Seeds for life
Seeds 4 Life is Plan India’s one-of-its-kind low-cost, sustainable, green approach to improve water quality and address nutritional deficiency using seeds of the Moringa plant. As early as 1979, studies were conducted on the coagulative properties of Moringa Oleifera (drumstick or sahjan) seeds for purifying turbid water. Later, a study in Senegal in 1997–98 to examine the ability of powdered Moringa leaves to prevent and cure malnutrition showed encouraging results in combating anaemia in pregnant and breastfeeding women and increasing infant birth weight.
Plan India generated awareness through community meetings and demonstrations and groomed the youth to scale the pilot to a community-led, sustainable programme. With only one seed needed to treat 1 litre of water, Plan India’s promotion of cultivation of Moringa in kitchen gardens to increase access and lower costs will have far-reaching consequences in improving WASH and nutrition status of communities.
Highlights
- 51 adolescent girls held 85 sessions over 3 months to scale up the pilot
- 150 new drumstick saplings planted
