Cudjoe: Grow a garden, improve nutrition, income

Growing a kitchen garden not only improves a households nutrition, but income as well, Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe advised on Friday.

"A kitchen garden is not simply about growing your own food. It offers much more. The opportunity to generate our own income, it makes for an excellent indoor habit, it reduces mental stress and it can certainly improve your nutrition," she said. She was speaking at the ministry's launch of the Grow it Yourself Community Kitchen Garden Competition at Bagatelle Community Centre, Diego Martin.

This initiative is part of the Prime Minister's Best Village Competition, and was previously known as Clean and Beautify TT. The competition was reintroduced last year, in May, as people made kitchen gardens in their homes during the covid19 lockdown.

Cudjoe said the competition was the government's way to continue to promote healthy living. She said by creating a culture of planting kitchen gardens, they are also helping to continue cultural legacies that may have been ignored due to modernisation. During the lockdown, her mother started a kitchen garden, and she noticed her seven-year-old nephew started to make fowl traps.

"I can't tell you how long I've seen a fowl trap. It made me smile because amid the sombre feeling of covid, other beautiful things happened. People developed new hobbies, developed new businesses, and children learned traditions like a fowl trap."

The core tenets of the competition are food security, growing food crops at home, agriculture education, organic farming, hydroponic farming to combat land shortage and urbanisation, aquaponics, composting and promotion of agricultural and agricultural affiliated entrepreneurship.

There are five categories of kitchen garden prizes: small, medium, large, hydroponic and aquaponic. Special category prizes include: most innovative kitchen garden, most sustainable garden, best influencer kitchen garden which would be decided by the judges and public based on how many likes received on the ministry's social media channels, people's choice, decorative garden and family garden.

Gwyneth Alexander, acting director of community development division, said, "The kitchen garden initiative continue to show our ability to be resilient and come up with this viable product that can only produce good results...We expect to initiate productive family engagement, address some of the social issues facing individuals due to the extended period of confinement and most importantly, promote healthy lifestyles."

The competition is being held in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries through the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco).

Namdevco chairman Wayne Innis said activities like this were a step in the right direction as the country strives to become a food secure nation and increase awareness of good agricultural practices nationwide.

"Reducing the frequency of our visits to markets has made it more difficult for some to enjoy fresh local fruits and vegetables. The Grow It Yourself challenge creates an avenue to not only provide communities with fresh patchoi, lettuce, melongene and other short term and long term crops as detailed in the challenge, but it is an innovative way to also help in reducing food waste."

He said having food production as close as possible to the consumer is one of the best ways to reduce food waste. Registration is open until April 28.