# extension and are directly relevant to household food security.

The provision, processing and preparation of food continue to be time consuming and arduous. Limited attention has been paid to helping reduce the labor burden of these tasks. Time-use studies from various parts of Africa have found that women spend on average two to three hours per day preparing food for themselves and their families (McGuire and Popkin, 1988). During peak agricultural seasons, however, there is evidence that the reallocation of labor in favor of agricultural tasks has negative implications for food security: cooking practices can change (less time consuming and less nutritious meals are prepared), and intra-family distribution of food can be affected (less attention paid to supervising distribution of food between different family members) (GOK and UNICEF, 1984).

# b. Secondary food crops and gathered food

Women's role in providing food for the family also encompass their responsibilities for secondary food crops and wild or gathered foods. These foods have important nutritional benefits (as well as supplementing income) and are an integral part of a household's survival strategy. Secondary food crops (vegetables and minor grains) which are often the basis for sauces and condiments are commonly grown by women in small fields near the compound or intercropped with other food or cash crops. They are crucial sources of food and protein in the pre-harvest season when staple foods may be scarce or only available at high prices. Women often process these crops and sell them at local markets. It has also been found that kitchen garden crops show higher yields per hectare than field crops and are used by women to experiment with new seeds or technologies (OTA, 1984).

Women also have a dominant role in the collection and use of gathered foods such as nuts, berries and leaves. Women have knowledge of woody shrubs and herbaceous plants found in hedgerows, along roads, and in unoccupied bottomlands. These wild foods are important for a family's food security strategy since they are used as energy and nutrition supplements during the hungry season. They are of particular importance for landless or near-landless who cannot depend on producing their own food. The plants are often multipurpose, providing fuel, fibre, fodder and medicinal ingredients (Fortmann and Rocheleau, 1985). Women's participation in agroforestry activities such as the planting and care of trees also contributes to improving family diets and increasing income (Rocheleau, 1984).

In rural Kenya, kitchen gardens are an important part of a family's food security, both in terms of their direct contribution to family consumption and in terms of the income derived from their sale. In Kakamega, surveys show that even during the dry season, about half of all households had kitchen gardens (presumably this proportion would be considerably higher during the rainy season) growing five or more different kinds of plants for sauces and relishes (SIDA, 1987). Women also grow plants with medicinal uses in these gardens.

The importance of indigenous plants, often those grown in small amounts in women's kitchen gardens or gathered in the surrounding areas, should 12