DAE facilitates 500 homestead gardens in Khulna

A project of the agriculture ministry has facilitated setting 500 homestead gardens in nine upazilas of Khulna aiming to ensure proper nutrition and food security.

The project “Establishment of Family Nutrition Gardens” of the Ministry of Agriculture was initiated as part of the celebration of Mujib Centenary.

Under the project, 4.88 lakh gardens of vegetables, fruits and spices on the unused, uncultivated, fallow lands in homesteads in each union and municipality across the country, with a massive budget of Tk 438 crore to address any food crisis during and after the pandemic, and achieve food self-reliance.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, its Khulna divisional branch provided two members of each registered family under the project with a two-day training. The trained people then established the ‘family nutrition garden’ on 1.5 decimal of land on their backyards. The project bore all the costs of setting up the gardens, from seedlings, fertilisers to fences.

“These gardens are mapped out in such a way that its beneficiaries will get something to harvest throughout the six seasons, be it a fruit or vegetable. We are informed that many families are already harvesting fruits, vegetables from their gardens,” said Md Asadujjaman, an agricultural officer of Koyra upazila.

He mentioned that about 100 family nutrition gardens would be set up in each union of the district. “We have already established 500 gardens in two phases,” he added.

Monoj Sikdar, a beneficiary of the project from Rupsha upazila, said that the garden greatly facilitated him as he now can get vegetables for his five-member family for at least 15 to 20 days a month.

Another beneficiary Raj Krishna Mandal said he is making profit too by selling the leftover vegetables after family consumption.

“I have stopped buying fruits, veggies from the market. These vegetables are far more nutritious and fresher than the bought ones,” said beneficiary Md Ohidul Islam.

Md Mafjur Rahman, deputy assistant agricultural officer of Koyra, said that the harvest season is yet to come because the cultivation was delayed due to the incessant rain in the monsoon this year.

“We are providing the farmers with good quality seeds and bearing all the costs related to cultivation. We have established 28 nutritional gardens in the upazila in the first phase,” said Md Md Asadujjaman, an agricultural officer of Koyra upazila.

Deputy director of Khulna DAE, Md Hafizur Rahman, told The Business Post that the project’s successful implementation would increase food production while meeting families’ need for vegetables and nutrition. “We are trying to ensure food sufficiency of a family for at least for 15 days a month. We are providing training and constant assistance to the beneficiaries,” he said.

In March 2021, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the “Establishment of Family Nutrition Garden” project.

Under the project, about 1,41,000 family nutrition gardens were set up in 4,431 unions around the country at the cost of Tk 37.36 crore on an experimental basis, said Agriculture minister Abdur Razzaque while addressing a workshop on “Establishment of Family Nutrition Gardens in Uncultivated Fallow Lands and Backyards” in the capital on June 2021.

According to the ministry, there are about 2.53 crore households in the country, and most of the backyards of these dwellings are unused. A total of 4.88 lakh gardens of vegetables, fruits and spices will be set up on the unused land of each union and municipality homestead, it said. In addition, 100 community-based vermicompost production pits will be set up to protect soil health and produce healthy, safe crops.