Study On Planting And Influencing Factors Of Home Garden In Elderly Family Of Rural Areas

The aging of the population is a common concern in today's world.As a populous country,China has a quarter of the world's elderly population.The number and speed of aging population in rural China is much higher than that of cities.The medical old-age security system in rural areas is still not perfect.The dietary life problem of the elderly has become the key to the rural problem.However,it has not yet attracted effective attention in China.Home garden plays an important role in the eating habits of rural elderly.Studying of Home garden is of great significance for ensuring the vegetable diet and improving the quality of life of rural elderly.This paper takes 297 rural elderly families in the plains of Henan Province(Wuzhi County and Fugou County)and mountainous areas(Mianchi County and Song County)as the research object,and reveals the home garden in the rural elderly through the questionnaire survey data in April.Status and function in diet and life;compare the status quo,management and input,motivation and obstacles of home garden in various regions through variance analysis;and study the driving factors of planting area and planting diversity of home garden through correlation analysis and factor analysis;On this basis,countermeasures are proposed for the development of rural household vegetable fields.This study provides a scientific basis for revealing the role of rural family vegetable plots,analyzing the cultivation behavior of family vegetable plots,and exploring the development of rural family vegetable plots.The main results are as follows:(1)Home garden plays an important role in the diet of rural elderly people.The rural elderly people grow their home gardens mainly to save their living expenses and facilitate the consumption of vegetables.Home garden effectively protect the vegetable diet of the rural elderly,while improving the quality of life of the elderly and help to maintain family neighborhood.As the main source of vegetable diet for the elderly,the proportion of home garden in the daily diet of the elderly is more than 70%.Due to vegetable shortage,the decrease of vegetable diversity in home garden in January-April and November-December resulted in insufficient vegetable supply,resulting in an increase in vegetable purchases by the elderly in plains and a decrease in vegetableconsumption by the elderly in mountainous areas.(2)There was a significant difference in home garden planting in plain and mountainous areas.In plain area,villages are concentrated,home gardens are smaller,and the superior irrigation conditions make the economic and labor input more less,the intensity of planting labor is lower,so it is more convenient for elderly families to manage home garden.Geomorphological features of mountainous areas pose many obstacles to the cultivation of family vegetable fields: backward market environment and inconvenience of transportation make it difficult for the elderly to obtain means of production in mountainous areas;irrigation conditions and fencing increase the intensity of planting labor;the elderly need to plant large areas of families in order to ensure the supply of vegetables.Vegetable land,which makes the elderly in mountainous areas need to invest more labor and higher economic expenditure,increased the cost of farming mountain families.In addition,there is a shortage of planting technology for the elderly in the plains and mountainous areas.(3)The driving factors of home garden plot area in plain area and mountainous area are different.Home garden planting area is affected by many factors,including the home garden planting area in plain area is directly affected by food security and economic input of vegetable land;vegetable planting area in mountainous area is directly affected by the purchase of the elderly and the age of vegetable growers.The actual residential population of the family has a negative correlation with the vegetable land area of the families in the plains and mountainous areas,which indicates that the vegetable land per capita of the families with large population is smaller.(4)The driving factors of planting diversity in plain and mountainous areas are different.The home garden planting diversity in plain area is mainly affected by the location distribution of vegetable land and family diet factors,while the vegetable planting diversity in mountain area is mainly affected by the income of vegetable planting,planting environment and planting obstacles.The economic factors affected the diversity of vegetable plots in the both areas.It is suggested that the economic situation of the family and the price level of vegetables and means of production should be fully taken into account in the reduction of planting diversity during the period of vegetable shortage.