Author(s): Santosh Rani, Sandeep Bhakar and Makhan Majoka

Abstract:
Kitchen gardens can be grown in the empty space available at the backyard of the house or a group of women can come together, identify a common place or land and grow desired vegetables, fruits, etc. that can benefit the women and community as a whole. Vegetables are major source of vitamins, minerals, and fibres; their nutritive and medicinal values in human life are well recognized. These vegetables also provide taste, palatability, better digestibility to us and increase the appetite. The present work was carried out by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Fatehabad in the year of 2018-19. Two villages namely Sehnal and Gorakhpur were selected purposively for this study. 200 Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs) were conducted during rabi and kharif seasons in these two villages. 100 farmers/farm women in each village were supplied seasonal vegetables seeds for both the summer (Kharif) and winter (Rabi) seasons as demonstration kit. The kit comprised of seeds of vegetables viz., okra, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cowpea for the summer season and carrot, radish, spinach, coriander and methi for the winters season. The objectives of these FLDs were to provide them knowledge about vegetables production technology for kitchen gardens and quick access of raw vegetables for daily home consumption. Therefore the present study was designed to assess the impact of these FLDs on beneficiary’s knowledge regarding vegetable cultivation and their liking about growing of vegetables. Data was collected through well-structured interview schedule on their basic profile, growing and liking pattern of the respondents and their knowledge about different vegetables demonstrated under FLDs. It is quite encouraging that majority of the respondents were less educated, yet succeeded in gaining sufficient level of knowledge regarding vegetable cultivation. There was difference in the knowledge of respondents at pre- and post exposure stage for all the vegetables cultivation activities. Maximum gain in knowledge (45.00%) was received in irrigation and their critical stages followed by plant protection measures (42.50%), improved varieties (42.00%) and post harvest management (38.00%). The data on growing and liking pattern of vegetables revealed that farmers are ready to adopt the kitchen gardening technology demonstrated under FLDs. They prefer to grow vegetables like okra, bitter gourd and bottle gourd in kharif season whereas coriander, methi and spinach in winter season. On the basis of above findings it can be concluded that frontline demonstrations are effective in increasing the knowledge level of beneficiaries and adoption of kitchen gardening practices.