VEGETABLE GARDENING IN THE SCHOOL YARD

Program Name: Vegetable Gardening in the School Yard.

Project implementing organization: SESDO (Social and Environmental Sustainable Development Organization)

Project Location

 

District	Upazila	Union
Satkhira	Tala	Kumira
		Khalishkhali
		Magura

 

Project Preface

School gardens are being used as a resource to teach students about healthy eating and living through vegetables. With improved nutritional knowledge and understanding, youngsters will acquire a more favorable attitude toward consuming nutrient-dense vegetables, which will encourage the production and consumption of a variety of nutrient-dense vegetables in their homes and communities. Therefore, the practical intervention of school vegetable gardening, which is ideal when implemented with home gardening activities to enhance the supply of vegetables in the household, is required and should be practiced in all the schools in Bangladesh.

After independence, Bangladesh’s agriculture is progressing rapidly in the heart of the world after overcoming many setbacks. Bangladesh’s agriculture department is working tirelessly to feed approximately 17 million people. During the Corona period, when the world’s tiger states were in the grip of an economic crisis, Bangladesh’s agriculture became a beacon of hope for the people of Bangladesh. The world’s violence has begun without precedent as a result of the impact of CORONA, which has begun to affect many countries around the world. Various sources say that the world will see another recession around 2023. In the language of economics, if the economy shrinks for two consecutive quarters, it is called a recession. If such an economic recession and food crisis really emerge in the world, then Bangladesh has to prepare to deal with it from now on, or else it will come down to a difficult time in the public mind.

In the field of agriculture, Bangladesh has been showing various successes before, and in the future, as the world is moving towards a dire situation like food crisis, we need to emphasize

 

more on the agricultural sector from now on so that we can meet our daily food need. And this is why our honorable Prime Minister has asked us to pay special attention to agriculture to counter the global economic recession. The honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that not even an inch of land should remain uncultivated. He instructed that every house should be filled with different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

And in the case of Corona, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated that because the globe has now entered a period of recession, planned agriculture has to receive more attention. “Mankind is in the worst situation since World War II,” declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Therefore, Bangladesh is susceptible to experiencing an economic catastrophe just like the rest of the world. As a result, agriculture is now the key strategy for moving this nation ahead. In this circumstance, we must concentrate on growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs on our homestead. because 400 grams of fruits and vegetables should be consumed daily by adults, according to food nutritionists.

The establishment of fruit, spice, vegetable, and medicinal gardens using improved technologies designed in homesteads to create opportunities for self-employment and empower women by utilizing the labor of all family members has the potential to increase family food production, nutrition, and income. to intensify in addition, by making the best use of resources, the environment can be developed and conserved. A lot of different fruits and vegetables can be produced on a little plot of land. Growing vegetables requires comparatively less time. Vegetables can be grown on the same site numerous times a year. Almost all vegetables have better nutritional value. As a result, by consuming enough vegetables throughout the year, malnutrition can be completely eliminated and health can be maintained.

Therefore, considering the above aspects, SESDO wants to pay special attention to the agriculture sector. And in this continuity, SESDO wants no unused land to remain uncultivated. SESDO’s main objective is to ensure efficient utilization of resources.

Most of the areas of the schools, except for the playgrounds of the students, remain unused almost throughout the year. SESDO wants to ensure the healthy use of these unused lands, SESDO wants to ensure the cultivation of various seasonal vegetables in these lands so that we can meet the food needs of our marginalized people in the face of difficult times like the global pandemic. As this project of SESDO will meet the food needs of our marginalized people one day, it will create interest as well as create awareness in vegetable gardening among the students of our locality.

 

Importance of the project

 

In school vegetable gardening, vegetables are grown on a plot of land that has been transformed into a garden and is located close to a school. Children’s nutritional status can be significantly improved by utilizing the school garden in school environments. A school vegetable garden can be a living laboratory that gives kids a space to interact with nature, serve as a source of education, and provide them with food.

Under this scheme, especially marginal school students will be attracted to vegetable farming and other members of their family will play a role in contributing to agriculture including vegetable cultivation. Directly from this project, our local school students will feel a special attraction towards agriculture and will be able to meet some of the food demand in this difficult global situation.

There are about 12 colleges, 60 secondary schools, 119 primary schools and 21 madrasas in Tala upazila and the Literacy rate is about 45.66%. So if we can make adequate use of the uncultivated spaces of these large number of educational institutions, it will play a role in fighting the global economic recession as well as filling a part of our own food. The special benefits of the project are listed below.

• School students will be encouraged to grow
• Students’ families will also be involved in vegetable farming and they will be interested in growing vegetables in their own backyard.
• Our youth will be interested in vegetable gardening along with

 

The special importance of this project to develop public awareness in our locality by cultivation various types of vegetables items. The special importance or benefits of this project is demonstrated below.

• Benefit to community members: To encourage rural community households to grow their own vegetables, schoolchildren can act as an effective intermediary. On the other hand, a school gardening initiative benefitted kids, their families, and the neighborhood.
• Information and understanding: Students will learn more about wholesome eating and nutrition by producing their own vegetables. Additionally, when included in nutrition education, school gardens can help kids learn more about vegetables and develop healthy

 

• Applying knowledge: Children can learn numerous subjects, such as health, agriculture, science, and social science, safely and effectively in the school The garden activities can be used to teach a variety of lessons. So a school garden is thought of as a living laboratory for the children.
• Additional food is consumed: The school garden promotes a love of eating vegetables in the youngsters and helps them understand the value of nutrient-dense The likelihood that people will eat more veggies at home is increased if they have access to them. Encourage the kids to start their own vegetable garden at home with their parents and other family members to increase the availability of vegetables.
• Ecological sensitivity: Students who work in the school garden will gain an understanding of how their actions affect the
• Environmental Sustainability
• Biodiversity Conservation
• Nature-Based Solutions

 

Project aims

 

In addition to increasing the expansion of the agricultural sector, with the help of this project, SESDO will make the local people interested and inspired in the cultivation of various types of food crops including crops, vegetables through the common students. The project’s specific goal is to raise awareness in rural communities about growing more foods and seasonal vegetables on unused land in their back yards, which is promoted by their school-aged children.

Conclusion

 

It is a completely non-profit project that aims not only to take drastic measures to tackle the global food crisis but also to create interest in vegetable farming among school students and raise awareness among their families. The greatest supply of plant-based proteins, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals for human health is found in vegetables. Vegetables are, nevertheless, largely underutilized in Bangladesh and many other nations. It is a potential strategy to increase children’s understanding of the value of nutrition for their health to use school vegetable gardens as a teaching tool for nutrition education.