Government high school uses hydroponics to grow food for midday meals

Mangaluru

A government 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 hydroponics technique. Hydroponics is a method of growing crops in water mixed with nutrients. On a trial basis, they started with amaranth and lady finger and are planning to add more crops based on the success. 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 K Ramya, 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.

We started the process a few days ago, and results so far are encouraging. It was launched as a part of World Environment Day celebrations. The advantage of this technique is that it requires less space and uses 80 percent less water. There are no diseases to the crop, unlike those grown in soil, and the product output is higher, said Anith Kumar.

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Pesticides are not used to grow the crop. Currently, they have sowed amaranth crop in two trays and lady finger in one. Kumar said they are expecting the amaranth crop to be ready in another 45 days, teacher Anith Kumar said.