Kitchen gardens help to tackle malnutrition in Kandhamal
- Bhubaneswar: In what translates into a best practice, the nutritional kitchen gardens developed by the tribal households in Odisha's Kand Hamal with vegetable seeds supplied by the government have proved to be an effective tool to fight malnutrition.
- A survey conducted by Atmashakti Trust, a non-government organization, on the ground-level usage of the seeds to develop the gardens, brings reasons to cheer as it revealed that a whopping 96% household develops the kitchen gardens to meet their daily need of vegetables.
- The survey was conducted in Tumudibandha and Kotagada blocks in Kand Hamal, which covers 900 households in 650 hamlets where the tribal population comprises a major 80%. The survey revealed that 864 households develop the nutrigardens in their backyards.
- The government has come up with the scheme-Mo Upakari Bagicha - under which almost 13 to 18 varieties of vegetable seeds are supplied to all the 314 blocks of the state. "The findings of the organisation are quite encouraging, "additional horticulture director Pradosh Panda said.
- Iin 2018, the Odisha Liveli- hood Mission began the ground-level implementation of the scheme to develop nutritional kitchen gardens especially for the underserved population such as tribals, dalits and other marginalised communities.
- The mission aimed at reaching out to about five lakh rural households with the scheme in the initial period. The objective was to address the under-nutrition issues among children, adolescents and expectant mothers.
- "We grow our own vegetables such as brinjal, tomatoes, papaya, drumsticks, banana and more. The vegetables are grown using organic met- hods," Gayatri Khond, a nutri garden farmer of Kandhamal district, said.