Nutri-gardens: Key to address nutritional needs of hill community

Abstract

Prevailing malnutrition in rural areas of Uttarakhand and particularly in hill districts is a serious issue. The crop productivity in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand is low due to scattered land holdings, low soil fertility and mostly rainfed agriculture. farmers are still practicing traditional subsistence farming comprising of mainly cereal crops which cannot sustain farm families for more than three to four months in a year. There is a large-scale migration of men towards plains, due to which the rural areas contain significantly higher female population and has led to demographic imbalance in the region. The strenuous physical task allocated to women combined with limited food intake, exacerbate malnutrition. Majority of rural women in Uttarakhand are suffering from Chronic Energy Deficiencies (CED) and their intake of micronutrients is lower than Recommended Dietary Allowances. Therefore, women require high quality nutrients as their work load and energy expenditure is more. One of the solutions to this prevailing problem in Uttarakhand hills can be “Local need meet locally”. Climatic conditions of hill region are suitable for seasonal and off seasonal vegetable and fruit production which are rich in micronutrients. As landholding size in the region is small and fragmented, establishment of nutri-garden is easy and remunerative way to address prevailing malnutrition among hill community. Local nutritional need of people can be met out locally by reviving traditional practices along with amalgamation of science and technological knowledge. Nutri-garden will have a positive impact on food security in rural areas as consuming such micronutrient rich food and improving dietary diversity will substantially reduce micronutrient deficiencies. Several studies reported that daily and frequent intake of fruits and vegetables is effective to check stomach, oesophagal, pancreatic, bladder and cervical cancers as they are rich sources of micro-nutrients.