Wakad techies utilise compost; start organic farming in society

Pune: With an aim to inculcate the values and knowledge of organic farming within the children of digital generation and use the generated compost within the society, residents of Palash Society, Wakad, who are IT professionals, started organic farming in their society’s garden.

Sarika Shrikhande was the brainchild behind it and Sumit Sapkal helped her to make the organic farming possible in the society.

Shrikhande said, “The generated compost used to get piled up if it is not sold, so I thought of using it for organic farming. In 1,500 sq ft area, in the garden of the society, this pilot project is being run. In January, we started with the farming and by the third week of January, we sowed beetroot, carrot, fenugreek leaves, radish and coriander. The whole idea of the project was to infuse the indigenous knowledge and value about organic farming to the children’s since the present generation is more into the digital world.”

Even after being an IT professional, she had this thought from last many years but was not able to implement it. She then joined a course of Landmark Forum, which is a San Francisco-based company offering personal development programmes. She said that by doing this course, she got motivation and knowledge of doing this project at a community level.

Sapkal, who is also an IT professional, was already into organic farming. He used to go to Nere village where a framer used to give him training on organic farming without using chemicals. 

Sapkal said, “Shrikhande expressed her idea in the committee meetings and that’s how I showed interest for implementing the project. We use the compost generated from the wet waste of the society and now, last week we have harvested fenugreek leaves, coriander and radish.”