NGO Pasumai Desam’s Founder S. Rajendran on a regular basis visits government run schools in and around our city and trains the staff and students on organic gardening. “Such schools provide mid-day meals to their children. The idea behind this concept is to encourage the children and teachers to organically produce the vegetables that they require, thus encouraging the farm-to-fork, concept.” Rajendran said.
Secondly, according to him, it is a worth-while idea to train the students on organic farming while they are young, so that they grow up with these values.
He recently visited the corporation school that is located in Saravanampatti and planted various vegetables and greens. Rajendran shares that while the greens and vegetables will take a-months time to grow, children of this school before they go on their summer vacation, they will witness the yield from the sow. How to prepare the soil for sowing, the organic composites that goes along with the soil, how to sow seeds, how to water them and how to guard them from pests are some of the basic protocols that are taught to these children at school.
Growing fruit/flower/vegetable bearing trees at their school instills a sense of responsibility and engagement among the students, who will in turn spread the thought to people living nearby their homes, friends and relatives. The students also actively participate in the daily chores of gardening with zest and definitely it also helps them relieve from their routine learning process at school.
Rajendran shares with us that post this experiment of visiting schools and initiating the process of an organic garden, he has received requests from several students to help them grow an organic garden in their homes. 'Am more than happy to lend a helping hand to accomplish their garden dreams' says Rajendran.
