A unique model of agrarian techniques

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Farming enthusiasts constrained by space needn’t worry anymore. You can now farm in the endless expanse of the sky, thanks to the ‘sky farming’ agricultural model developed by the student police cadets of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, (GVHSS) Vithura.
The six-feet-high model has three concentric rings, each capable of carrying ten bottles. As many as thirty types of vegetables can be farmed in this unique model. The farming technique was one of the exhibits at the agricultural technology expo held in the fourth edition of the Children’s Agricultural Festival in the city.

The model was developed when the students were asked to make use of the discarded plastic bottles in their school. “When used plastic bottles started to pile up in our school, we challenged the students to come up with an idea that can make use of the discarded bottles. And thus sky farming evolved,” said Anwer K, who is the student police community officer and a faculty at the school. The model is the work of the student police cadets Rinsh Muhammad and Akash L John.

“The rings can be rotated so that saplings that lack sunlight can be rotated towards it. The model is extremely useful for people living in flats,” said Rinsh Muhammad. The team has already received orders for the model from two schools. The model can be constructed at a cost of around Rs 2,000. “There is no limit to how high you can scale up the structure. You only need to add more rings,” Anwer added.
Their innovation doesn’t end there. The student police cadets further devised a fish farming model which will never dry up.

“It was when a farmer near our area narrated how drying up of water during the summertime affected his fish farm that we decided to work on creating a model,” said Pranav P, one of the brains behind the model.  The model developed by the student police cadets Pranav P and Anoop S was also displayed at the programme.The students have been pioneering a host of such initiatives in their school.

Students from as many as 68 schools participated in the Children’s Agricultural Festival which was a celebration of the agrarian traditions. Brisk sales were witnessed at the stalls selling agricultural produce cultivated by the students in their school campuses and homes. The sales could garner an amount of about Rs 17,500 on the first day itself. The two-day camp was an attempt at bringing the children closer to agricultural traditions. Hundreds of students participated in the fest which was held at the Institute of Engineers Hall, Thiruvananthapuram.

Cultural competitions on art forms linked with agrarian traditions and an expo of agricultural and household implements from the days of the yore were also held on the sidelines.“Our effort is to preserve our agricultural traditions. We are eagerly watching the cultural programmes to see if the children can depict some long lost art form linked with agriculture. In the coming years we intend to expand the ambit of the programme,” said Jayakumar S, the agricultural officer of Nanniyodu who was also the coordinator of the program.The festival was organised by Agri-Friends which is a forum encompassing agricultural officers, farmers, and agricultural enthusiasts.