Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD), keeping in view the popularity of ‘Kitchen Gardening’ scheme, has increased the target of distribution of vegetables seed packets for the Rabi season from 30,000 to 100,000 packets. According to the PAD sources, the department has also decided to expand the ambit of this programme across province due to its popularity. They said that promotion of kitchen gardening is essential to resolve the issues of health being faced by the masses.
They said that to create awareness among the masses about the importance and benefit of kitchen gardening scheme, the department is imparting training to different schools students and vocational training institutions. Agricultural experts say that every person must use 280 gram of vegetable per day to maintain health while in Pakistan usage of vegetables are almost half of this international standard. It is creating different types of health issues. They said that vegetables produced under kitchen gardening are free of any sort of chemical and their negative impacts while it also saves money and reduce the household budget.
Experts said that kitchen gardening scheme launched by the provincial government had created awareness among the masses. People can even sow vegetables in empty vessels, crates, cartons, plastic bags and on rooftops of the houses, they advised.