Growing vegetables and growing hope: kitchen gardening in Sindh, Pakistan
For most of her married life, 38-year-old Sardara Ali Khan has been the sole breadwinner of her household.
A poisonous snakebite left her husband partially paralyzed many years ago, and since then Sardara has struggled to make ends meet, mostly by working in her neighbours’ fields, doing household chores for them, and embroidering clothes. Even though her oldest son is already an adult, he hasn’t been able to find a job, and along with his seven siblings, depends on Sardara’s earnings to survive.
Depending on the complexity of the embroidery, her neighbours paid from 100 to 1 000 Pakistan rupees (US$1 – US$10) per item. “Despite all my efforts, I rarely made more than 2 000 to 3 000 Pakistan rupees (US$20 – US$30) a month,” she says.
Sardara and her family live in the rural village of Balocho Dool in Kashmore District, in the northern part of Pakistan's Sindh Province, and like many in Sindh and the neighbouring province of Balochistan, they were severely affected by devastating floods in 2010 and 2012. In 2013, FAO launched a project aimed at restoring food security and agriculture-based livelihoods in these areas, and among the project activities was an initiative to set up and support communal kitchen gardens for growing vegetables.