On 31 July 2022, Sunday morning all the 'Be a Farmer' participants came to the OES Children's farm. After wishing their farm coach Shilpa Teja and Venkatesh Nallamilli, ran up to their farm patches.
It was a delight to see them start weeding on their own, each Sunday as they come to tend to their farm patches. Shilpa called them all to brief them about the day's activities. They all learned to stake and support the tomato plants growing in their farm patches. This is done to prevent the small tomatoes from touching the ground and getting spoilt. Jute ropes and bamboo sticks are used for staking process. Some of the kids tried to dig holes in the ground using crowbars and bamboo sticks by themselves. Once all of them tied horizontal ropes across the ground, parallel to the row of tomato plants, they all started supporting the plants along these ropes, by making them stand up straight.
Having seen their tomato plants look up nicely, they asked Shilpa about the next activity. She was prepared for this with sticky patches, to be installed in each farm patch. All the participants enthusiastically agreed to do so. They attached the sticky patches to the bamboo poles they had erected for stakes. The sticky patches are used for preventing flying insects from reaching and harming the crop. This is a widely used pest prevention method in natural farming.
This brought the kids to the most interesting activity for the day, harvesting. All of them ran to the OES Polyhouse Farm to harvest a few Beetroots and Okras from there. Each of them got to harvest 5-6 beetroots to give to their moms for making a salad of these fresh veggies. As they filled their bags and bid goodbye to the farm and their coaches, they went into their respective vehicles and headed back to the town.
We recognize that for any positive impact to be sustainable, it has to be long-term and inter-generational. Organo Et School strives to create an apt learning environment that will support and empower families as well as individuals to embrace sustainable living mindsets and habits.
Organo Et School is a learning initiative set up by Organo in 2017 and has been facilitating fields visits and workshops for Schools and Interest Groups. Organo Et School has had over 25+ schools, 6500+ students and 3000+ adults participate over the last 5 years.
We believe in connecting children & adults with nature. Connecting children with the natural world at a young age is the first step in creating responsible stewards of our collective future.
If you or your children are interested in the Be a Farmer program, please connect to us at oes@organo.co.in and by phone 9154100775 today!
