Convicts harvest sugarcane

Inmates of the Tiruchi Central Prison on Friday harvested sugarcane raised on two acres as part of farming activities taken up within the prison campus.

The initiative to grow fully organic edible variety of sugarcane (senkarumbu) has been under way for a few years and was expanded to a large area this time around with vegetables such as eggplant, radish, beans, chickpeas, pumpkin, okra and fruits like mango, banana, guava.

Two acres were allotted for sugarcane and the work began in March, senior officials said. Twenty inmates took up the work. The sugarcane will be sold at the prison market where vegetables, fruits and greens harvested here are sold to the public at nominal prices.

Harvest of the sugarcane began on Friday and would be completed in a couple of days. After sales to the public or to wholesalers, some sugarcane would be reserved for inmates to eat during the special Pongal lunch served on the festival. With adequate rainfall in the district this year, the four wells in the farming grounds have enough water for the cultivation of the crops, they said.