Asha Pandey, an LIC official living in Khasmahal, doesn’t fret about procuring organic vegetables anymore. She grows them herself.

The lockdown has offered Asha and many more like her an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of growing veggies in their kitchen gardens.

“I always wanted to grow vegetables, but could never do so because of a shortage of time. However, the lockdown worked wonders for me. I started cultivating bitter gourd, tomato, cabbage, eggplants and spinach. Gardening is a great stress-buster, and most importantly, we don’t have to worry about the harmful pesticides anymore,” Asha said.

Asha’s husband, who was initially sceptical, now gets her the required organic fertiliser such as cow dung.

In Ranchi, regional chief conservator of forests (RCCF) A.T. Mishra is happy that he has managed to grow a lot of organic vegetables in his 1200sqft kitchen garden. Through Mishra had a penchant for growing flowers, the lockdown has prompted him to try his hand at growing vegetables such as tomato, bitter gourd, chillies, cucumber, eggplants, ladies finger and ridge gourd.

“I use organic fertilisers and water the plants regularly. In fact, the kitchen garden is helping us meet our daily food needs during the lockdown,” Mishra said.

Tata Steel Foundation has also started helping rural families to develop kitchen gardens. It has decided to help 600 families across various block of Kolhan region with the wherewithal of growing these vegetables in small plots of land.

Each family is being given Rs 1,250 once they complete laying the field.