ATMA Ongpangkong conducts training on nutritional gardens

DIMAPUR — ATMA Ongpangkong north block, Mokokchung, on Monday held a training on ‘nutritional gardens: a sustainable model for food security and diversity’ at Settsu village, with Samuel Anar, ACTO (Agronomy) from KVK, Tuensang, as resource person.

Speaking on the occasion, Anar stressed the objectives, principles, and benefits of nutrition gardens for increasing nutritional diversity at the household level while also supporting income and employment for the family as nutrition gardens enhance dietary diversity by providing micronutrients through a constant supply of fruits and vegetables sufficient to meet the family’s requirements.

He described the various steps involved in starting a nutrition garden with proper planning and management, such as site selection, the size of the plot should be at least 200 sq ft (recommended by ICAR), a good water source, i.e., availability of life-saving irrigation, making manures by attending different trainings, nursery bed preparation (1 m breadth), and identifying companion crops and different types of feeders of nutrients to be sown.

He also emphasised the importance of various types of gardens, such as home gardens, backyard gardens, or kitchen gardens, which can be a source of daily fresh vegetables for the entire household, reducing expenditure and reliance on markets to buy fruits and vegetables, and encouraging women farmers to form groups such as SHGs and work together.

The training programme was attended by 15 female farmers in total. Each farmer also received inputs such as seeds of high-value crops like Chinese cabbage, broccoli, knol khol, pole beans, and corainder.

Anar, who also conducted a demonstration on vermicomposting, highlighted the overview of composting, the method of composting, and its application in organic farming. The farmers were explained the composting method using vermi worms, its life cycle, and how it feeds on biomass and excretes in digested form, which gives nutrient contents in compost form.

He also stressed the importance of site selection and the construction of a vermicomposting site. He discussed the handling and harvesting of vermicompost, vermiwash, the benefits of vermicompost in terms of soil health and crop productivity, and the economic significance of vermicompost.

Ten female farmers participated in the demonstration programme and also received inputs such as vermi-bed.

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