Nutri-gardens: A sustainable tool for capacity building of rural farm women towards achieving household food security

Abstract

Nutri-gardens is an innovative project initiated in India under the supervision of ICAR with the prime objective of providing relief for the masses on daily vegetable needs and creating a safe and sustainable environment with healthy people. It is now well conceived that by simply adding greens to the available food grains, the diet of the average Indian can be substantially upgraded. Homestead production of fruits and vegetables provides the poor with direct access to important nutrients that may not be readily available or within their economic rich. This study aimed to establish nutri-gardens in the selected villages of Faridabad district: Chirsi, Tajupur, Bhopani, Badarpur Said, and Nachuli by KVK, Faridabad. A total of 100 packets of improved varieties of vegetables from the summer season and 100 packets from the winter season were distributed during 2022-2023 among enthusiastic farm women volunteers. Results indicated that assuming an average saving price of Rs. 40 per kg for purchasing vegetables during the summer season and Rs. 20 per kg during the winter season, around Rs. 4614 were saved by each family on vegetable expenditure.Due to increased vegetable production, food variety and dietary diversity scores increased from 19.46 to 26.53 and from 5.90 to 8.70 in their daily diets.Per person, the availability of vegetables increased from 28.63 g to 286.21g with increased production of vegetables at the household level.Increased per-person availability of vegetables had contributed 35 to 59 per cent of the recommended dietary allowances of calcium, iron, vitamin C, and β-carotene.