Jamshedpur: Malnutrition is a serial killer in Jharkhand where the rural infant mortality rate is 46 per 1,000 live births and the child (three months to five years) mortality rate an alarming 58 per 1,000 live births.
A Bangalore company has taken up the cudgels to arrest this death march by helping individual households and government schools grow what it calls nutrition kitchen gardens complete with pesticide-free crops.
Semina Agro Trading Private Limited, the brainchild of Ranchi-based social entrepreneur Mohit Kumar, has so far helped more than one lakh families across the state and 16 government schools in Khunti to grow seasonal vegetables for wholesome nutrition, which is improving the quality of midday meals.
The 2015 company, which otherwise deals in farming tools and cultivation techniques, distributes seed kits to villagers and schools along with a kitchen garden layout. Each kit, priced at Rs 150, comprises 10 varieties of seeds like gourd, brinjal and spinach that can be easily grown in a small area of 400sqft.
The nutrition gardens in schools are being facilitated by the Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives under Tata Trusts since last year. Semina Agro has also partnered with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society.
"Jharkhand is infamous for malnutrition. Hence, as a social enterprise, our objective is to improve the nutritional status of people in general and children in particular. We have helped some 4 lakh families across Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha," said Mohit who completed his schooling from Gomia in Bokaro and is now based in Ranchi with considerable experience in the development sector.
Mohit believes that production of vegetables in school kitchen gardens gives students direct access to nutrients that may not be available within their economic reach.
"We not only sell seeds to schools and households, but also technically guide them with the layout, low-cost irrigation models and plantation of seeds with minimum distance. Such gardens can bring additional revenue if the produce is sold," he added.
