Vegetable gardens and their impact on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals

The attainment of the Millennium Development Goals is at severe risk, owing to rising malnutrition and high child stunting and mortality rates, greater poverty, a large increase in the incidence of noncommunicable diseases, and lack of progress in women's empowerment. Here, the role of vegetable home, school, community, and disaster recovery gardens as a pro-poor and pro-environment intervention in the developing world is reviewed. This includes the contribution of vegetable gardens in improving food and nutritional security, generating additional income, providing employment, contributing to better health, and helping to empower disadvantaged groups in society. The implications of global research in the tropics and subtropics over the last 20–30 years are assessed over a wide geographic and linguistic range. The effectiveness and sustainability of such interventions are considered in the light of their contribution to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. Suggestions for potential new directions for research are made, and a call for better integration of effort in research and development between the agriculture, nutrition, and health sectors is presented as a key issue if rapid development progress is to be made and sustained.