KG (Kitchen Garden ) ECONOMICS
I am from Pithoragarh. My wife comes from Patiala. I am a Pahari and she, a Punjabi. If there is poverty in the Hills, Punjab is acknowledged to be most prosperous. In working out a balance between income and the outgo, the principles of economics also differ. In our scheme of things, if the income is fixed and expenditures rise, we cut down on spending to balance the budget. But in Punjabi economics, you don’t cut down on your expenditure but increase the income, instead.
Having been married for over three decades now, we have stitched a working (and winning, at times) combination. Now we have almost similar views on our economics. Just read this. One day I forgot to switch off the geyser. While taking bath, I took more time than usual. She had laid the breakfast and came calling me. I said that since the electricity bill has been increased due to overheating of the water, I might as well use that and enjoy. She retorted back, “Bijli ka bill to bada hi diya, ab pani ka bill kyon bada rahe ho ? ”
The above humorous narration of our economic sense was just by the way. What I intend covering now is about the Kitchen Garden (KG) economics. I have some open space available where a small kitchen garden could be raised. So I planned to sow Kaddu, Torai and Karelas. Having prepared the beds, arranged for the manure, I planted. These were summer days. The water costs Rs. 15 per kilolitre. I watered them both times. These plants gave me happiness and helped decrease my blood pressure. I tended and loved them like my own children. Every new leaf or a flower added to my happiness; it was a routine I couldn’t do without.
These plants flowered and gave the ‘fruit’ on expected lines. We cooked these vegetables with emotions and enjoyed every bit of our garden’s produce. But if you consider the cost of inputs to the returns, it was a huge loss by all yardsticks. The seasonal variety goes very cheap in Mhow. Our kaddu was same as the marketed product, the latter being very cheap and abundantly available.
In fact when our Kitchen Garden had produced the yield, the market was flooded with similar variety. So the kitchen garden economics was nothing but emotional atyachaar and financially a loss making venture. But then, money does not always matter. The love that I got from the plants (my own), I couldn’t have purchased it from open market even at huge bargains. In fact I took pride in showing my veggy plants to all the visitors and described each and every development that happened there.
To sum it up, I can only say that the economics of Kitchen Garden (KG) is more of art (emotions, love, belonging, happiness) than science (inputs, outputs, income, outgo, etc) because money is only a means to happiness. It is not the ultimate. Anything that gives you peace, joy, affection and fulfillment, must be done. A hobby that brings cheer in you heart should be pursued irrespective of the principles of business economics.
Self actualisation, shall we say? Lt Col(Retd) H S Bhandari