CGIAR Gender News

Women strengthen household nutrition and turn entrepreneurs with nutri-gardens

Women and nutrition Photo: WorldFish

Success stories from RECL-ICRISAT project

“My family is very happy with this attempt of mine to set up a vegetable garden in our home backyard. With advice from the project staff, I used vermicompost before sowing the seeds. I could clearly see the improvement in yield and quality of vegetables, especially bitter gourd, brinjal and ridge gourd. I have sold nearly 30 kg ridge guard and 14 kg bitter gourd in the village so far and got good profits. Apart from that, my neighbors also got inspired by me and now they have also started growing vegetables in their home premises.”  Ms K Gayathramma, in Settipalli village, Anantapur.

“With the support of this project, I got vegetable seed, sprayer and other inputs, with which I established a small nutri-garden near my home. With no extra effort, and using my kitchen waste water, I have obtained good yield of bitter gourd, ridge gourd and leafy vegetables like ‘palak’ (spinach) and ‘gongura’. For several weeks now, we have been having fresh, home-grown vegetables and will continue this practice rather than going for long distances to purchase from shops.”   Ms K Vanaja, Kondampalli village, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.