Practise terrace gardening to grow vegetables, fruits says Principal Secretary Chiranjiv Choudhary

VIJAYAWADA: Principal Secretary (Agriculture marketing) Chiranjiv Choudhary has underlined the need for creating awareness among the people on terrace gardening to grow organic vegetables and fruits.

He said organic vegetables and fruits can be grown on the terraces and people can avoid consuming the vegetables and fruits that contains harmful pesticides. He said due to unavoidable conditions, the farmers were using harmful pesticides in cultivation of vegetables and leaves.

Chiranjiv Choudhary participated as the chief guest at an awareness programme on ‘Terrace Gardening’ organised at the District Collectorate here on Sunday. The programme was organised by One Earth-One Life organization. Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary Choudhary said everyone should take care of the food being consumed every day.

He said, “We should all know about the terrace gardening and the possibility of growing vegetables, leaves and fruits on the terraces because organic food is very good for health.”

He said the vegetables and fruits purchased by people in markets contain harmful pesticides. He said that in spite of the best efforts, one can’t fully avoid consuming food that contains harmful pesticides.

He pointed out that there has been a lot of change in the soil and environment during the last five decades and so the farmers are also thinking in a commercial way and have been using pesticides to grow horticulture crops. He urged the people to come forward to start terrace gardening and make it popular.

Dr MG Deva Muni Reddy, OSD to Agriculture Minister, said organic farming also helps in environmental protection. He said everyone should contribute to the protection of environment and prevention of water pollution. He said everyone should think of future generations and protect the motherland. Tummeti Raghottama Reddy, an expert on the terrace gardening and writer, suggested to the organisers to conduct more awareness programmes on terrace gardening.

The organisers have distributed seeds that can be used to grow plants at homes. Horticulture officer Balaji Kumar, One Earth-One Life NGO representative Leela Kumari, plant lovers and others participated in the awareness programme.