Demonstration programme on establishment of homestead nutrition garden

A demonstration programme on establishment of homestead nutrition garden was organized on 27th October 2022 at Thaila,Village, Bhandaripokhroi Block, Bhadrak District under the NICRA CGC funded project on ‘Gender responsive Integrated Homestead Aqua-horticulture (GRIHA): a Sustainable Climate Resilient Approach towards Livelihood Diversification’. The programme was attended by 45 farmers including both men and women. The purpose of the programme was to make the farmers aware of the importance of homestead nutrition garden, the layout that needs to be followed and the plant protection measures that needs to be practiced. Shri Manoranjan Prusty, Technical Officer, explained about the layout of the nutrition garden that needs to be established adjacent to the homestead pond. He detailed on the row to row and plant to plant spacing for each type of vegetable that needs to be followed to reduce wastage of seeds. Since the village is prone to heavy rain and floods, they were advised to raise vegetable seedlings in protrays and the method of growing seedlings was demonstrated to the farmers. The farmers were urged to practice natural plant protection measures and the use of yellow sticky trap, fruit fly trap, blue sticky trap and pheromone traps. Dr Tanuja S, Senior Scientist and PI of the project explained about the benefits of integration of aquaculture with horticulture. The women farmers were also trained on the testing of pond water pH using universal pH indicator solution. The farmers were also provided with protrays, cocopith and vegetable seeds for growing vegetables in the rabi season. The programme was co-ordinated by Dr Tanuja, S., Senior Scientist and PI of the project and Shri Manoranjan Prusty, Technical Officer.