Farming activities are at a standstill in most schools owing to the COVID-19 crisis, but at Government Lower Primary School, Thycaud, 60 cents of land that was overrun with wild growth is now a verdant patch.
During the lockdown, the school hosted the city Corporation’s community kitchen. Once the relaxations started coming into effect, the school teachers, members of the Kerala School Teachers’ Association (KSTA), took up the Chief Minister’s call for farming wherever possible.
Accordingly, 60 cents on the school campus was cleared of all growth using an earth mover, and the earth prepared for planting by five persons hired for the job. Manure was sourced from the poultry farm at Kudappanakkunnu. The planting was done by the teachers in mid-May. The cultivation was organic.
Back to roots
“The idea was to set up a model farm, with focus on going back to the roots. Hence, tubers such as colocasia, different varieties of yam such as ‘kachil,’ ‘nanakizhangu,’ and ‘cherukizhangu,’ sweet potato, and ‘nendran’ plantain were grown,” said school’s new headmaster and KSTA district joint secretary Shaji M.
Vegetables such as amaranthus, ladies’ finger, brinjal, beans, ginger, turmeric, chillies, ‘cheeni amarakka,’ ‘cucumber,’ and ash gourd are also being grown.
Minister for General Education C. Ravindranath will visit the school on Wednesday for the harvest of the amaranthus.
After the harvest, the next crop of amaranthus will be sown, as also snake gourd, and salad cucumber.
An initiative of the KSTA south sub-district unit, the farming project has another component — promoting cultivation in teachers’ homes. Three thousand growbags were ready for distribution the same day, Mr. Shaji said.
The Krishi Bhavan at Kudappanakkunnu too has started cultivation at two schools — St. Thomas and Concordia — as part of the Agriculture Department’s vegetable development project.
Joseph T.M., agricultural officer at the Krishi Bhavan, said they had decided to plant seasonal crops, tubers in this case. Though no students were attending school, they would take it up once classroom teaching got under way.