Mangalore: City Students Try Their Hand at Paddy Cultivation
By Shekar Ajekar
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (RD/CN)
Mangalore, Jan 6: A hands-on experience farm experience was provided to students by Agari Farm located on the outskirts of the city at Kuppepadav, here recently. It was organized by various social welfare and voluntary organizations.
The students of Kasturba Medical College, Narayan College, and neighbouring primary and high schools planted saplings in the paddy field. Women wearing saris arrived at the paddy field and tied the ‘pallu’ on their hips and worked in the paddy field like traditional farm labourers. It was a joyous occasion for the city-bred students.
An information camp on paddy cultivation and its significance in Tulunadu was held during the stage programme.
A live demonstration of mechanized farming and also high breed varieties of saplings was also held in a nearby paddy field on the same occasion.
Swami Vidhyaprasannateerta of Subramanya Mutt, in his message to the gathering, said that paddy cultivation thrived in ancient times across Tulunadu and it will remain so in the future too.
Laxminarayan Asranna of Kateel Temple said that preserving the posterity of paddy cultivation as practiced by ancestors will serve as a true tribute to bygone generations.
The former MP Vinay Kumar Sorake, MLC Srinivas Poojary Kota, B A Moideen Bawa, Harish Karkera, Dr H Muniyappa, Krishna Amin, Neelayya M Agari, M S Kotian, Shashidar Keshav Bangera, and Dhanakeerti Balipa were the chief guests present on the occasion.
The local unit of the Agriculturists’ Association was inaugurated during the programme. Gopal Karkera and group enthralled the gathering with their Tulu folk songs.