THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ambience of Government Upper Primary School, Kallai in Kozhikode, is a treat to the eyes as a wonderfully created vegetable garden welcomes you at the entrance. Though the available space is limited, they have made use of it wisely to script a successful farm story.
The students embarked on farming when their school became a venue to receive the ‘Vithuvandi,’ an ambitious project of the Departments of Agriculture and Education. Awareness classes and exhibitions conducted by the organisers of the programme instilled confidence in the students to try their hands at farming. The first crop they cultivated was red spinach. “Since we shunned the use of chemicals, the spinach we cultivated were good in quality and quantity,” says C K Vinodan, headmaster of the school. A day in the life of the students of the schools starts with observing the changes in the plants. After watering the plants, they get involved in their studies. During leisure time and in the evening also, the children are seen engaged in de-weeding.
Their farm has been designed in such a way that each plant gets maximum sunlight. ”We do not have enough land for cultivation, hence we have used grow bags and proved that even elephant yam can be grown in it,” says the headmaster. Sreedharan Mayanad, an organic farmer in the city, is their guide in elephant yam cultivation.
Ladies finger, curry leaf, ash gourd and tomato are a few crops to name in their vegetable garden. Recently, the harvested crops were used to prepare a sumptuous meal for the students of the school. “A lion’s share of the students of the school belongs to lower class families and we think activities like these are the best way to give them a positive outlook on life,” says the headmaster. To increase their awareness on plants and nature, field trips, camps and study tours are conducted in the school. The students strongly feel that every student should become a farmer also.
Inspired from seniors, the lower primary class students have already shown their interest in farming. “We love to plant and water saplings,” says Devananda, a class II student. To promote organic farming among children, the sanitation club of the school has envisaged a programme titled ‘A curry leaf for a family.’ In the programme, as many as 461 students in the school were given curry plants, to be grown in their homes. “Though we have not formed any monitoring committee to review the growth of the plants, from children we have come to know that the project is a success,” says Mini, teacher in charge, who is an expert in the creative use of available land for cultivation.
Further, the students are engaged in a number of projects, including ‘A seed for a child’ and ‘Field to kitchen’. At present the sanitation club of the school is supervising the farming activities.