Eluru: West Godavari administration has come up with a plan to raise vegetable crops in a big way in the backyards of the houses and also on the premises of schools by using organic manure to help the people consume fresh vegetables and stay healthy. Collector K. Bhaskar in a meeting held here on Wednesday directed the horticulture authorities to make arrangements to distribute vegetable seed kits — which have 10 varieties of vegetables — at Rs 10 to six lakh families in the district. Though it costs Rs 20 for a kit, the horticulture authorities are providing a subsidy.
The vegetable seeds proposed for distribution include ladies finger, tomato, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, snake gourd, bottle gourd, brinjal and others. The Collector directed the horticulture authorities to start distribution of vegetable seeds to the families from the first week of August. With regard to schools, the Collector said the district education authorities were given 1,000 vegetables seed kits and have asked the horticulture authorities to supply 2,270 kits from August 1. Each kit costs about Rs 100 but Mr Bhaskar has asked the authorities to provide them at Rs 50 each.
The Collector said the people were afraid to consume vegetables as the farmers used chemical fertilisers and pesticides which cause health problems. He said if the vegetable seed kits were given away to the people, they would grow them in their backyards and if such facilities were not available, they could even grow them in pots and eat fresh vegetables and stay healthy. He has asked schools to start growing vegetables in school premises as they could be used for preparing curries to serve to the students in mid-day meal scheme.
