Sunday 30 January 2011

MALNUTRITION: The kitchen garden model to solve malnutrition

Jan 30, 2011,
NAGPUR: The Korku and Gond tribals, whose staple food until a few years back was just jowar and matar dal, now grow other crops like wheat, tur and masoor dal and vegetables. Every house, at least in the 18 villages adopted by Satavs, has a small 20X20 feet kitchen garden where they grow five types of beans as protein sources, five different seasonal vegetables, some oil crops and a few fruits round the year. It has solved the basic problem of malnourishment.
Manohar Khake, an agriculture scientist and a relative of the Satavs, has been guiding them since the last three years to solve the nutrition problem which is the root cause of extremely low infant mortality rate, maternal deaths and deaths due to more severe but common diseases like pneumonia, malaria, thyroid, cataract, hypertension, ailments caused due to addiction to tobacco and alcohol.
Dr Ashish Satav first set up a model in their own premises at Karamagram. They are following integrating farming of crops like gram, rajgira, five types of beans, turmeric, chilli, tapioca, sweet potato, linseed fruits like papaya, amla, banana, chikoo and goti tea grass etc in the one acre land housing the hospital and residence of doctors and staff. Being a rainfed area, Melghat gets no water from irrigation projects. So, Khake uses the entire waste water from kitchen and houses for maintaining the garden.
"Initially there was resistance. But, when the patients visiting the hospital saw the model working, they adopted it in their homes too," he said.
The kitchen gardens as well as the other crops are grown here on the natural farming concept with no fertilizers and pesticides added. Occasionally, cow urine and earthworm-excreta wash is used.
To add some more scientific input to diet planning, dietitian Jaishree Pendharkar from Nagpur's Central India Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS) has developed some tasty recipes from locally available grains, vegetables and fruits. A CD in Korku language with detailed information on the role of food in health and strategies to prevent from diseases prepared by Mahan are also generating good response.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/The-kitchen-garden-model-to-solve-malnutrition/articleshow/7387384.cms#ixzz1CX8ctJlN

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