Pleasant weather and a bright day welcomed all the monsoon batch farmers at the OES Childrens’ farm campus for third session of the BAF program. All the children came and ran to look at their farm patches. To see that all the seeds and saplings they had sown 2 weeks back, were now small plants peeping out of the soil.
Shilpa Teja the farm coach, asked them to do weeding in their respective patches. They observed that keeping the rainy season in mind, it was expected that a lot of weeds would be cropped out, but there were hardly any weeds in the farm patches. This could directly be attributed to mulching done by the kids in the first session itself. Weeding out these few seeds hurriedly, they were all ready for the next activity. Shilpa demonstrated the application of Jeevamrutham to small plants and the green leafy saplings. All the kids followed the instructions and applied the Jeevamrutham they had prepared and kept for fermentation, 2 weeks ago. Kids applied the neem cake and vermicompost mixture, thereby adding a natural pesticide and a biofertilizer in powder form after applying the liquid biofertilizer Jeevamrutham.
The next farm activity Neem oil solution preparation was demonstrated by Shilpa, with all the kids standing around her and watching her intently. Shilpa used 5ml neemoil and 10ml soap-nut solution for 1-liter water to prepare the natural pesticide.
Once neemoil solution was ready, all the young farmers took the pressured spray bottles and sprayed this on the plants in their patches. This was done with the hope of eliminating the pests from their vegetable plants. Having sprayed this satisfactorily, the young farmers returned to Shilpa for more instructions. She asked them to harvest coriander and ladyfingers from the farm patches. This being the last activity planned for the day, kids returned to the city after a comprehensive farm session.
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!
