Explainer: What are School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens being proposed by the Government?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 28, 2019
The Ministry of Human
Resource Development has recently released additional set of guidelines
mandating schools to set up a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden. Here is an
explainer on what this initiative is all about, what does it try to achieve
etc.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme
(MDMS), is a flag ship scheme of Government of India’s Ministry of HumanResource Development (MHRD) which aims at not only increasing the schoolattendance but more importantly improve the nutritional levels among thechildren. Since its inception as a centrally sponsored scheme in 1995, therewere multiple changes and additions made to improve on the effectiveness of thescheme.
One suchinitiative, which was implemented in a few states is the concept of ‘SchoolNutrition (Kitchen) Gardens’. The idea behind this is for the schools tomaintain a garden and grow plants that would supplement the nutritionalrequirement of the food being served as part of MDMS.
The MHRD hasreleased a set of guidelines recently withrespect to School Nutrition Gardens. The Ministry has further released additional set
of guidelines on 15 October2019 to assist schools in States/UTs in setting up theseNutrition Kitchen Gardens.
In thisexplainer story, we look into how MHRD plans to utilize the concept ofNutrition Gardens in schools to achieve multiple purposes, and the plans to ensurelarger community participation.
School
Nutrition Gardens to have multiple purposes
The initialidea of School Nutrition Gardens (SNG) was to be an integral part of providingnutrition to children by supplementing freshly grown vegetables to be served inMid-day meals. MHRD, has conceptualized to build upon this and expand the scopeof SNGs.   The guidelines document released by MHRD,highlights three
objectives for developing these nutrition gardens in the schools.
Hence, apartfrom being a source of nutrition, this initiative is envisioned to be aplatform to aid children’s learning. The scope of learning is multi-fold. Froma practical perspective, the child can develop gardening skills and otherskills associated with the activity.
This alsocreates a scope to engage in discussion and learning about the following.
The guidelinesdocument enlists various
benefits (practical & educational) of having School nutrition gardens.
Setting up and
maintenance of School Nutrition Gardens
Thespecifications for setting up and maintaining a kitchen garden are basic and donot need much investment. This is to ensure that maximum number of schools cantake part in this initiative.
Space
There are nospecific space requirements to set up a garden in school. A plot with minimaldimensions (1m X 2m) can be used for growing sample plantation. Depending onthe availability of space, the respective school authority can decide on theplace which can be allotted for the kitchen garden.
Hence, schoolsin both rural and urban locations can develop their own kitchen garden. Inplaces where there is a serious shortage of land, roof top gardens oralternatives like wall climbers can be opted for.
Availability ofwater and being shade free are few of the pre-requisites before finalizingthe land for garden.
Funding
For funding of the
School Nutrition Garden, an amount of Rs. 5,000 can be used from ‘Flexi fundcomponent for Innovative Interventions’ under the MDMS. This amount can be usedfor purchasing seeds, compost, equipment etc.
DistrictMagistrate would be heading the district level committee which is empowered toimplement the scheme. The committee would determine the prioritization andallocation of funds with an average of Rs. 5000 per School Nutrition Garden.
Agriculture/horticulturedepartment can be approached to procure seeds/saplings. Any of the activitieslike – levelling of the land, building the boundary wall etc. can be donethrough the works under ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranteeact’ (MGNREGA).
Maintenance and
Monitoring
Sense ofownership by school children is an important aspect of maintaining SchoolNutrition Garden. Schools can form Eco clubs or School Garden
Clubs comprising of enthusiastic students. The principal/head teacher canlead the club. Schools can seek support from interested members from communityand from experts who can assist the children.
If there isenough space, each class can have a separate garden with the class beingresponsible for the maintenance of the garden.  The school can from groups with each groupbeing assigned a garden plot to take care.
Differentresponsibilities can be rotated among the groups, to ensure that the wholeschool is involved with the maintenance of the garden. While the school can beopen to the involvement of others, care ought to be exercised that studentslearn from this experience.
Schools areencouraged to upload relevant photos on MDMS portal on quarterly basis and alsoshare information about any best practices and progress with the stake holders.Students can be taught to maintain records, taking stock etc.  which would provide them with practicalskills.
Allocating time
& undertaking activities
MHRD recommends around 2 hoursto be spent in a week for this activity. An hour can be designated as gardentime, wherein the students can spend in the garden with the activities. Anotherhour in the week is advised to be class time, where in the teacher and studentscan involve in lesson time. The activities in the class could include – organizingwork, setting up activities, observations, documentation etc.
School alsoneed to come up with a calendar which includes details like – season, timingsfor different activities, planting, harvest etc.  The school can plan for planting variousvegetables as per – season, availability and requirement.
Enlisting inter-departmental
and outside support
There are 706 Krishi
Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) across the country, which work under Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR) and are under the jurisdiction of AgriculturalTechnology Application Research Institutes (ATARI). These KVKs function asknowledge and resource centers for agricultural technology at district level.Schools can have scientists from KVKs to provide knowledge and technicalassistance in setting & maintenance of School Nutrition Gardens.
Parents andfamilies of the school children can be involved in the initiative. They canvolunteer for assistance in developing the garden. Furthermore, in cases wherethere is not enough space at the school, parents’ permission can be sought forchildren to develop a garden at their home.
Schools canseek support from NGOs, Charities, Religious trusts, corporates etc. in form ofknowledge transfer, kind and monetary benefits to create and develop thesegardens.
Simple
initiative which can be expanded across all the schools
So far 8 states have reporteddata in respect to this initiative with Assam having the highest number ofschools with this initiative as of March 2018.
While theconcept of Kitchen Gardens is not a new initiative and being followed byschools in many parts, MHRD has come up with these new set of guidelines topromote it at a bigger scale. Through this initiative, MHRD looks at promotingthe idea that a School Nutrition Garden can be set up without requiring a largearea and to promote innovative ways of working around the challenges indeveloping a School Nutrition Garden.
Schools havethe opportunity to develop innovative ways of making the optimum utilization ofthe resources and by engaging various partners. The most important target inthis new version to develop skill in children as well as to use this as a platformto imbibe knowledge on various aspects.