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Nutri-gardens not only can help in improving the nutritional status of rural household but also generate small and constant source of income for women. The article has emphasized the contribution of Nutri-garden towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGS).

India is suffering from triple burden of widespread poverty, food insecurity and under-nutrition. The household level data on calorie intake indicates that the average calorie consumption among population in India is falling over the last twenty years (NSSO, 2017). India’s undernourished population is continually on the rise and the situation has worsened with the spiralling inflation witnessed with regard to food prices. Therefore, achieving food and nutritional security has been one of the prime focuses for the developing nations like India. Vegetable based nutri-garden is the cheapest source of nutrition can play an active role for eradicating the triple burden. Nutrition rich vegetable crops from own home or kitchen garden are cheapest, safest and natural way to get functional food. The home and kitchen garden is the most ancient type of garden. When human beings learnt the art of tilling land, they used to live in tribes or colonies and were of a migratory in nature. A tribe would go on tilling a piece of land until it was no longer productive and then shift to another virgin land. Each tribe used to grow its own food and these gardens were kitchen gardens in the true sense. Nutri-garden is advanced form of kitchen garden in which vegetables are grow along with fruit, herbs, spices and other useful plants such as medicinal plants as a supplementary source of food and income. For small and marginal farmers, nutri-garden produce can make a critical contribution to the family diet and provide several other benefits, particularly for women. Currently research focus on field-based commercial but income from the sale of these crops often is not used to buy quality food for the family. This is slowly arising as questions about agriculture’s contribution to nutrition and health. This has led to introduction of nutri gardens because they show a more clear-cut way from food production to nutritional outcomes.

The contribution of Nutri-Garden to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals is a fitting framework, which calls attention to the challenges to a sustainable future and action for implementation. India, home to one-sixth of all humankind, is familiar of its role and responsibility in working towards a sustainable future of the globe and all its life. India is cognizant of the prospect that if it does not achieve the SDGs, the world will fail to achieve them as well.

Table 1. The contribution of Nutri-garden to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDGs	Goal	Role of Nutri-garden
1	No poverty	Generate small but constant source of income, especially for women
2	Zero hunger	Constant and cheapest source of nutritive food
3	Good health and well being	Ensuring good health of whole family and source of balanced diet for women of reproductive age and young children
4	Quality Education	Provide nutrition rich vegetable, which improves brain development in younger age and supplement family income, which help to get quality education.
5	Gender Equality	Selling surplus produce from Nutri-garden generate source of income for women.
8	Decent Work and Economic Growth	Provide opportunities for entrepreneurship development in rural area especially for women
11	Sustainable Cities and Communities	Contributes in greening rural and urban areas and help in enhancing resilience from climate and disaster.
12	Sustainable Consumption And Production	Nutri-garden helps in providing continuous supply of vegetables to households and help to complete nutrient cycle
13	Climate Action	Strengthen family-level resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related risks and natural calamities.

 

Important component of Nutri-garden

a. Nutri-Garden produce:

(i) A diverse range of nutrient-rich vegetable crop, combining traditional and improved varieties, suited to prevailing environmental conditions are produced in nutri-gardens.

 

(ii) Garden management based on good agricultural practices (GAP) are important to overcome production constraints.

b. Nutrition: Knowledge about the importance of micronutrient availability in vegetables for nutrition and health is important. It is important to know the combinations of vegetables helpful in enhancing the bioavailability of nutrient in human body. e.g. Food synergy (Details in Table 2)     

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c. Sustainability: It is important to have a constant supply of quality seeds for growing in nutri-garden.                                    

Selection criteria for vegetable crop:

1.     Select vegetables liked by the family members, particularly women and children.

2.     Select a diverse range of vegetables, because all have different properties

3.     Select vegetables that are hardy, easy to grow, adapted to the local climate and soil.

4.     Select vegetables varieties tolerant to common pests and diseases.

5.     Quality planting materials (Seed, cutting, seedling and tubers) of the selected vegetables must be locally available and easily accessible by the family members.

6.     Include improved varieties but also traditional varieties to maintain agro-biodiversity and cultural heritage.

7.     New nutritive crop species or varieties can be introduced and tested for acceptability, and this can create enthusiasm for gardening.

Layout of Nutri-garden

A plan for model of nutri-garden of 100 m² has been drawn up (Fig. 1), keeping in view the maximum output and a continuous supply of vegetable for the table throughout the year. Through the model the ICMR, 2010 (Indian Council of Medical Research) recommendation for vegetable consumption can be fulfilled i.e. 300 gms of vegetable per person per day in which 50 g leafy vegetables; 50 g root vegetables and 200 g fruit vegetables.

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Nutri-garden for achieving SDG.pdf