Kitchen garden comes handy for govt-run hostels in Kota
In a unique initiative, the district council (zila parishad) of Kota has set up ‘Kitchen Gardens’ in more than half-a-dozen government-run hostels for the students of backward communities in rural areas of the district to serve them “fresh and nutritious vegetables” .
The kitchen gardens, developed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in eight hostels run by the social welfare department and Modified Area Development Approach (MADA) scheme of the state government, are being used to cultivate vegetables like tomato, potato, brinjal and bottle guard. Each such hostel has 2,000 to 3,000 square feet area for the kitchen garden.
“The kitchen garden work started six months ago and now seasonal vegetables cultivated in the gardens are being used in meals for the students,” said Jugalkishore Meena, chief executive officer (CEO) of the district council. “Trees of lemon, mango, guava and other fruits are also being planted to provide fruits to the students,” he added.
Meena said the district council has released ₹1.6 lakh to hire labourers, buy seeds and fertilizers for five years for the gardens under the job guarantee scheme.
The council also has plans to set up such Kitchen Gardens in anganbari centres of 155 gram panchayats in the district, he added.
Rekha Meena, a resident of MADA Girls Hostel in Mandana area of the district, said, “Kitchen Garden has not only given good looks to the hostel, but also improved the taste of our meals.” Another student, Komal Meena said she liked watering the vegetable plants.
Kota district collector Ravi Kumar Surpur said, “The idea behind setting up the Kitchen Gardens is to make optimum utilisation of the available land in hostels and provide nutritious vegetables to the students.”
He said a vermicompost pit is also established at every hostel to prepare organic manure for the kitchen gardens. Surpur said he had set up such Kitchen Gardens also in Bhilwara district, where he was last posted.
When asked whether the Kitchen Gardens have helped in curtailing the food budget, Rakesh Verma, deputy director, social welfare department, Kota, said, “Since the annual contract for buying vegetables for the hostels is given in beginning of the year, it didn’t have any effect this year. But budget of buying vegetables would certainly reduce next year.”
At present, the department spends ₹6 on vegetables for one student. The eight hostels, for the students of SC, STs and OBCs, cater to 240 students, studying in Class 6 to 12.