The practice of maintaining kitchen gardens is not new to Indian villages, however, it has been dying out over the past 20 years or so.

Such gardens have huge potential to combat various diseases. A kitchen garden can help decrease malnutrition or under-nutrition, especially in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

It is a demanding task to convince the villagers to grow a crop that would not bring returns in the form of cash. The village-coordinator inspects the kitchen garden as she goes door-to-door.
She also ensures that the harvest of kitchen gardens is primarily used for feeding the family. Only excess produce should be sold on markets for generating additional income.