HOMESTEAD VEGETABLE GARDENING USING GRAYWATER: MEETING THE NEED OF YEAR ROUND VEGETABLE REQUIREMENT OF LANDLESS AND MARGINAL FARMERS

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1 HOMESTEAD VEGETABLE GARDENING USING GRAYWATER: MEETING THE NEED OF YEAR ROUND VEGETABLE REQUIREMENT OF LANDLESS AND MARGINAL FARMERS J. S. Pachpute 1, S. T. Pachpute 2,G. G. Sane 3 and A. M. Patil 4 1 Associate Professor, Agricultural Engineering Section 2 Professor, Animal Science Dairy Science section and 3 Junior Research Fellow, RKVY project on RRWHSFS, College of Agriculture, Pune Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri Received: 03/08/2017 Edited: 09/08/2017 Accepted: 18/08/2017 Abstract: Agricultural growth itself does not necessarily lead to improved nutrition. Therefore, for many years, governments, donors, UN agencies and NGOs have been promoting home gardens to achieve better family nutrition, mostly with positive results. In the arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid tropical regions, which include much of rural India, water is a critical input to successful home gardening and very often a critical problem affecting the year-round productivity of gardens. In principle, it is possible to grow vegetables year-round, even in the dry regions by capturing and storing rainwater as well as household grey water. Keyhole and sack gardening experimented under the RKVY project on rain-runoff water harvesting storages for smallholder farming systems, were introduced in water scarce areas as the system innovations enabling landless and marginal farmers to grow vegetables by recycling used greywater and using locally available material. The homestead garden helped the poor families to grow vegetables nearly all year round. Both gardening options provided improved nutrition to households and for this reason the innovations are recommended for use in water constrained areas. Key words: vegetable gardening, graywater, water harvesting. Introduction: In India nearly 21.9 % of the population lives below the food consumption based poverty line, lacking sufficient resources to afford diet of 2122 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day, along with other basic necessities (Anonymous,. 2013). The normal diet of Indian people is seriously imbalanced, with inadequate consumption of protein, fat, oil, fruits and vegetables and with more than 80 per cent of calories derived from cereals. Animal foods which are the richest sources of many micronutrients, including Vitamin A, are beyond most people s means. About 70% of farming population consumes more than 70% of Recommended Dietary Allowance for energy, however the intakes of micronutrients such as vitamin A and riboflavin are seen inadequate. Per day at least 400 gm of vegetable and fruit is needed for an adult, whereas farmers are consuming only around 35 gm/head /day (except potato) (Anonymous,2010; WHO, 2009). Research findings suggest that unavailability of cheap vegetables and fruits and lack of nutritional knowledge contributes to the problem of malnutrition (Bhuyan et al., 2001; Arlappa et.al.2011). Leafy vegetables form part of the richest vitamin sources. Spinach and onion happen to be the most common vegetables in farmer s diets. Hence, promoting the production and consumption of comparatively cheap vegetables, fruits and poultry is an important strategy for combating nutritional deficiency. The landless laborers form 34% part of the total population in India and possess no farm land, however they own the homestead. The marginal and smallholder farmers constitute 66% of the population having average land holding of less than 0.46 ha (Venkaiah et.al, 2002). The cultivable land and water are scarce resources for marginal farmers. Their farms are mostly engaged in production of 421

2 staple and fodder crops. For the landless farming laborers and marginal farmers only homestead is available for cultivating vegetables and fruits. The homesteads in India are unutilized or underutilized and not scientifically managed, which could be brought under round the year vegetable and fruit cultivation without touching the cultivable land owned by the farmer. Homestead can be an operational farm unit in which a number of tree crops, vegetables, fruits, medicinal plants are grown along with livestock, poultry mainly to satisfy the farmers basic need (Tejwani, 1994). The homestead garden can be an integrated farm system comprising different things in its small area: the family house, a living area, a kitchen garden, a mixed garden, a fish pond, stores, an animal house and people. Homestead vegetable gardening allow to utilize maximum resources of the homestead for growing vegetables and fruits, to enhance intake of vegetables and fruits for ensuring family nutrition towards sustainable livelihoods and to increase cash income. Homesteads are the resources that can provide major share of livelihood especially for poor farmers. The resource poor farmers can get about 50% of their food and petty cash from homestead. Harvested rainwater and reusing greywater for cultivation of homestead vegetable gardens will address the year round need of vegetables of landless and marginal farmer families. Greywater is household wastewater that is not polluted with faeces, such as water from bathroom, after washing clothes and kitchen utensils. In poor rural areas, greywater is not soapy as soap may be a luxury item to these households. For example, wood ash is commonly used for washing utensils. Accordingly, greywater is a safe and even beneficial source of irrigation water in a homestead garden. The greywater can be used conveniently and safely for vegetable production through the system innovations such as keyhole garden and sack garden. These innovations are not widely practiced in India. However, due to the increased water scarcity and reduced size of land holdings, now the role of these vegetable cultivation techniques for securing 422 household nutrition has become imperative. Accordingly, these techniques are being experimented in Thakarwadi and Gadakwadi villages of Rajgurunagar Tahsil in Pune District under the research project namely Rain Runoff Water Harvesting Storages for Smallholder Farming Systems sanctioned under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana programme. The focus of this study is to maximize nutrition intake of landless and marginal farmer families through the household level innovations such as keyhole and sack vegetable gardens and reuse of greywater. Material and Methods: Gadakwadi and Thakarwadi villages: Gadakwadi and Thakarwadi are the villages situated in Rajgurunager tahsil in Pune District. The Gadakwadi village comprises of marginal and smallholder farmers, most of them are below poverty line. Drinking water is the problem of topmost priority in summer. Vegetables are not at all cultivated in summer season due to the scarcity of water. Thakarwadi is a tribal settlement and comprises marginal farmers. Water scarcity is severe after rainy season since this settlement is located on hilltop where water storages are unavailable. All farmers are below poverty line and work as farm labourers in non-rainy season. In Thakarwadi during non-rainy season of eight months the vegetables are completely absent from the farmer s diet. Innovations for homestead gardening using harvested rainwater and greywater are needed for addressing the nutrition deficiency. System Innovations for Homestead Gardening 1) Keyhole Garden: It is a homestead garden model developed for safe use of greywater. The raised bed of this garden looks like a keyhole from above so this garden is called as keyhole garden (Fig.1). A keyhole garden is a 6 feet diameter circular raised bed of waist height with a wedge cut out of it. It has a circular walkway around it to allow the farmer to sit or squat while working in the garden. Bed is held in place by any kind of material such as used bricks, stones, wooden planks, cement blocks etc. Farmer

3 can step into the empty wedge to reach anywhere in the bed without actually stepping on the soil. The bed is comprised of layers of soil and organic compost that add nutrients whilst retaining moisture, thereby making the keyhole gardens productive even in dry and less fertile areas (Fig.1). The keyhole gardens are designed to be watered with greywater, both to conserve water and reduce the burden of collecting additional water for irrigation. Water can be applied to the top of the bed or through the cylindrical compost basket at the centre, thereby watering the layer beneath. The basket helps filter out the chemicals from soap and detergents. The water applied in compost basket saturates the compost, then seeps into the surrounding soil to reach the roots. As it washes through the compost the water picks up soluble nutrients and carries them to the roots. Every time the garden gets watered, it is fertilized as well. During periods of extreme drought, water can be retained by covering the entire system in plastic. Keyhole gardens are fertile gardens and for diverse nutritional input multiple vegetables can be cultivated, such as herbs, spinach, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, radish, gourds and pumpkin. The latter two can have their roots in the raised bed but may grow alongside or on to the ground. On average, one single keyhole garden contains 200 to 240 seedlings of vegetables. The keyhole garden provides benefits such as soil enrichment, moisture retention, labour saving and year-round vegetable production. 2) Sack Garden Sack gardening systems enable the production of vegetables where space is scarce. It is a homestead garden model for safe use of greywater. Usually a Jute or Burlap sack supported by wooden poles, is filled with a mixture of soil and compost. Two designs of the sack garden are developed: (1) A sack is filled with the horizontal layers of gravel and soil mixed with compost. Greywater is then poured from top so as to pass through the gravel layers (Fig. 2a) which removes some of the soap and other components.(2) A sack with a central column of about 5 cm of diameter filled with gravel and 423 surrounded by soil mixed with compost. Greywater is then poured through the gravel column that removes some of the soap and other dirt components (Fig.2b). Vegetable are planted on top as well as in the holes cut into the sides of the bag. Leafy greens like herbs, lettuce, spinach, fenugreek, coriander and dale are most appropriate for cultivation since they keep on growing even after the leaves have been harvested. A piece of cloth is stretched over the plants to protect them from direct sunlight. On average, one single sack contains 70 to 90 seedlings of leafy vegetables. The main advantages of sack gardens are their portability, low size, low cost, efficiency, productivity and contributions to nutrition security. Implementation of Homestead Gardening Programme: The homesteads were selected and farmers were trained in various tasks such as (a) Key hole and sack garden construction, maintenance and management, (b) traditional and non-costly methods of disease and pest control such as spraying neempest, (c) compost making, (d) vegetable production. At the end of the training, farmers were encouraged to prepare one keyhole and one sack garden per family. Regular watering, monitoring of the keyhole and sack gardens, pests and disease control, composting were adopted by the farmers. Selecting Garden Location: The homestead garden were placed within a convenient walking distance from the kitchen as the vegetables can be easily accessed for cooking as well as the kitchen scrap compost can be easily fed to the keyhole garden. Moreover, the gardens were located near the tree or next to house so as to shield in the afternoon and or summer, reducing the amount of sunlight the garden is exposed to. Preparation of Compost: The household waste products were used to make compost material. Dead leaves, thatch, grass clippings, manure and straw from the yard which are good sources of carbon were used. Moreover,

4 vegetable and fruit scraps and used tea powder which provide nitrogen were used in the composting. 3. Building the Keyhole Garden: Step by step procedure was followed to construct the keyhole garden. 1. The outside diameter of a Keyhole Garden was kept 2 m with the diameter of compost basket 18 inches. A wooden stake was hammered into the ground at the center of the place selected for garden. A string of 1 m length was attached to the center stake. The other end of the string was tied to another steak. The string was pulled tight and with the second steak circle was marked on the ground (Fig.3a). The process was repeated for tracing circle using 9 inches length of string for the basket. Around the inner ring 4 to 6 wooden posts were secured into the ground. 2. The outline of the garden was lined with used brick and stones. The first row of brick for the outside wall served as the template for the rest of the garden (Fig.3b). The wedge like indent for the pathway to the basket was constructed. 3. The central compost basket is finished by wrapping the wooden posts with chicken wire and securing it using staples or tie wire. The compost basket was primed with already composting material to provide the micro organisms needed to break down the compost material. Native compost and manure were added to fill the compost basket (Fig.3c) 4. For filling the bed the base for the first layer of soil was prepared by laying larger rocks and stone piled up in the bottom to allow adequate drainage in monsoon months. Tree debris such as twigs, leaves and branches were piled up as second layer to provide a long term compost source. Sandy topsoil is added on top of second layer and mound is formed towards the basket (Fig.3d). Sandy topsoil promotes good drainage because it has a sandy consistency and a small percentage of gravel with low clay content. On the topsoil, alternated layers of organic material such as native compost and soil were provided until the desired height of garden. 424 Seeds were planted in Keyhole garden according to the season. Multiple varieties of plants were chosen in order to preserve the quality of the soil and repel pests (Fig.2). Root plants like carrot and radish were planted next to leafy plants. Onions and garlic were planted intermittently to help repel the pests. Plants were set closely enough that when they are full grown their leaves just touch. As a result the shade created by the leaf canopy slowed evaporation and kept soil cooler so the garden needed less frequent irrigation. At the same time, weed seed germination was reduced, so the homestead gardens were relatively weed free. The garden layers sank over time because of decomposition of the layers of organic material, so some soil was added regularly to maintain the level of the garden. 5. Building a Sack Garden The mixture of soil and compost manure was prepared. Each burlap or Jute sack used by the project was about 0.5 m 3, for a crop surface of 5m 2. Each sack contained up to 70 to 90 plants of different types of vegetables. Method 1 First of all a shallow layer of soil was placed in the bottom of the sack. Then for constructing the central column of gravel, a vertical container (can) with the top and bottom cut out and having diameter 4 inch was placed in the center and filled with gravel of size 2-3 inches. The soil was filled around the gravel filled container till the edges at top. When the soil reached the top, the container was pulled out gently, leaving the rocks in a column in the center. This procedure was repeated until the bag was full with a center column of gravel and mixture of soil with compost around the column. The column is for drainage and water distribution throughout the sack (Fig.4a). Wherever, it was available, the wire mesh (chicken wire) shaped in to cylinder and PVC pipe of 3 to 4 inch diameter filled with gravel made it easier to create the central column of gravel. The wire was shaped into a long cylinder, put upright on the bottom of the bag, was filled with gravel and then

5 the bag was filled in with soil mixed with compost. The wire mesh was left inside when filling of the bag was finished. In case of a PVC pipe, it was pulled out when the pipe was completely filled with gravel and bag was full of soil mixed with compost. The plantation of root crops like radish, tomato, carrot was done on top of the sack. Herbs and leafy vegetables such as mint, coriander spinach, fenugreek, were planted on the side of the sack by cutting a small upside down T shaped holes in the sack for planting along the sides of the sack. Method 2 The sack was filled with horizontal layers of gravel of about 5 cm thick placed in between the 30 cm thick layers of soil mixed with compost (Fig. 4b). Greywater is then poured from top so as to pass through the gravel layers which removes some of the soap and other components. Herbs and leafy vegetables such as mint, coriander spinach, fenugreek, were planted on the side of the sack by cutting a small upside down T shaped holes. 6. Operation of Keyhole and Sack Garden: Farmers watered their gardens twice per day with greywater. Compost and cow manure is applied as source of nutrients. Homemade pesticides neempest prepared from the leaves of neem tree was applied. Vegetables were harvested as and when required by the household, only by cutting lower leaves leaving the top ones for continual growth. For most vegetables, harvesting was done four times a month. The homestead garden produced almost 60 kg vegetable from keyhole and 20 kg vegetable from sack garden each month, worth Rs.1000 and Rs.450 respectively. Results and Discussion: Homestead gardens played critical roles in enabling many poor rural households in Gadakwadi and Thakarwsdi to meet their food security and nutritional requirements. The gardens were constructed from locally available materials. The construction was simple and not labour intensive. No financial capital investment was required from the households as the seeds were available with farmer community that were shared among homesteads. Households have direct access to greywater and organic waste for compost. However, with a simple alteration to the design of the homestead gardens such as keyhole and sack garden, the greywater is used productively for vegetable cultivation. In poor rural areas, greywater is not soapy as soap may be a luxury item to these households. For example, ash is commonly used for washing utensils. Accordingly, the use of greywater is productive and can be easily promoted. Conclusions: Keyhole and sack gardening are the appropriate technology that enabled people in water-constrained places to grow vegetables by recycling used water and using locally available material. Homestead gardens experimented under this study helped to extend the growing season, even in dry periods, so that vegetables were grown by families nearly all year round. Both gardening options provided improved nutrition to households and for this reason the technologies are recommended for use in rural areas. References: Anonymous, New Delhi: National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation: Government of India; Household consumption of various goods and services in India: 66th Round ( ). Anonymous, Press Note on Poverty Estimates, Government of India, Planning Commission, July Arlappa, N, Venkaiah, K., Brahmam, G.N.V., Severe drought and the vitamin A status of rural preschool children in India. Disasters. 2011; 35:

6 Bhuyan, M. A. Haque, M. A., Al-Mahmud, S., Rahman, M. M.,Rahman M. K. and N. Shaheen Nutrition education exposure and nutritional status of selected household members in three agroecological locations of Bangladesh. Bangladesh J of Nutrition, Vol. 14: Tejwani, K. G Agroforestry in India, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. Venkaiah K., Damayanti K., Nayak M. U. and Vijayaraghavan K., Diet and nutritional status of rural adolescents in India. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. November 2002, Volume 56, Number 11, Pages World Health Organization (WHO), Global prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in populations at risk WHO Global Database on Vitamin A Deficiency. Geneva: Fig. 1: Top view and Side view of Keyhole vegetable garden 426

7 Fig. 2: Keyhole vegetable garden Fig. 3: Stepwise Construction of Keyhole Garden Fig. 4: Types of Sack Gardens 427