo, Catamarca, who became food producers in the context of the pandemic. The turning point was the arrival of the Rural Women Program in 2020, through which many women joined it, learning how to work the land and new paradigms linked to agroecology; firstly, out of necessity, then as a possible option. As social researchers, we are interested in analyzing that particular spatial and historical experience that does not admit copying from another. In this case, women force us to enrich existing theoretical corpus on agroecology from a situated experience that has little to do with what has already been written. Finally, the contribution that we will share comes from an ongoing research, and it is intended to show the multifactoriality of the space that occupies us, the dialogues emerged and the possibilities of carrying out a collaborative work in the production of new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Linhas is the property of Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Intergenerational leisure can be a tool to stimulate and reinforce the learning of primary school students. The aim of this study was to examine which leisure activities shared by grandparents and their grandchildren are carried out from the perception of intergenerational learning as one of the main reasons for joint practice, and its link with the grandparents' level of education. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered to 329 students aged 6 to 12 years in the north of Spain, and a descriptive study and inferential analysis of the data were carried out. The leisure activities that students highlight the most as experiences in which they perceive that by sharing them with their grandparents, they learn from them, are board games, artistic activities, caring for plants or gardens and reading. There are only significant differences in the learning perceived by primary school students depending on the level of education of their grandparents in caring for plants or vegetable gardens, as the grandparents of children aged 6 to 12 in the northern part of Spain are more able to teach their grandchildren to care for plants or vegetable gardens when their level of education is primary education. These four activities highlighted by the grandchildren as facilitators of knowledge are very interesting instruments to stimulate and reinforce the education of primary school students, so involving grandparents in their grandchildren's education and taking advantage of their knowledge and experience, as well as their ability to stimulate their grandchildren, is a good strategy to turn free time into valuable leisure time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Diversitas Journal is the property of Diversitas Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pedagogía Social is the property of Pedagogia Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pedagogía Social is the property of Pedagogia Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the study was to identify the useful and harmful fauna by collecting insects from a vegetable garden in the Păușești village, Valcea county, where 5 Barber traps were installed, one in each crop (onions, garlic, beans, peppers and potatoes). Following the determination and systematic classification, we reported the following orders of insects: Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Diptera, Dermaptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. The traps were installed in May 2021 and in 2022 the 2021 traps ran until September. Samples were taken during five months (May and September) in 2021 and in 2022 from May to present when the crops were in full vegetation. Insects were collected from traps weekly during a growing season, preserved, labelled and determined using specialized determiners. A total of 275 specimens were collected, most species were caught from onion crops totalling 75 specimens. Following the determinations and the analysis of the captured species, we can conclude that 73.4% of the captured insects belonging to the useful entomofauna are the most numerous and the species that cause damage to agricultural crops represent 26.6% and are crop-specific pest species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Cosmopolites sordidus is one of the most damaging pests of banana worldwide. To date, most studies have addressed the control of this pest at the plot level, without considering the landscape scale, whereas between plots dispersion could be important. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of C. sordidus to cross contrasted field interfaces. The 10 following interfaces were investigated: forests, hedgerows, field tracks, grassy areas, finely and coarsely tilled soil zones, ditches with and without water, vegetable gardening zones, and pheromone trap lines. Individually marked weevils were released on one side of the interface and recovered daily on the other side, allowing the estimation of the velocity and the crossing success of C. sordidus for each interface. RESULTS: Highest permeabilities (with a crossing success above 70%) were obtained for vegetable gardening zones, finely tilled soil zones, forests, and coarsely tilled soil zones. Intermediate permeabilities were measured for hedgerows, field tracks, grassy areas, and ditches without water. Only the line of pheromone traps and submerged ditches had a strong barrier effect on C. sordidus, with a crossing success below 12%. Wind strength, percentage of sky, and vegetation height were negatively correlated to the C. sordidus crossing success. CONCLUSION: Overall, our results showed that only ditches with water and lines of pheromone traps were efficient in stopping the dispersal of C. sordidus. The next step will be to conduct research to incorporate the use of these two interfaces at farm and landscape scale into integrated pest management strategies. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetables play a vital role in human health. However, the average vegetable consumption among Chinese rural residents does not meet the minimum intake (300 g/adult person/day) recommended by the Chinese Dietary Guidelines. Homestead gardening—defined as growing vegetables or other food for home consumption, usually in the backyard of the household or on collectively allocated garden land—can play a significant role in promoting vegetable consumption in rural areas of developing countries. But empirical evidence on the effects of homestead gardening in China is scarce. This paper sheds new insights on the impacts of homestead gardening on rural households' vegetable consumption. We employ the three‐stage procedure instrumental variables methods to disentangle the endogeneity of the homestead garden variable and propensity score matching for robustness check. The results show that homestead gardening increases vegetable consumption by 12.7% on average. Further heterogeneous analysis shows that homestead gardening has a larger effect on those groups with vegetable intake levels in the middle of the distribution. The impact of homestead gardening was strongest for the consumption of dark‐colored vegetables. Our results can provide new perspectives for future rural planning, dietary and nutritional health transformation, and precision policy formulation. [EconLit Citations: Q1, D1, Q13]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new pretreatment method termed ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) which is combined with solid-phase extraction which is combined with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (SPE-DLLME) followed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) analysis has been developed for the determination of diazinon in garden parsley as vegetable samples. The analyte was extracted from garden parsley sample using ultrasound-assisted extraction followed by solid-phase extraction followed by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. Various parameters that affect the efficiency of the extraction techniques have been optimized. The calibration plot was linear in the range of 5.0–1,000 μg kg−1 with detection limit of 1.0 μg kg−1 for diazinon in garden parsley samples. The results confirm the suitability of the UAE-SPE-DLLME-GC-FID as a sensitive method for the analysis of the targeted analyte in garden parsley samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental - Agriambi is the property of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Humans have been cultivating plants since ancient times. Currently, the offer of fruits and vegetables is very rich (all year round) but most of them are of poor quality (according to the principle of the norm and form). Everything becomes big or small, beautiful or ugly...and etc, by comparison with...Regarding fruits and vegetables, only those who have consumed quality products know the difference. The parents had activities that allowed them to maintain a vegetable garden, an orchard of trees and a few domestic animals. Along the way I took the initiative and continued this activity (today the animals are limited to a few chickens). In this paper I will address the cultivation (exclusively organic) of plants from the personal (family) garden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Urban vegetable gardens are very often a feature of cities that want to offer their citizens a more sustainable lifestyle by producing their own food products. However, cities can have significant pollution levels (or pollution hotspots) due to specific sources of pollution, such as traffic. Among the various pollutants, microplastics (MPs) are emerging as a consensual concern due to the awareness of the environmental contamination, their bioaccumulation potential and human intake, and, consequently unknown human health impacts. The present study compared the content of MPs in lettuce plants cultivated in Lisbon urban gardens with those cultivated in a rural area, as well as samples bought in supermarkets. Microplastics were detected in all washed leaves, with mean levels ranging from 6.3 ± 6.2 to 29.4 ± 18.2 MPs/g. Lettuce grown in urban gardens from areas with high traffic density showed higher MPs levels. Weak positive Spearman's rank correlations were found between MPs content and concentrations of Cu and S (determined by Particle Induced X-Ray Emission, PIXE), suggesting a possible role of traffic contribution to MPs levels, as both elements are considered traffic-source tracers. These results contribute to shed light on the MP contamination of vegetables grown in such urban environments, that may represent a potential MP exposure route through the dietary intake, corresponding to a 70% increase in annual MP intake compared to lettuces bought in supermarkets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to analyze the contribution of home garden vegetables in reducing stunting among 6‐ to 23‐month‐old children from South Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The quasi‐experimental study design was used. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the districts and study communities. A total of 94 purposively selected vegetable producer (intervention) households and 260 randomly selected non‐producer (control) households were included in the study (1:3 ratio). The recumbent length of children was measured using horizontal wooden board to the nearest 0.1 cm. The length‐for‐age Z‐scores were computed using WHO‐Anthro 2006 software. Propensity score‐matching and difference‐in‐difference (DID) estimates were used to analyze data using STATA software version 12. Prevalence of child stunting was 19.8 (12.7–29.4) and 21.1 (16.4–26.7)% (baseline) and 43.5 (33.5–54.1) and 46.5 (45.7–47.2)% (end line) among intervention and control groups, respectively. Child stunting was higher for boys and older children from both intervention and control households. DID estimation revealed that there was no significant difference in child stunting between intervention and control households (DID = 1.7, p =.604). However, there was an intervention effect of −0.5, 2.5, and 1.7% in the prevalence of child stunting among females, males, and both sexes, respectively. Vegetable production as an intervention strategy reduced the prevalence of stunting in children aged 6–23 months. However, vegetable production needs to be well integrated with other nutrition‐sensitive interventions to realize the objective of reducing child stunting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]