Motivation of Farm Women towards Nutritional Kitchen Garden and Postharvest Management of their Surplus Produce

The study was carried out in kitchen garden of 20 farm women of villages Danpur, Bhagwanpur, Chattarpur, Bhurarani and Fauzi Matkota of block Rudradpur, district Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand) during kharif 2013 and rabi 2013-14. Good quality hybrid and improved varieties of vegetable seeds were supplied to the farm women to grow in an area of 0.07 ha. Fixed quantity of vegetable seeds of each, bottle gourd, sponge gourd, bitter gourd, brinjal, okra, chilli and lobia were supplied in kharif season which were sown in the month of June while in rabi season onion, carrot, cauliflower, cabbage, rye, radish, spinach, pea, coriander and fenugreek seeds were supplied to each of farm women which were sown in the month of October. The economic aspect of demonstrations revealed benefit-cost ratio as 3.46 in kharif and 3.57 in rabi season. It was observed that the vegetables harvested were utilised for home consumption and the excess seedlings of cauliflower, cabbage, radish and carrot were distributed to neighbouring farm families. These vegetables were also dried and stored in powdered form as well as in dried pieces for later consumption. Thus, efforts of the present study motivated the farm women to start the practice of nutritious kitchen garden, helped to increase their yield of vegetables, through as well as storage of fresh produce in post-harvest form for later consumption.