ArticleFood policy2022
Are home gardening programs a sustainable way to improve nutrition? Lessons from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Rufiji, Tanzania.
Article in Food policy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of nutrition-sensitive interventions in improving nutritional outcomes: findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal for equity in health · 2025Pooled it
- Impact pathways of a homestead food production programme on women's dietary diversity in Bangladesh.Nature food · 2026Trial
- Women-led sustainable irrigation improved indicators of nutritional status in children from Northern Benin.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Trial
- Impact of Intervention Strategies on Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Low-, Middle- and High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.Food and nutrition bulletin · 2025Article
- A Global and Some National Perspectives on the Current Evidence of Interventions on Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries.Food and nutrition bulletin · 2025Article
- Nutrition Security and Homestead Gardeners: Evidence from the Himalayan Mountain Region.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Exploring food and nutrition security perspectives among high school adolescents in Machakel District, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: a qualitative study.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Women's input and decision-making in agriculture are associated with diet quality in rural Tanzania.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Homestead food production (HFP) programs may improve diet and nutrition outcomes by increasing availability of nutrient dense foods such as vegetables and supporting livelihoods. We conducted a pair-matched cluster-randomized controlled trial to investigate whether vegetable home gardens could improve women's dietary diversity, household food security, maternal and child iron status, and the probability of women consuming nutrient-rich food groups. We enrolled 1,006 women of reproductive age (18-49 years) in ten villages in Pwani Region, Eastern Tanzania, matched the villages into pairs according to village characteristics, and randomly allocated villages to intervention or control. Households in the intervention villages received agricultural training, inputs to promote home production of nutritious crops, and nutrition and health education. Data were collected in 2016, 2017, and 2019 and analyzed using linear regression models with propensity score weighting adjusting for individual-level confounders, differential loss to follow-up, and fixed effects for village pairs to accommodate the pair-matched design. Results after one year of the intervention (previously published) found significant improvements in dietary diversity. However, three years after the start of the intervention the difference in dietary diversity disappeared, even though the number of women who grew at least one crop was significantly higher (75 percentage points, 95% CI: 72, 81) in treatment households compared to controls. Barriers to maintaining a home garden, including lack of irrigation opportunities and fencing materials, and social disruption may have precluded sustained impacts from home gardening in this context. Future home garden programs should carefully consider mechanisms and investments needed for sustained impact over time.
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Registered trials
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