School gardening promotes skill development and healthy eating habit in children

Singh BK and Singh SK. 2017. School gardening promotes skill development and healthy eating habit in children. Indian Farmers’ Digest 51(2): 34-37.

School garden is an area near to school, mainly grown and managed by school children/learners, and offers a creative space in which children can achieve something real. Usually, highly nutritious and locally suitable vegetables, herbs, fruits and spices are grown and harvested. School gardening engages the students by providing a dynamic environment to grow, observe, discover, experiment, nurture and learn; and thereby enhancing the academic, social and physical skills in them, and promoting healthy eating habits. It is like a “growing science centre” and learning is hands-on, child-centered, eco-friendly, sustainable, easily adaptable and empowers children in a healthy way. As diet-related health and nutrition concerns broaden to young aged children, the governments and development agencies should also focus on the concept of “School Garden” for a variety of reasons such as promotion of good diet, nutrition education, lifelong healthy eating habit and brotherhood, and development of livelihood skills together with retention of students in schools. Besides, the educational focus of School Garden could be an important long-term contributor to national health and food security (Figure 1).

Hungry and malnourished children, the symbol of poverty, which go to school cannot develop, grow and perform well. They have decreased physical activity, diminished cognitive abilities and reduced resistance to infections and diseases. In the long term, malnutrition decreases individual potential, productivity and incomes, and has adverse affects on national development and food security. It has been proven by Psychologist that gardening by children have multifold positive impacts such as habits of doing hard work, physically more activeness, will never say no to vegetables and greens, development of self-confidence, affinity to nature and natural resources, and inculcating the social skills (sense of caring, togetherness, brotherhood, responsibility, helping attitude and sharing works). The kids will also ask their parents to grow herbs, vegetables and plants in their home yards, balconies, windowsills and roofs. Therefore, investments in nutrition and education are essential to break the cycle of malnutrition and poverty simultaneously. Hence, school gardening with the support of the governments, developmental agencies, school management and Gram Panchayat can do all of these things:

•         shows children how to sow, grow and harvest a variety of nutritional diets like vegetables, fruits, spices, medicinal plants, legumes, etc.;

•         adds diversity to the diets, learning environments and ecosystems;

•         increases children’s preference and consumption of vegetables, greens and fruits;

•         promotes lifelong healthy eating habits;

•         enhances Mid-Day Meal (school meals) with nutrition-rich foods;

•         demonstrates to children how to extend and improve a diet with home-grown foods;

•         attracts young kids towards school and thereby reduce drop outs by retaining students;

•         helps young minds to grow faster physically and mentally;

•         creates and promotes social skills such as sense of responsibility, caring and brotherhood among children and society;

•         could be utilized as learning aid by teachers i.e. ‘living laboratory’;

•         promotes and establishes horticultural skills in agriculture dependent country;

Micronutrients are required in small quantities and responsible for vital functions of the human body. Billions of people in developing countries, including India, suffer from micronutrient malnutrition "hidden hunger" that is caused by intake of insufficient micronutrients such as vitamin-A, Zn and Fe. Malnutrition in India, especially among children and women, is in a state of silent emergency and thereby demands greater priority than ever before. Article 47 of the Constitution of India states that the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people, and improvement in public health; one among its primary duties. Recent estimates indicate that about 50% of all the newborns are malnourished, 30% are born underweight, and more than about 60% of the preschool children are underweight and stunted making them more vulnerable to further malnutrition and diseases. Under nutrition impairs physical, mental and behavioral development of millions of children and is a major cause of child death. Furthermore, the consequences altogether are affecting health, well-being, productivity and livelihood, and contributing to stagnating national development efforts.

Therefore, two centrally sponsored nutrition schemes: Mid-Day Meal (MDM) and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) were crafted with aim to ensure better nutrition and health outcomes. Despite incurring a huge expenditures and tireless efforts, the both MDM and ICDS programmes are often criticized for not having delivered their services adequately; hence, their impact on the nutritional outcomes of the target group have not been impressive. In Uttar Pradesh only, there are a lot of unutilized cultivable land left in about 1.40 lakh Primary and Middle Schools of UP Education Board which could be utilized for School gardening purposes. Recently, Education department, Govt. of Uttarakhand has taken decision to initiate School gardening in the unutilized land of Government Schools.

We are referring here some of the horticultural crops which are rich in minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals and antioxidants; and very much suited to North-Indian agro-climatic conditions and tastes along with few special remarks (Table 1).

Table 1: Horticultural crops suitable to School garden

Common name	Scientific name	Parts consumed	Major nutrients	Remarks
Spinach (Vilayati palak)	Spinacia oleracea	Leaves	Minerals, carotenes	-
Palak	Beta vulgaris var bengalensis	Leaves		-
Amaranth (Chaulai)	Amaranthus hybridus	Leaves		Green and red colour
Bathua	Chenopodium album	Leaves		-
Fenugreek (Methi)	Trigonella foenum-graecum	Leaves and seeds		-
Chickpea (Chana)	Cicer arieatinum	Leaves		-
Basella (Poi)	Basella rubra, B. alba	Leaves		-
Coriander (Dhaniya)	Coriandrum sativum	Leaves		-
Mustard (Sarson)	Brassica juncea	Leaves		-
Vegetable mustard (Sabji sarson)	Brassica juncea var rugosa	Leaves		-
Lettuce	Lactuca sativa	Leaves		-
Chinese cabbage (Chinese patta gobhi)	Brassica rapa var chinensis	Leaves		-
Cabbage (Patta gobhi)	Brassica oleracea var capitata	Leaves		Red and green colour
Kale	Brassica oleracea var acephala	Leaves
Taro (Arvi)	Colocasia esculenta	Leaves		Plant near water drainage system as they are water loving.
Water spinach (Karenua)	Ipomoea aquatica	Leaves
Pea (Matar)	Pisum sativum	Leaves and pods	Protein	-
Cowpea (Lobia)	Vigna unguiculata	Leaves and pods		Purple and green color pods
French bean (Rajmah phali)	Phaseolus vulgaris	Pods
Indian bean (Sem)	Lablab purpureus	Pods
Vegetable soybean (Soya phali)	Glycine max	Pods		-
Corn-QPM type (Makka)	Zea mays	Cobs	Protein	-
Onion (Pyaj)	Allium cepa	Leaves and bulbs	Antioxidants	-
Garlic (Lahsun)	Allium sativum	Leaves and bulbs		-
Okra (Bhindi)	Abelmoschus esculentus	Pods	Dietary fiber	-
Pumpkin (Kaddu)	Cucurbita moschata	Flowers and fruits	Carotenes	-
Bitter gourd (Karela)	Momordica charantia	Leaves and fruits	Fe, medicinal properties	-
Broccoli	Brassica oleracea var italica	Heads	Antioxidant	Green and purple colour
Carrot (Gajar)	Daucus carota	Roots	Antioxidants (carotene, leutin, lycopene, anthocyanin)	Orange, red and purple colour
Tomato (Tamatar)	Solanum lycopersicum	Fruits	Lycopene	-
Chilli (Mirch)	Capsicum annuum var annuum	Fruits	Ascorbic acid, Fe	Green and purple colour
Mentha (Pudina)	Mentha arvensis	Leaves	Medicinal properties, Fe	-
Curry tree	Murraya koenigii	Leaves		-
Basil (Tulsi)	Ocimum sanctum	Leaves		-
Papaya (Papita)	Carica papaya	Ripe and raw fruits	Carotenes	Perennial trees should be planted preferably in South-West direction
Aonla	Phyllanthus emblica	Fruits	Antioxidants, ascorbic acid
Jamun	Sygigium cumini	Fruits	Antioxidant
Guava (Amrud)	Psidium guajava	Fruits	Fe, ascorbic acid
Kagzi lime (Kagzi nibu)	Citrus aurantifolia	Fruits	Ascorbic acid
Drumstick (Sahjan)	Moringa oleifera	Leaves and pods	Minerals, carotenes
Caronda	Carissa carandas	Fruits	Fe	As fence on boundary
Turmeric (Haldi)	Curcuma longa	Rhizomes	Antioxidant, medicinal properties	Plant under shade of perennial trees
Ginger (Adrak)	Zingiber officinale	Rhizomes	Antioxidant

To get started, one may contact following organizations for scientific and technical supports:

·         Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Shahanshahpur, Varanasi, UP-221305.

·         Central Institute of Sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH), Rehmankhera, Lucknow, UP-227107.

·         Division of Vegetable Science, IARI, Pusa, New Delhi-110012.

·         Division of Fruits & Horticulture Technology, IARI, Pusa, New Delhi-110012.

·         Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hessaraghatta, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560089.

·         State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).

·         Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).

·         District Horticulture Offices.

·         Kisan Call Center: 18001801551.

Hope, the governments and their development agencies can do to promote School Gardens as a seed ground not only for nutrition education, healthy eating habit, better health and brotherhoods, but also for the nation’s higher productivity and food security in long term. The School gardening may feed millions hopes daily.