Dem Lehrer Friedrich Wilhelm Gerdes (1891–1978) war es zu verdanken, dass in der Landschule von Victorbur (Ostfriesland) ein in der Weimarer Republik sehr beachtetes Versuchsschulprojekt entstehen konnte. Er setzte sich zum Ziel, seine Schüler im Gesamtunterricht ganzheitlich durch praktische, im Schulgarten vorgefundene Themen fächerübergreifend zu unterrichten. Die Schulkinder sollten durch Arbeit lernen und Zusammenhänge erleben. Die Tätigkeit im Garten diente sowohl Erziehungs- als auch Bildungszielen, bei denen nicht die wirtschaftlichen Überlegungen im Vordergrund standen. Der Schulgarten selbst war ein geeignetes Lehrmittel, die Landschulkinder in ihrem eigenen Umfeld pädagogisch zu erreichen und die Enge des Schulraumes zu verlassen. / The booklet shows the influence and work of the education reformer Friedrich Wilhelm Gerdes. The teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Gerdes (1891–1978) had in the Weimarer Republik a most considerable experimental school-project created. In his school garden in Victorbur (Ostfriesland, Germany) the pupils learned holistic by practically themes, they have found in the garden. The pupils should learning by doing and understand the connections. The operations in this experimental school benefited the education-targets, not the profitable targets. In this reform pedagogy project, the school garden broke with the traditional closely schoolroom. Pupils learned on her own environment.

At Constitutional level, legislation in South Africa entrenches the provision of food and water for all its citizens. In instances where citizens are unable to provide in these basic requirements for themselves, social assistance should be provided to ensure a healthy life for all. In this regard, legislation and Town Planning ordinances and regulations are in place to ensure that built-up environments in which we live and work are healthy and safe for all. However, this study revealed that food provisioning by community gardeners is peripheral in legislation, ordinances and regulations and the practice of urban agriculture is, in many instances, in conflict with the principle of safe and healthy food for all. Community gardeners/urban agriculturists are food farmers within the city who produce food for themselves and others without the checks and balances that are otherwise applicable to food brought into the city from outside. While food production on any piece of available land is vital for these community gardeners for their sustenance and survival, it could become a potential health hazard if no checks or testing measures are in place to ensure that the food being produced is safe for human consumption. The study sought the views and perceptions of community gardeners, residents, Environmental Health Practitioners and Town Planners in the eThekwini Metro region with regards to community gardening/urban agriculture and its impact on food provisioning to citizens. For data collection, a one-on-one interviewing survey method was used with all four groups and results were calculated and converted to average percentages and analysed. The results revealed that there was conflict between legislation, ordinances and regulations regarding the production of food in the built-up environment of the EThekwini Municipality. It was also revealed that there was no cohesive policy to control the production of food produced and sold by community gardeners in the study area. The need for control measures and regulations regarding food production and sale by community gardeners was highlighted. Moreover, where ineffective or none such measures or controls exist, a transparent and consultative process involving all stakeholders must take place in order to establish up viable and sustainable control measures. The people who will be most affected by these rules, namely the community gardeners, should be pivotal role players in the establishment of a sustainable urban agriculture policy. Recommendations to address the problems illuminated by the study are presented. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Management)

South Africa is classified as a semi-arid environment with limited natural water sources. Amenity landscapes provide broad ranging benefits for society. Amenity landscapes account for between 31% - 50% of water supplied for domestic and urban use. To reduce water use and water conservation in amenity landscapes, strategies, regulations and interventions are required. Every landscape is a unique complex system with a large number of variables that differ from each other. The variability can be summarized into management/design, irrigation, climatological, edaphic and plant related aspects. Several amenity landscape water use models have been developed around the world and two in South Africa. This study developed a comprehensive South African hydrozone based plant database and an Amenity Landscape Water Use Model South Africa (ALWUMSA). This will improve hydrozoning of amaneity landscapes and ultimately also improve water conserbvation for these sites. It allows users/owners to determine water use requirements through an extensive data gathering, from aspects such as design, management, microclimate, environmental, edaphic, irrigation and plant related factors. Comparisons of results from ALWUMSA to three test sites, selected existing models and a range of scenarios produced results demonstrating that ALWUMSA consistently projected lower water requirements. The model also allows for site aspects to be changed thus encouraging end users to implement specific water saving intiatives with the amenity landscape to reduce water use. These savings will be translated into both water-use savings as well as financial savings for users of the amenity landscape water use model. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Science)

L’agriculture biologique sort aujourd’hui des frontières des pays du Nord en se développant dans de nombreux pays dits du Sud. Cette dynamique a tout d’abord été celle d’un positionnement sur des filières d’export de produits à haute valeur ajoutée. Parallèlement à l’export, émergent dans un nombre croissant de pays en développement, et notamment au Kenya, des marchés domestiques. La thèse pose la question des dynamiques permettant l’émergence et le développement de ces nouveaux marchés. La recherche est structurée autour de quatre questions. La première porte sur les formes d’organisation des échanges de produits biologiques à Nairobi. À partir du cadre de l’économie néo-institutionnelle, nous expliquons comment, en l’absence de systèmes de certification crédibles, ces produits parviennent à être vendus avec premiums. La seconde question porte sur les conditions d’accès des producteurs à ces marchés. Il est fréquent de mettre en avant leur caractère plus rémunérateur. Or, une partie des producteurs qui pourraient effectivement vendre sur ces marchés privilégient les marchés conventionnels. À partir du concept de coûts de transaction, nous montrons le rôle de coûts de négociation et de suivi. Dans notre troisième chapitre, nous posons la question des effets de l’accès à ces marchés sur la diversification des cultures des producteurs, et par là sur la durabilité économique et environnementale de leurs exploitations. À partir des apports de la micro-économie, nos résultats confirment l’effet positif de l’accès aux marchés biologiques.Enfin, notre quatrième et dernier chapitre consiste en une analyse de l’efficacité de ces marchés et des conditions de leur pérennité. Nous proposons une grille d’analyse associant économie de l’information et analyse de la construction de la qualité. Elle nous permet de comparer les différents dispositifs de certification existant au Kenya. L’analyse montre que le dispositif le moins efficace est celui qui est amené à se développer, posant ainsi la question de la pérennité des marchés biologiques domestiques kenyans. / Over the past two decades the organic agro-food system has been transformed, extending beyond Northern countries and expanding in many so-called developing countries.This dynamic was first a positioning on high added value products’ export markets. Since several years, domestic markets have emerged in a growing number of developing countries, including Kenya. This thesis attempts to shed light on the dynamics explaining these new markets’ emergence and development. The research is based on four questions. The first one concerns the way organic transactions have been organized in Nairobi. Based on neo institutional economics, we explain how, in the absence of credible certification systems, these products are able to be sold with premium. The second question deals with the conditions of producers’ access to these markets. It is common to highlight that organic domestic Kenyan markets are more profitable than conventional ones. However, some producers, who could actually sell in these markets, prefer conventionalones. Thanks to the concept of transaction costs, we show the role of negotiation and monitoring transaction costs. Chapter 3 analyses the effects of selling on organic market on crops’ diversification, as a proxy of economic and environmental sustainability .Based on microeconomics’ contributions our results confirm the positive effect of organic markets. Finally, our fourth and final chapter provides an analysis of the conditions of these markets sustainability. We propose an analysis grid combining economy of information and quality construction approach, based on Hirschman (1970) works.This grid helps us comparing different certification and verification schemes existing in Kenya. Analysis shows that the least effective scheme is the one that is bound to grow,raising the question of the sustainability of Kenyan domestic organic markets.

In this study I explore the social organization of community gardening in Toronto. I have done this by: exploring (a) the experiences of community garden coordinators hired by non-profit organizations do to improve poor Torontonians’ access to food, and how this work occurs within and is affected by the larger framework of (b) the City of Toronto’s Community Gardens Program. This inquiry was carried out using institutional ethnography, with data collection occurring through open-ended interviews with garden coordinators and the analysis of non-profit and municipal documents. The results of the study are that garden coordinator’s work to improve access to food for poor Torontonians is at odds with the municipal understanding of community gardens and park space existing to attract economic investment to Toronto via “creative professionals.”

In this study I explore the social organization of community gardening in Toronto. I have done this by: exploring (a) the experiences of community garden coordinators hired by non-profit organizations do to improve poor Torontonians’ access to food, and how this work occurs within and is affected by the larger framework of (b) the City of Toronto’s Community Gardens Program. This inquiry was carried out using institutional ethnography, with data collection occurring through open-ended interviews with garden coordinators and the analysis of non-profit and municipal documents. The results of the study are that garden coordinator’s work to improve access to food for poor Torontonians is at odds with the municipal understanding of community gardens and park space existing to attract economic investment to Toronto via “creative professionals.”

Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift befaßt sich mit der Kultur der Gärten, wie sie alltäglich an unseren Eigenheimen stattfindet. Sie fragt danach, was uns unsere Gärten heute eigentlich bedeuten. Sind sie bloßes Abstandsgrün oder kleine Paradiese? Brauchen wir sie als Reste von Natur oder dienen sie uns als dekorierte Garagenzufahrten? Ziehen wir uns in ihre Idylle zurück oder präsentieren wir uns mit ihnen der Öffentlichkeit? Sind die Gärten Inseln der Kreativität oder ist alles schon vom Baumarktsortiment vorgegeben? Die Studie sucht nicht so sehr Antworten, sondern ist darauf gerichtet, die relevanten Fragen zu finden, die uns ermöglichen, das Phänomen Eigenheimgarten zu erschließen. Aufgrund des geringen Forschungsstandes zum Thema wurde ein Ansatz gewählt, der mit möglichst offenen, explorativen und interpretativen Mitteln das Feld erschließen kann, dabei aber ungeprüfte Annahmen und Vorurteile weitestgehend auszuschließen vermag. Mit Methoden der Qualitativen Sozialanalyse wurden Gartenbesitzer befragt und ihre Gärten interpretiert. Dabei wurden Interviewdaten, fotodokumentarische und plangrafische Daten erhoben und mit hermeneutischen Verfahren ausgewertet. Das Ergebnis der Studie ist eine Sammlung und Diskussion für die heutige private Gartenkultur relevanter Themenbereiche und Fragestellungen.

Traditional peoples are often described as "stewards of agricultural diversity", yet little research has been conducted on the determinants of agrodiversity. This thesis focuses on agrodiversity and how peasant farmers build and maintain cultivated plant diversity in home gardens found in three distinct traditional communities along the Maranon river in the Peruvian Amazon---an upland mixed agricultural village, a lowland agricultural village, and a lowland fishing village. Data were gathered through household surveys (n = 192) and in-depth interviews (n = 112). Substantial variation in cultivated plant diversity was found among and within villages. Residents with the highest home garden agrodiversity tend to be among the wealthier households, and are more likely to have both established their own garden, and tended it for longer periods. Complex planting material exchange networks underlie the establishment and maintenance of home garden agrodiversity. The results underscore the importance of studying local variations in agricultural diversity, and exchange networks that bring agricultural planting stock to peasant farmers.

Urban agriculture is a strategy poor urban, informal settlement residents adopt to reduce poverty and improve food security and child nutrition. It is widely asserted in the literature and development circles that household vegetable gardens can provide a significant percentage of recommended dietary allowances of macro- and micro-nutrients in the diets of pre-school children. These children are vulnerable in terms of food access and nutrition. The first five years of a child’s life are crucial to psychological well-being. This study set out to determine the impact of home gardens on access to food, dietary diversity and nutrient intake of pre-school children in an informal settlement in Eatonside, in the Vaal Region, Johannesburg, South Africa. The home gardening project was undertaken in five phases, namely the planning phase; a baseline survey (including quantitative food intake frequencies, 24-hour recall, individual dietary diversity questionnaires and anthropometric measurements); a training programme on home gardens; planting and tending the gardens and evaluating the impact of home gardens on access to food, dietary diversity and nutrient intake of pre-school children. Children aged two to five years (n=40) were selected to participate in the study. The sample population consisted of 22 boys and 18 girls. The children were categorised into three groups at the start of the project: children of 24-35 months (four boys and one girl), 36-47 months (four boys and five girls) and 48-60 months (14 boys and 12 girls). All but 10 per cent of the children’s consumption of foods in the food groups increased. At the start of the project, low consumption rates were observed for white tubers and roots, vitamin A-rich fruit, other fruit and fish. After the gardening project, the number of children consuming vegetables increased considerably. There was an increase in the intake of food groups over the period of the project. The number of children consuming vitamin A-rich increased the most, with all children (45 per cent improvement) consuming vitamin A-rich vegetables at the end of the project, compared with just over half at the start of the project. The consumption of vegetables increased with 78 per cent of the children consuming beans and 33 per cent beetroot. Most children (95 per cent) consumed cabbage, carrots and spinach post-home gardening. Seventy eight percent of children consumed beans by the end of the project, but only a third of the children had consumed beetroot during the post-project survey period. Intakes of all nutrients considered in the study improved by the end of the project, except for energy and calcium, which dropped marginally, but both remained at around 50 per cent below requirements. Twenty five percent of boys (24-35 months) were underweight and below the 50th percentile at the pre- and post-project stages. The same boys were severely stunted (on average -4.41 standard deviations below the third percentile). Of the boys aged 36-47 months, 25 per cent were stunted pre-project, but by the end of the project, this number had decreased to 50 per cent. Twenty one per cent of the older boys (48-60 months) were within their normal height for age. Twenty five per cent of girls were underweight (36-47 months). A slight change was observed in the 36-47 month group, where the mean changed from -0.14 standard deviations (below 50th percentile) pre-project to -0.5 (below 50th percentile) post-project. All girls aged 24-35 months were below -2 standard deviations pre-project. After the home gardening project, the figure dropped to 50 per cent. For girls aged 36-47 months, 25 per cent were below -3 standard deviations after the project, compared with 20 per cent pre-project. Height-for- age for girls aged 36-47 months dropped by 10 per cent below -2 standard deviation post-home gardening. Girls from 24 to 35 months were severely stunted [-3.02 (below 3rd percentile) pre- and -2.31 (below 5th percentile) post-project]. Stunting was observed in 36-47 months girls who had means of -2.39 (below 3rd percentile) and 1.86 (below 25th percentile) both pre-and post-gardening respectively and were at risk of malnutrition. The older girls were well nourished with means of height-for-age at -0.88 (below 50th percentile) pre-project and -0.92 (below 50th percentile) post-project. Home-gardening improved food access, dietary diversity, energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, vitamin A and iron intakes, but did not make a significant impact on the malnutrition of the children in the project or ensure adequate intakes. Home gardens had a positive impact on height-for-age scores; but had no significant impact on mean weight-for-age and height-for-weight z-scores of the pre-school children. Increases in carbohydrate and fat intakes were shown to have the only significant impact on the children’s nutritional status and only with regard to improving height-for-age scores. The results show that the gardens did not have the expected impact on children’s nutrition, but confirm that increases in incomes from gardening are likely to have a greater impact through savings from consuming produce grown and selling produce to buy energy-dense foods for the children. This needs to be considered in nutrition interventions. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This study explores the perceptions of the value of community gardens by members and the relationship between this activity and homestead farming activities in Ogagwini, Umbumbulu District, KwaZulu-Natal. Establishing and supporting community gardens is consistent with the strategies adopted by South African national and provincial government to alleviate poverty, address food security and improve livelihoods for rural people. However, there is a lack of literature available on why rural people choose to involve themselves in community garden projects and whether these reasons are those intended by policy makers. There is abundant research on community gardening – most of it either urban or not specific as to setting. This literature is useful for the generic information it provides, but does not provide the scope of understanding that is unique to rural community gardening in South Africa. Thus this study contributes to understanding rural community gardens and possible adjustments needed by extension workers and development strategies to ensure effective food gardening practices in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The first extension facilitated community garden activities in Ogagwini were established in 1993 with the support of the provincial DAEA. Some community garden members are also members of the Ezemvelo Farmers Organisation (EFO), a group of farmers engaged in commercial small-scale farming. This research attempted to find out how community gardening activities were related to small-scale commercial homestead activities. Specifically, the study sought to investigate issues such as preferences among farmers between community gardens and homestead farming; the social and economic benefits derived from community gardens; and perceptions around environmental/ecological issues surrounding community gardens and homestead farming. A survey questionnaire on community garden activities and perceptions was given to EFO members and used to identify participants for this study. Committee members of the EFO (also members of community gardens) arranged for five gardens to be investigated. In-depth data was collected at the actual garden sites using semi-structured focus group discussions and participant observation. The data from the survey questionnaire was verified and clarified by semi structured probing during these discussions. A spiral approach was used to organise responses and make sense of the data within social, economic, and environmental themes. After three garden visits, no new knowledge was forthcoming and due to time constraints the study was limited to these three groups. The study found that there were no distinct linkages between homestead farms and community gardens, but that the systems operated on different principles. Community gardens were used to produce cabbages, carrots, beetroot, onions, green peppers and spinach mainly for consumption, whereas homestead farms produce field crops such as maize, amadumbes (taro), sweet potato, potatoes, pumpkins and peanuts. The study further identified social and economic benefits and environmental impacts and reinforces the importance of knowledge sharing amongst participants. The main benefits identified were income generation, sharing of knowledge and technical support The Department of Agriculture should carefully address sustainability issues when planning and implementing community gardens. This would include being able to carry on in the absence of an agricultural extension officer. Training programmes need to ensure that learning is transferable; that it is not overly commodity or technology specific and includes promotion of environmental awareness. This study has highlighted a number of potentially valuable issues for further situated research in the area of farming protocols, markets and the social value of community gardening within rural communities.