Demand for terrace gardening kits

They can be sourced online from any of the depots run by the Department of Horticulture

The subsidised kitchen garden kits sold by the Department of Horticulture, Government of Tamil Nadu is seeing a renewed interest among many Chennai residents. Officials of the Department attribute it to various reasons, the prominent ones being the slashed price of the kit, soaring price of vegetables especially tomatoes in the last few weeks and increased awareness about going organic.

After last year’s lockdown, the sale of these “do it yourself” kits, aimed at encouraging urban dwellers to grow vegetables, started on December 8 at the depots in Chennai. And in most of the depots, they have run out of stock.

“In two days we sold more than 470 kits and we are waiting for our next stock to arrive,” said Rajeevan CH, horticulture officer, Anna Nagar. He says the price of the kit has been slashed from ₹900 to ₹ 225.