Port Blair, April 28:A training programme on Nutritious Kitchen Garden was conducted at Sawai in collaboration with KVK Nicobar recently under the guidance of Dr S. Dam Roy, Director, ICAR – CIARI, Port Blair. The Fourth Captain Mr. Philman Alban was the chief guest. He spoke on the importance of training, seed kits distributed, benefits accrued due to consumption by growing in their backyard. He also appreciated the efforts of the scientists of CIARI & KVK working for the upliftment the tribal farmers.
Dr S. K. Zamir Ahmed, Principal Scientist (Agrl. Extension ) , Dr. Nagesh Ram, Sr. Scientist & Head alongwith SMSs of KVK, Car Nicobar , Dr S.K.Pandey , Dr Zacharia George, Er. Chandrika Ram and Mr Sanjeev Kumar as faculty coordinated the programme. During the programme a total of 56 (30 male & 26 female) trainees representing 15 tuhets participated in the interactive programm e.
Dr. Nagesh Ram, Sr. Scientist & Head, briefed on the role of KVK in promoting agricultural and allied activities with special emphasis on NKG. Dr Sanjay Kumar Pandey SMS (Agronomy) spoke on the importance of NKG, PoP of leafy and rhizomes. Emphasis was made on making of compost pit in garden. Dr Zacharia George SMS (AS) spoke on recycling of animal waste as a source of manure in the garden to provide better nutrition to the plants during the crop period. Er. Chandrika Ram, SMS spoke on the small farm implements to be used for effective field management and drudgery reduction.
During the interactive session and group task coordinated by Dr. S.K. Zamir Ahmed, knowledge and skill on NKG was imparted and assessed. The trainees could name 47 different types of components which included vegetables, fruits, spices, rhizome, arecanut and dwarf coconut which can be accommodated in the NKG. Besides two farmers viz., Miss Milton Brown of Pachar Tuhet and Jayaraani from Chuok Ma Tuhet of Sawai village volunteered to start the Nutritious Kitchen Garden at Sawai village.
Field visit was also made to 15 clusters of villages along with team of KVK, Nicobar to get the feedback on the vegetables grown in the backyard and the benefit obtained. The farmers appreciated the effort and place the demand for the vegetable seeds like raddish, bhendi, cowpea, bottle gourd, pumpkin, green amaranthus, bitter gourd, snake gourd, brinjal, chilli and french bean.
