Farm Women in Hills Sowing Seeds of Empowerment

Abstract

ICAR VPKAS geared up to change behaviours related to health and nutrition across midhills, believing that nutritional security of rural areas especially of women is a matter of concern. The intervention introduced eight improved locally available and nutrient-rich varieties of vegetables suitable for home garden cultivation. Women learned to build homestead nutrition gardens filled with fenugreek, spinach, carrots, and other crops, and practice improved health and nutritional behaviour to ensure good occupational health of their own and their families. Homestead nutrition gardens helped increase household income either by the sale of the food products grown in the gardens or by the consumption of the same food items that the families would have otherwise purchased from markets using a significant portion of the family income. Apart from addressing the hidden hunger, it curbs the possibilities of suffering from diseases caused by micro-nutrient deficiency by ensuring a small but continuous flow of subsistence food products in the daily household diet. Women have taken the charge of these gardens and are themselves deciding on vegetables to be grown and ask their queries on the social media platform.