A govt high school in Badaga Yekkar, which has a space constraint to have its own kitchen garden for midday meals, found a new way to grow food through hydroponic techniques.
"The 15-year-old school with over 138 students faced land constraints. The total land is around 50 cents, and we have fully covered the available land, including a small kitchen garden, where produce is used for Akshara Dasoha (midday meal programme). However, the produce was insufficient to cater to our midday meal, and to increase the produce, we had no land. Therefore, I decided to try hydroponics to address the shortage," said Anith Kumar, a teacher at the school.
The initiative was kicked off with help from the eco club led by Ramya K, a teacher at the school. In the available land at the school, they have grown curry leaves, spinach and black pepper. The yield supports the midday meal programme or Akshara Dasoha.
Kumar told TOI: "We started the process a few days ago, and results so far are encouraging. It was launched as a part of the World Environment Day celebrations. The advantage of this technique is that it requires less space and uses 80% less water. There are no diseases in the crops, unlike those grown in soil, and the produce output is higher. Kumar added that pesticides are not used in the process.
Read more at Times of India