#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

Arne Victor Garvi also pioneered in setting up a seed bank that stores seeds at room temperature rather than refrigerating them, using neem oil to prevent insect damage.

#seedbank #neemoil

 hello, gardeners of mastodon. i'm turning to real people with my questions, as it seems most websites i found are full of AI crap. so please answer if you have personal experience 🙏

i'd like to know about neem oil use. i have a mild mealybug infestation on two plants. i've sprayed one down and wiped the leaves with a solution, but the other is way more fiddly (blue potato bush) and i can't imagine wiping it all and getting in all the little twig crannies where the insects nestle. i'd also like to preventatively treat my ivy. so:

1. is it true that you can water the plants with the neem solution to achieve the same result? (or better! i've seen leaf spray as preventative and watering as treating an infestation?)
2. what are the ingredients and ratios you use in your preferred solutions, be it for spraying or watering (if indeed it is the done thing).

thank you!

#gardening #plants #PlantCare #neem #NeemOil

The universe seems stacked against brassicas.

I was expecting an army of slugs, however it was cabbage worms that chomped some of my cauliflowers down to the ribs.

They're sneaky bastards so I smooshed every single one I could find and then showered all the plants in neem oil solution.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

#gardening #brassicas #cauliflower #cabbageworms #neemoil

I've had good luck using #NeemOil spray to get rid of #FungusGnats [test on a small spot to make sure your plant doesn't have a bad reaction]. Removing decaying plant matter also helps. And using a #PeatFree soil mix helps as well -- peat attracts fungus gnats (and peat really belongs in the bogs, not in our flower pots).

How To Use Neem Oil For Fungus Gnats Control

Neem oil is a non-toxic, all-natural pesticide with insecticidal properties that kill many pests on contact and help you get rid of gnats.

https://plantcaretoday.com/neem-oil-fungus-gnats.html
#PesticideFree #Gardening #SolarPunkSunday

#OrganicGardening #PestControl #Gardening

If you choose to use #NeemOil then check prices at suppliers of soap-making, candle-making, cosmetic, massage oil ingredients.

My local version of that sells neem oil in 1 litre containers for the same price the local hardware chain sells one tenth that amount.
😗

#Citrus #NiceDay #NeemOil #Gardening #PlantBath #NutmegState #Connecticutting

All the big guys got out today for a spray down with Neem, and will get a good hose down in another hour. 61 degrees (16.1 C) here in CT. We'll take it!