AMCHI: Kitchen Gardens - An Answer to the Undernourishment Problem

 Twelve villages of Vashind Beat 2 transform the community’s nutritional status through kitchen gardens

“The kitchen garden hase become a very important part of my life. I have very little income to purchase vegetables from the market so for the last two months my family has depended more on the vegetables from my kitchen garden. With summer coming up, I was worried how I could grow the vegetables and how I would manage the crops. But the training helped me solve all my problems and I now understand how to manage a kitchen garden in the summer.”

• Sanchita Bohir, Mother of adolescent girl, Velholi

Kitchen Gardens have become a key activity for the PF team. This activity was first introduced in our School-in-Development projects previously, where the aim of the activity was to reuse the grey water from kitchens, thereby developing it as a solution for wastewater management. 

However, under the JSW Foundation funded project the activity has been taken up as a solution to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable groups such as children and adolescent girls. This would ensure that the families have a sustainable and free access to locally and naturally grown vegetables and help improve the nutritional status of children and Hb levels especially of adolescent girls. 

 

Fig 1 to 4: Kitchen Gardens in Vashind Villages

PF had proposed to establish 50 kitchen gardens in 5 villages. Instead, due to the popularity of the activity as well as the training received by the adolescent girls and the family, more families established the kitchen gardens with additional support from PF. Currently, a total of 71 kitchen gardens across 7 villages have been established. 

“As women we received a lot of benefits from kitchen gardens. In my village most women are vegetarian and most of them are from poor economic backgrounds. Since we are short on money to purchase good quantity vegetables, we end up eating pulses only. But because of the kitchen garden, now we can eat a good quantity of fresh and quality vegetables daily. I am thankful to PF and JSW Foundation who have taught us how to cultivate our own kitchen garden and helped us improve our nutrition status.”

• Ashmita Gurunath Bhoir, Kajalvihir 

All the kitchen gardens are producing quality vegetables. Consequently, adolescent girls, young children and their families have started consuming these vegetables as part of their daily diet as compared to before which mostly consisted of rice and lentils alone. Each village has its wadis and padas which are usually inhabited by tribal communities. While kitchen gardens in other wadis and padas have been established, those adjacent to Waalshet and Madh villages could not have been established because of lack of land. Therefore, the PF team recommended the families of these two villages who have their own kitchen gardens to share their produce with the tribal families daily especially with those families who have malnourished children, pregnant and lactating mothers.  

Fig 5: New round of kitchen garden training

In the month of March, another round of training was also conducted for all the families where kitchen gardens have been developed with special focus on how to maintain the gardens in the coming summer and monsoon months, and also how to harvest and preserve seeds from their produce to ensure that there is a sustainable supply of good quality of seeds for them to continue with their kitchen gardens even after the exit of PF as the project comes to an end in the month of July. 

“We needed the training to understand how to manage kitchen gardens in summer and rainy seasons. We also learnt which crops we have to grow in summer and in rainy seasons. I thank the PF team and the trainer who conducted such a wonderful training in my village.”

• Yogita Sambre, Mother of 0-6 years child, Baudhpada

“I was a little bit worried about how to grow tomatoes, brinjals and other green vegetables in summer because there is a water issue in my village in May. But today I understood how to manage the watering in summer and which crops/vegetables can grow with less water in summer.”

• Kavita Vekhande, Mother of 0-6 years child, Baudhpada 

     

Fig 6 & 7: New round of kitchen garden trainings

A Success Story 

In order to address the objective of providing nutrition security among the vulnerable groups, establishing kitchen gardens among families with adolescent girls and children under the age of 6 years was the PF team's goal. The follow up meetings on kitchen gardens observe the attendance from the girls and mothers of 0-6 years of age children and also their family members. It is during these sessions that the PF team understands the progress the families are making with their kitchen gardens, observe if there has been change in their dietary habits and also note if there has been improvement in the nutritional status of the children and adolescent girls such as their weight or Hb levels.

During one such session, Jayati Bohir’s* mother-in-law, Ganga Bohir *said, “Although we received important information on how and why vegetables are important for our nutrition and health, especially the leafy vegetables, we did not have enough income to purchase such vegetables and make them part of our daily diets. However, PF team’s kitchen garden activity has made it easier for us to access these vegetables. I am growing a kitchen garden in my own home because of the training I received from PF. I am harvesting the vegetables from my garden and feeding them to my grandson.  Also, I have been attending all the meetings conducted by PF. As a result, I am learning about new recipes, how to cook vegetables, and also how to take care of my grandson’s nutrition, hygiene and overall health.” 

Fig 8: Ganga Bohir at her kitchen garden

It is not just the kitchen garden activity though, that has encouraged Ganga to be involved in her grandson’s growth and well-being. The holistic approach that PF has taken in this project where the children between the ages of 0-6 years are regularly weighed and are also invited to attend health camps for check-ups, has encouraged the parents and all the family members of the children to engage with the healthcare service providers and take active part in their children’s development. “I have also been observing that my grandson’s weight is improving consistently; and I make sure that I take him for community weighing every month. I strongly believe that PF has greatly helped my grandson and my family!” 

Listen to Poorva, a young girl from Vehloli village talk about her health

transformation here.