Uganda has over 2 million orphaned children as a result of HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS). Orphaned children in developing countries are deprived of social, material, and psychological support, and as consequence, tend to be more vulnerable and at increased risk of poor health. Food insecurity remains a fundamental problem for this population, causing micronutrient deficiency and chronic undernutrition, which accounts for over 60% of deaths for children under 5 years. The Permagarden4all initiative, which is a climate-smart strategy that combines permaculture; an agricultural approach using design principles to utilize natural systems for production, and bio-intensive agriculture; an agricultural approach to maximize production on a small amount of land through sustainable practices that increases biodiversity, to create a highly productive garden, sought to improve the nutritional status of undernourished children under 5, and food insecure households in the Wonkole Sub-County in Kamuli District, Uganda.

Using simple tools, vulnerable households learned how to create highly productive gardens and prepared balanced meals that ultimately help reduced their nutritional deficiencies and make them more food secure and resilient. The households utilized a small amount of land to produce nutritious food throughout the year by learning the natural principles of proper gardening and matching those principles to basic practice.

The Permagarden4all project targeted 1250 children, their families/caregivers, and/or 500 households. To inform our program design, we conducted a baseline assessment that included door-to-door household questionnaires/interviews, utilizing the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) tool, Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS), etc., to evaluate the households’ feeding behaviors and health. Experienced Permagarden Education and Management Taskforce (PEMT) working alongside farmers, trained the households on the construction and management of these permagardens.

The permagarden4all initiative also sought to build the capacity of small-scale farmers to withstand and adapt to environmental shocks and stress, including soil infertility, droughts, or floods, and still be able to produce nutritious crops throughout the year.
PEMTs worked with farmers to construct a permagarden in each household to increase access to a nutritious diet. Plant positive pest control practice, focusing on pest and drought resistance crops, such as, sweet potatoes, peas, broad beans, tomatoes, stone head cabbage, etc. were planted. Water conservation and agronomic techniques, including mulching, plastic water bottles, crop rotation, and companion cropping were adopted to further improve crop production.