NEW DELHI, Nov 9:
‘Grow your own food’ seems to be the new mantra for a section of the health conscious urban crowd who as budding gardeners are increasingly opting for organic farming.
From growing a variety of fruits and vegetables like brinjals, tomatoes, lemons, potatoes, chilies and others; the urban gardeners are also looking at ways to popularise the practice of organic farming as a way of life.
“My mother had an ornamental garden. After the birth of my child, I decided to add vegetables to it. I want that at least my child should be fed on fresh, home-grown vegetables. The burgeoning rates of food combined with their poisonous components have forced me to think otherwise,” says 40-year- old Ashish Agarwal, a freelancer.
Redefining the waste produced at home, experts feel that people should usher in practices that provide optimum use of the resources in hand rather than burdening the environment that is already under a lot of pressure.
“You can use kitchen waste and composorb, an organic composting aid, to grow plants even in your terrace. The process of cultivation is very easy and the cost is also very low,” environmentalist and bio-manure expert Narender Kumar told PTI.
Kumar, who works as a waste expert for Tihar inmates, is of the view that waste management should be the next step to the widely popular ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’.
“Delhi produces 8,000-10,000 metric tons of waste annually and spends huge amount on its disposal. Why can’t we design a system that utilises the waste and thus help in saving money? We need to ask ourselves what are we doing next to ‘Swachch Abhiyan’? Waste management is the next step to this campaign,” he says.
“At Tihar, the inmates produce 4-5 tons of organic waste. They sold the compost they made out of kitchen waste as manure to the farmers last year,” says the environmentalist.
Moving beyond the minimum required space of 50-80 cm for organic terrace farming, the gardening enthusiasts are experimenting with variety and venue.
“Though I started with planting fruit trees on a small piece of land, now I have utilised more than 1,500 square feet of space in my backyard for organic gardening. The hobby has become a passion now. I have almost stopped buying vegetables from the market apart from potatoes, chilies and onions in the off season,” says Rakhee Chowdhary, a health professional.
“I am currently growing spinach, broad bean, egg plant, strawberry, mint, coriander, papaya, capsicum, turmeric, Fenugreek, basil and lemon grass. I am also growing flowers like marigold, calendula, dahlia, freesia, Gazania etc,” shares 33-year-old Pankaj Vaksh, a software engineer.
The budding gardeners also shared the common mistakes that people make while doing organic cultivation. (PTI)
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