The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

The project’s long term goals are to develop strategies to assist/promote a sustainable peri-urban and urban garden cropping enterprise system for small and minority women growers. Vibrant outreach, training and demonstration of market oriented sustainable peri-urban and urban gardening technology, which includes the production process, pre and postharvest handling, economic and marketing information, and cropping system will be a new paradigm in training of women growers. This will encourage the peri-urban and urban gardeners to be receptive and willing to adopt the technology. Hands-on workshops will be conducted to train the women trainers and growers on various cultural practices, pre and postharvest management technology, logistics, marketing and entrepreneurship. Gardening demonstration plots will be used to demonstrate how to grow more and better quality produce and also how and where to market profitably.  This approach will empower women to increase food production, reduce poverty and improve household health. The project is expected to stimulate economic activities by creating employment opportunities for women to improve their income in peri-urban and urban areas. It will create opportunities for local growers to supply locally grown garden produce as well for their own consumption family. Peri-urban and urban gardening will be significant contributors to overall quality of life for the communities. This project covers urban and periurban areas of Siem Reap, Cambodia, Bangkok,Thailand and Hanoi, Vietnam. The training of trainers and growers will be conducted with the input and support from the local collaborators.