Farming endeavours fetch Kayanna school top State laurel

Kozhikode school wins award for organic farming: 97 students, no prior knowledge, cultivated 14 varieties of vegetables. With guidance from local Krishi Bhavan & support from village, they battled water scarcity & pest attacks. Students educated in scientific farming, sold half of harvest & shared rest. Some inspired to start farming in households.

Getting 97 students who knew absolutely nothing about agriculture to cultivate vegetables is no mean task. But the Government Higher Secondary School at Kayanna, near Perambra, in Kozhikode district made the impossible possible and was rewarded for it in the best way. The school is the recipient of the award of the Agriculture department for the best educational institution in the State to adopt organic farming.

“We had guidance from the local Krishi Bhavan. But we did it mostly through trial and error. And the whole village supported us,” said M.M. Subeesh, NSS programme coordinator of the school, who spearheaded the activities.

The NSS volunteers of the school started farming in December 2022 on half an acre of land near Kayanna town. The students took turns in tending the saplings and watering them. When they could not, their parents chipped in. The local farmers advised the students on practices to be followed.

“We battled scarcity of water during summer. The students had to manually carry water from a nearby canal. Later the Agriculture department allotted a motor to make matters easier,” Mr. Subeesh said. Also the students could not tend to the plants during their examinations. As organic farming was more vulnerable to pest attacks, they had to be extra vigilant too.

At the end they harvested around six tonnes of 14 varieties of vegetables such as bitter gourd, cucumber, okra, and spinach. The students sold half of it at the market and shared the remaining among themselves and those who helped them. They also provided vegetables for the midday meals in nearby schools.

The students were educated in scientific farming by the Regional Agriculture Research Station at Ambalavayal, Wayanad, of the Kerala Agricultural University.

“The students took to agriculture very well. Inspired by the achievement, some of them have started vegetable farming in their households,” Mr.Subeesh added.