In a bid to safeguard patients from consuming carcinogenic elements in chemical-laden foods, a city-based private hospital has opted to cultivate its own organic foods.
Bharath Hospital and Institute of Oncology will cater to its inpatients’ nutritional requirements out of an organic farm set up on its Hebbal campus premises.
The farming methods had been meticulously devised with focus on use of vermicompost, which involves the production of organic manure by using earth worms to decompose a mixture of natural manure and dry leaves, said K.P. Shivaprasad, general manager (patient relations).
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“We have 10 acres of land out of which we use 5 to 6 acres for cultivation at Hebbal campus and it is supplemented by food grown on our land near the Krishna Raja Sagara dam,” he said.
The hospital grows a variety of chillies, brinjals, lady’s fingers, pigeon peas, beetroot, carrot, radish, field beans, capsicums, snake gourds, ridge gourds, bitter gourds, bottle gourds and coconut among other produce.
Besides, the hospital campus has mango, jack fruit, papaya, gooseberry and chikoo trees while its teak, cherry and neem trees attract birds to shore up the campus ambience. But the key organic produce is staple foods such as ragi and paddy, according to Mr. Shivaprasad.
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Lunch, breakfast and dinner are prepared for the hospital patients under the directions of certified dieticians. The produce is enough to meet the meal requirements of about 120 to 150 people, including 60 to 80 patients and their attendants. Attention to diet helped patients to control diabetes and prevent heart ailments, hospital authorities said.