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HOMESTEAD VEGETABLE GARDENING USING
GRAYWATER: MEETING THE NEED OF YEAR ROUND
VEGETABLE REQUIREMENT OF LANDLESS AND
MARGINAL FARMERS
J. S. Pachpute1, S. T. Pachpute2, G. G. Sane3 and A. M. Patil4
1Associate Professor, Agricultural Engineering Section 2Professor, Animal Science Dairy Science
section and 3Junior 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
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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
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
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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
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,
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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.
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 m3, for a crop surface of 5m2.
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
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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.
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Fig. 1: Top view and Side view of Keyhole vegetable garden