THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Reaping the fruits of hard labour and dedication, the student police cadets of SMV Govt Model Higher Secondary School in the city have proved well that other than the boots of law-keeping and obedience, the gloves of a farmer too will suit them. From three tiny farms set up inside the school, the students of standard eight and nine have reaped beans, spinach and lady’s finger. The official harvest festival was inaugurated by Transport Minister V S Sivakumar at the bean farm in the school on Tuesday. Later, he lit a ‘vegetable lamp’ made by Suji Sudhakar of work experience section with various vegetables which comprised those grown on the school premises also. Vegetables grown on three separate patches of land were applied only organic fertilizers and were watered and taken care of by the student police cadets. Poultry manure and cow dung were the main ingredients and the natural ‘pukayila kashayam’ was the only pesticide applied on them. According to A K Sadanandan Chettiar, Headmaster of the school, “through this venture, the waste lands on the school premises were converted to arable lands. Apart from the organic fertilizers, the residues from the biogas plant set up inside the school premises were also applied.” The seeds were sown in the land in August this year as part of the first anniversary of the Student Police Cadet unit in the school. S Satheesh Kumar, community police officer of the unit and a primary teacher of the school, explains the process: “It was the teachers who shelled out the initial investment for buying the seeds. Seeds were bought from the Nedumangad market. The constant monitoring of student cadets too was behind the huge success of this initiative. Students learned the values of agriculture,” he adds. The 88 student cadets carefully watered the plants in the morning and evening. They spared the morning hours of 8.30 am to 9.30 am and the evening hours of 3.30 pm to 5 pm to water the plants. Long beans were cultivated on around 20 cents of land and spinach and lady’s finger grown on around one cent. Says Arun S, a cadet: “It was an exhilarating experience to water the plants and reap the vegetables. We may plant them at home after the seeds are supplied after this occasion.” Though the official harvesting was on Tuesday, it was necessary to reap them by the end of September as they had grown to full size, says Satheesh Kumar. He says that students were not allowed to harvest the long beans as they would cease to grow unless they are removed from the plant in a certain fashion. So the harvesting was more a teacher’s activity. “Still, students have performed well in reaping lady’s finger and spinach, though some of them hurt their fingers while indulging in the work,” he concludes. The vegetables were bought by teachers and students by remitting a small amount. The occasion also kicked off the ‘Veettil Oru Pachakkari Thottam’, the project of supplying vegetable seeds to students to cultivate at home.
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