Development of Nutritional Garden Under Rainfed Situation

ABSTRACT:
Malnutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and diet-related chronic diseases exist
prevalently in India. To be adequately nourished, individuals need to have access to sufficient
and good quality food. One of the easiest ways of ensuring access to a healthy diet that contains
adequate macro- and micronutrients is to produce many different kinds of foods in the nutritional
garden or kitchen garden. A well-developed nutritional garden has the potential to supply most
of the non-staple foods that a family needs every day of the year, including roots and tubers,
vegetables and fruits, legumes, herbs and spices. This is especially important in rural areas
where people have limited income-earning opportunities and poor access to markets. These
gardens offer great potential for improving household food security and additional income to
rural families besides alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. Gardening may be done with
virtually no economic resources, using locally available planting materials, green manures,
live fencing and indigenous methods of pest control.
INTRODUCTION:
Undernutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and diet-related chronic diseases exist
prevalently in India. Whether food supplies are scarce or abundant, it is essential that people
know how best to make use of their resources to ensure nutritional wellbeing. To be adequately
nourished, individuals need to have access to sufficient and good quality food and they need an
understanding of what constitutes a good diet for health, as well as the skills and motivation to
make good food choices.
One of the easiest ways of ensuring access to a healthy diet that contains adequate macro- and
micronutrients is to produce many different kinds of foods in the nutritional or kitchen garden.
This is especially important in rural areas where people have limited income-earning
opportunities and poor access to markets. Nutritional gardens are also becoming an increasingly
important source of food and income for poor households in urban areas.
These gardens have an established tradition and offer great potential for improving household
food security and alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. Gardening can enhance food security in
several ways, most importantly through:
1) Direct access to a diversity of nutritionally-rich foods,
2) Increased purchasing power from savings on food bills and income from sales of garden
products, and
3) Fall-back food provision during seasonal lean periods.
The purpose of this present work is to develop a nutritional garden to provide food security and
additional income to rural families.

NUTRITIONAL GARDENS AND RAINFED AREAS:

The regional variation in agricultural productivity is highly pronounced between rain-fed and
irrigated areas, even as rain-fed agriculture supports nearly 40% of Indias estimated population.
Food-grain yields vary from one to two tonnes per ha in the rain-fed regions, compared to
attainable yields of more than four tonnes per ha (Sharma, 2011). A key feature of agriculture in
rainfed areas is that the uncertainties that are found in agriculture everywhere are significantly
increased because the irrigation is not assured.
In this context nutritional gardens constitute a very important component due to several reasons
including the following (Sridhar et. al, 2013).
1. Nutritional gardens can arrest the trend of declining diversity of vegetables and lead to greater
local diversity and local consumption of vegetables.
2. We can cultivate vegetables that form an important source of supplementary nutrition.
3. Income can be increased due to decrease of expenses in the purchase of vegetables.
4. It is possible to include some herbs in the package that is cultivated in the Kitchen garden
which is important for primary health care and also results in savings on health related expenses.
5. Supplementary income is also possible to a small extent through the sale of vegetables and
production and sale of vegetable seeds.
6. It helps in the promotion of a non-monetary economic activity in which women are the key
players and leads to their active involvement and empowerment.
CONCLUSION:
A well-developed nutritional garden has the potential to supply most of the non-staple foods that
a family needs every day of the year, including roots and tubers, vegetables and fruits, legumes,
herbs and spices. Roots and tubers are rich in energy and legumes are important sources of
protein, fat, iron and vitamins. Green leafy vegetables and yellow- or orange-coloured fruits
provide essential vitamins and minerals, particularly folate, and vitamins A, E and C. Vegetables
and fruits are a vital component of a healthy diet and should be eaten as part of every meal.
Nutritional garden contributes to household food security by providing direct access to food that
can be harvested, prepared and fed to family members, often on a daily basis. Gardening may be
done with virtually no economic resources, using locally available planting materials, green
manures, live fencing and indigenous methods of pest control. Thus, Nutritional gardening at
some level is a production system that the poor can easily enter.
REFERENCE:
1. K. D. Sharma, 2011, Rain-fed agriculture could meet the challenges of food security in India
2. Subhashini Sridhar, K. Subramanian, K.Vijayalakshmi and A.V. Balasubramanian,2013, Home
Gardens for Seed Conservationand Supplementary Nutrition, Centre for Indian Knowledge
Systems, Chennai.
3. Ober Allen, Julie, Alaimo, Katherine, Elam, Doris and Perry, Elizabeth(2008)'Growing
Vegetables and Values: Benefits of Neighborhood-Based Community Gardens for Youth
Development and Nutrition',Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition,3:4,418 439.