ABSTRACT

The study analyzed the social and economic impact of home garden among farm household in Abia State. Random sampling techniques were used to select 60 respondents. Structured questionnaire and oral interview were used to interview the gardeners. Descriptive statistics as frequency distribution tables and percentage and OLS multiple regression analysis were used. Results showed that the mean age of the respondent was 65years.About 58.33% of the respondents were female which implies that women were more involved in home garden than men in the study area. Study shows that 4 8.3% (29) of the home gardeners are literate, about 80%(48) of the respondents were married the mean household is 65.00%(39), and 80% of the respondents are not into farm as their major occupation and 75%(45) of the respondents uses home garden as their minor activity, also 61.67%(37) of the respondent are more experienced in home gzarden,56.67%(34) of the respondent uses family labor instead of haired labour, it is also gathered that the main crop cultivated by the gardeners in there garden is maize which is about (10.540%).and the highest crops cultivated years back by the gardeners that are no more is groundnut (25%) and their highest medicinal crop is utazi 34.78% (8) .with this it is advisable for people to invest more in home garden. This will in addition to helping household members keep fit which provide a meaningful non monetized return to the household would also contribute in terms of better nutrition and improved income.