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Students learn how to grow their food

Ajman - Habitat School, a two-year-old Indian school in Ajman, recently made its third harvest in two years

Students, teachers and parents of an Indian school in Ajman have produced 1,500kg of vegetables in the school's farm last year, utilising more than an acre of cultivable land developed in the desert environment.

Habitat School, a two-year-old Indian school in Ajman, recently made its third harvest in two years, in which students and teachers reaped various vegetables they planted a few months ago. The school has more than 6,000 students and two more schools belonging to the group are encouraging campus farming.

The school with a spacious campus and a farm introduced the idea of including agriculture to the school syllabus. Within two years, the students have already produced 3,500kg of corn, snake gourd, ribbed gourd, bitter gourd and other items. On Thursday, they plucked more vegetables making the total yield during the year around 1,500kg.

The sales proceeds from the vegetable farms are donated to charities, said the school's academic dean Wasim Yousuf Bhat. School principal Sanjeev Kumar, director Adil C.T., parents and students took part in the celebration of the harvest, which included folk dances by students.

"This years main attraction is corn, which was cultivated in a field specially prepared in the school compound. There are two regular teachers for agriculture and a new farming coordinator. Mini, an award-winning agriculture specialist from Kerala, has been appointed to coordinate the school's agrarian programmes," said Shamsu Zaman C.T., managing director, Habitat Group of Schools.

Wasim Yousuf Bhat said the school's agricultural venture is not commercially motivated and the school spends more than what it gets back from selling the vegetables. Other workers also help the farming project and students are evaluated after their involvement in the farming.

"My two children study here. A group of parents come and join the children for farming on weekends. It is a great idea and my daughter is very keenly participating in the process," said one of the parents.

The agricultural experiment includes planting teak and developing a paddy field. Other crops in the farm include tomato, papaya, okra, carrot, leafy vegetables, lakshmi taru (Simarouba galuca), Azolla and drumstick. C. P. Vijayan, a noted organic farming specialist, is also working as an agricultural consultant for the Habitat school.

From planting to harvest, it's all part of their curriculum

From planting to the harvest, students are part of every activity of the school's farming venture. They have a special period for agriculture from grade 4 onwards. They work in the farm and are even part of the sales process.

The school had won a prize from the Dubai Municipality as part of the civic body's Grow Your Own Food initiative for being the best UAE Private School supporting organic farming. The prize money was donated to the Dubai Cares Project.

"Alongside creating awareness and interest among the students for working on the soil, we also intend to introduce them to medicinal plants. Cultivating vegetables in the desert is exciting and we are getting very good yields too. Our group's fourth school will also give importance to agriculture and farming," said Shamsu Zaman C. T.

"Children in the Middle East cherish the chance to do farming a lot more than their counterparts in India. This is a rare opportunity that they are getting here," said Mini, the farming coordinator.

sathish@khaleejtimes.com