#India - Backyard nutrition gardens- For family nutrition and income

In rainfed agriculture, where farm livelihoods are highly vulnerable to climate vagaries, alternative farm based enterprises go a long way in providing the necessary support for #farmers to remain in farming. Backyard kitchen garden is one such enterprise which meets multiple needs like food, income and nutrition security, besides empowering women.

September 2025

Excerpt: "A key intervention was to help farm women raise kitchen gardens in their backyard. These kitchen gardens are meant to increase #FoodDiversity in the diets of the participating families and reduce reliance on the market for introduced vegetables. Each interested household was provided with a kitchen garden kit containing around 10-13 types of vegetable seeds. By raising kitchen gardens, women were able to harvest many types of seasonal vegetables.

"During 2023-24, kitchen garden kits with 13 different varieties of vegetables were given to 70 group members. For those who had sown seeds early in the season, owing to excessive rains, the seeds didn’t germinate. But around 40% of the women who took up late sowing, could harvest vegetables from the gardens. Women have done #composting with kitchen waste, garden clippings, and dry leaves to create rich organic #compost. This compost is used to fertilize the garden beds. They also prepared organic liquid fertilizers like #Panchagavya and #Jeevamruta to increase immunity and promote plant growth. To manage pest and diseases, they used #NeemOil spray as #NaturalPesticides. Organic #mulch, such as straw and dried leaves, were applied around plants to retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, and improve soil health. Each of the households produced vegetables like #brinjal, #bhendi, #tomato, #gourds, #cucumber, #radish and green #vegetables. On an average each household produced vegetables worth Rs.2500-3500 in a season.

"Again, 2024 has been a year of heavy rainfall for Dharwad district. Untimely rains caused havoc, damaging crops. Farmers had to face crop losses and in such a situation around 25 women farmers raised nutrition qardens in their backyard. Each household produced vegetables worth Rs.3000-4000 in a season. Kitchen gardens served as a boon to these families facing #FoodShortages due to crop loss."

Read more:
https://www.leisaindia.org/backyard-nutrition-gardens-for-family-nutrition-and-income/

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #KitchenGardens #BackyardGardens #GrowYourOwn #FoodSovereignty #ClimateChange #Resiliency

That is where Sahara Sahel Foods comes in, working with the vision that by processing the harvested foods instead of the plants’ genetics, parts typically not considered as very practical to eat become high quality foods, and these wild crops can produce sufficient nutritious products.

#genetics #foodprocessing #plantbreeding #wildcrops #yield #fooddiversity #biodiversity

A review of The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past

Penelope Volinia

#FoodHistory #ForgottenFoods #LostFlavours #LostFlavors #Flavor #History #Flavour #FoodDiversity #Ecology #Gastronomy #BooksAboutFood #CurrentlyReading #BookReview

#Read all you want! #OpenAccess
#Share generously! #KnowledgeSharing
#Grow your understanding of #Food
#Repeat

https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/article/view/729

Around the world there are thousands of unique foods and flavours - varieties of fruits, grains, vegetables and animal breeds. And products of a specific place, from a type of bread, to a style of cheese.
Many are endangered and disappearing. We need to help save them.
Food diversity can help increase resilience around the world, and protect against future threats including climate change.

Food Diversity is essential for our health and for the health of the planet.
Food Diversity is part of our identity. It is part of our culture.
Food Diversity represents our past and our future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFj8yCBR_mM

#seedfreedom #fooddiversity #heirloomseeds #nogmo #agroforestry