Study design and settings
A three-arm parallel cluster-randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial was conducted to assess the effect of nutrition education and promotion of home gardening on feto-maternal outcomes in the rural district of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia, from August 2020 to January 2021. Jimma Zone is located 345 km away from the capital city of the country, Addis Ababa, in the Southwest direction. Jimma is one of the leading coffee-producing zones in Oromia Regional State, with an annual rainfall ranging between 1200–2800 mm per annum. The Zone has two well-known agro-ecological districts (mainly coffee-growing districts and food crop-growing districts). In both districts of an estimated 12135 pregnant women, about 4117 were the first trimester. A detailed explanation of the study areas has been explained previously elsewhere [The sample size was estimated by G power version 3.1.9.7. Assumptions used to calculate the required sample size were: precision of 5%, power of 80%, an effect size of 0.25, and we expect a mean birth weight change of 100 gm (the primary outcome) in the intervention groups (from 2975 g to 3075 g) based on previous studies [