Kitchen gardening key to safe health, poverty alleviation

Kitchen gardening can play a major role for safe health as well as in alleviating poverty, said Professor Dr Bashir Ahmed, Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) on Wednesday.
Inaugurating FAO-sponsored training course on Kitchen Gardening, organised by the Institute of Horticultural Sciences (IHS), as chief guest in Old Senate Hall, the vice chancellor said that rising poverty in rural and urban areas was one of the serious problems affecting economic growth of the country.
He emphasised that learning skills of kitchen gardening would not only make the surrounding environment pleasant and friendly, but also ensure a source to poverty alleviation at domestic level.
He suggested that a balanced diet must include fats, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and roughage of fiber.
Dr Bashir Ahmad said that malnutrition was not only causing health hazards but also affecting negatively on economic growth of the country.
Earlier, IHS Director Dr Muhammad Aslam Pervaiz, in his welcome address, highlighted the importance of short course regarding the kitchen gardening and said that kitchen gardening was free from all chemicals and poisons.
Most of the population living in rural areas was suffering from malnutrition problems such as anaemia, vitamin-A and iodine deficiency, particularly in women and children.
He suggested that kitchen gardens could be the rectification of all these problems and through it, health and nutrition goals could be achieved and these gardens could boost nutrition level.
FAO Project Director Dr Muhammad Ilyas, speaking on the occasion, said, "we have started this course with the hope that participants will learn skills for better vegetable production."
He said that the participants of the course were drawn from different parts of Balochistan with different level of education, culture and customs.
The participants include Humera, Amina, Asima, Malyka, Zakra, Neelum, Skina, Rabia and Shehras. A large number of students and faculty members also attended the inaugural session.