Keyhole gardens for climate smart agriculture.

Climate smart agriculture is using less to get more,that is reduced space for planting but higher productivity by planting more than a crop thus promoting biodiversity. This is the story of the keyhole gardens which provides better nutrition and livelihoods. A keyhole garden is a round raised garden, supported with stones. Keyhole gardens are built in places where it is difficult to build normal gardens such as rocky areas, shallow arid/or compacted soils, etc, near the entrance of dwellings to facilitate their watering with household waste water. Keyhole gardens are made with low-cost locally available materials,the production of a keyhole garden can be enough to feed a family of 8 persons and such gardens can produce food all year round even under harsh temperatures and can support the production of at least 5 varieties of vegetables at a time - thus supporting dietary diversity. The keyhole gardens require less labor thus its ideal for elderly, children or sick persons, and requires less water and no costly fertilizers or pesticides. They act like an organic recycling tank, using your food and garden waste as fuel to grow vegetables! Crop rotation and growing of insect-repellent plants are important to balance nutrient demands, fight insects and plant diseases, and deter weeds. When a project introduced keyhole gardens in Lesotho, neighboring villages outside the project intervention area were reproducing keyhole gardens on their own initiative, clearly indicating the success of the intervention and its potential sustainability. This technology gives a detailed step-by-step description of the building process of a keyhole garden. The keyhole garden is built using the following; 1)Soil, compost 2) Strong string 3) Straw or something similar 4) Worms 5) Well rotted manure and wood ash 6)large stones, bricks or logs 7)Scrap metal (old cans, etc.) and 8) Several sticks or 1.5meters canes The garden is built as follows ;find a space near your house that’s about 3m2 and make sure that there is enough sunlight and it is located closely to access to water. 2) Clear the space of weeds and dig it over. continue