Forty-eight-year-old Rajdhani Devi is a permanent resident of village Pureghisan. Her family of six is very poor. She is a housewife, and her husband, Ajaib Lal, works as a laborer, which covers the expenses of her house. Rajdhani Devi says they have a total of 0.25 acres (10 biswa) on which vegetables were cultivated, but their vegetable crops were spoiled due to the high cost of cultivation and stray animals.
Vegetables had to be bought from the market for their own food, costing from 1,200 to 1,500 rupees per month.
Rajdhani Devi was given the benefit of a kitchen garden in February 2020 through the Krishi Jyoti project, in which vegetable cultivation is being done in about one biswa (0.031 acres) with her. Rajdhani Devi says, “Ever since the kitchen garden was set up (with the help of Sehgal Foundation and Mosaic Company), around which barbed wire was put, stray animals stay away, enabling the safe growth of vegetable crops.”
Rajdhani Devi adds, “Vegetables grown in the kitchen garden this year were enough to meet our family’s requirements for three months, due to which we saved about 3,600 rupees; and by selling extra vegetables in the market, I also got an additional income of one thousand rupees. Now we are using the additional income or our children's education and other household expenses. Next year, I will do vegetable cultivation on a large scale in this way so that, by selling vegetables in the market, I can increase my household income and send my children to a good school. On behalf of my family, I express my gratitude to Sehgal Foundation and Mosaic Company for introducing me to kitchen gardening.”
(By Dharmendra Singh, Assistant Program Lead, S M Sehgal Foundation)
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