Udupi: Santegudde Primary School Sets Example Through Farming Initiative
 
By Suvarna Brahmavar
Daijiworld Media Network—Udupi (RD/CN)
 
Udupi, Feb 5: The compound wall of a school supports the twines of lush green spinach while snake-gourds hang from twines supported by a bamboo loft.  This is the scene in the backyard garden at Santegudde Primary School, Barkoor, near here.

The homegrown vegetables in this school have set an example to other schools and society showing how a barren plot can transform into lush green vegetation through the efforts of students which will provide indigenously grown vegetables for mid-day meals.

Spinach, snake-gourds, okra, pumpkins, and chillies, are all found in the school located on the access road of Batte Vinayaka Temple.
 
The lush green vegetables are grown under the stewardship of school betterment committee chairman Shankar Poojary who tends the school nursery daily in the mornings and evenings.  He supplies cow dung from his household and does voluntary service to grow the vegetables that provides supplies for the mid-day meals for the students.
 
“Despite the bountiful crop of vegetables all over the boundary wall of the school, none of the locals ever take any of it for their own use,” says the beaming school headmaster Devdas P.
 
Nowadays, youngsters are restricting their interest to studies and media shunning the joys of farming.  However, the students of Santegudde School are gaining an insight into farming.  Students learn the joys of clearing weeds, plucking vegetables, and other related tasks at the school nursery.  The drip irrigation method has been introduced in the nursery with the cost borne by Shankar Poojary to grow lush green vegetables.
 
Although nurseries are being started in many schools after the mid-day hot meals project was introduced by state authorities, it’s not been better utilized.  The greenery that is found during monsoon wanes away as soon as the rains stop. The authorities of Santegudde School have made optimum use of their available resources to supply sufficient quantity of vegetables for their daily use.
 
“If at all the state education department announces an award for good school betterment committee initiatives, Shankar Poojary would qualify for such an award.  It is because of Shankar Poojary’s efforts that the nursery of Santegudde School has set an example for other schools and society,” says B Shantharam Shetty, alumnus of the school and former gram panchayat president.