Efforts of this government school have literally borne fruits

The Government Higher Primary School at Kadeshwalya in Bantwal taluk is surrounded by greenery with arecanut and coconut plantation.

That apart, medicinal plants, vegetables and fruit-bearing trees have also been planted. The school has also started earning income from its farming activities.

The efforts of the school teachers and children have borne fruit this year with arecanut trees, planted four years ago, bearing nuts.

“I am happy that around 40 to 45 trees out of 75 arecanut trees have started bearing nuts this year. We are expecting income from selling the arecanuts,” said Physical Education Teacher Bhaskar Naik, who took an initiative to plant arecanut, coconut and other fruit-bearing trees, along with growing vegetables, in the school.

"There are 25 coconut trees in the school which too are bearing coconuts. In addition, there are fruit-bearing trees like ‘seethaphala’, bananas and grape vines. The fruits grown in the school campus are given to the school children to consume," Naik told DH.

The school campus is spread over an acre. Due to the efforts of Bhaskar, the students actively participate in farming on campus.

“The saplings of arecanut trees were given by villagers to the school, four years ago. With the help of the teachers and school children, saplings were planted four years ago. Further, Yuva Shakthi, an youth organisation in the village with a majority of the members being the alumni of the school, has been engaged in removing weeds that were grown in the arecanut and coconut garden frequently. Further, they have been applying poultry manure to the arecanut trees for the last few years. Earlier, we were purchasing ‘hatti gobbara’ and were using it for cultivating vegetables, arecanuts and coconuts. Chemical fertilisers have not been used,” the teacher said.

The school, which has a borewell, has enough water to carry out farming. The Gram Panchayat has given a 5 HP pumpset as well for irrigating the arecanut and coconut plantation.

Close to 150 varieties of trees, including medicinal plants, can be found on the school campus.

“Our children also get various plants from their houses to the school for planting. In addition, I also get a variety of plants from wherever I visit, to the school for planting. In fact, we have about 18 varieties of ‘Kepula’ flowers with different colours on the campus,” he said proudly. The teacher’s efforts have brought laurels to the school as it has bagged the Hasiru Parisara Mitra Shale Award more than five times in the district.

Farming activities are taken care of by the children, along with the teachers.

The school has about 227 students studying from LKG to class VII. The income earned from farming is utilised for school activities.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the school campus used to grow vegetables, which were used for mid-day meal programmes.

“We were cultivating brinjal, okra, long yard beans, ash gourd, snake gourd, sambar cucumber, ivy gourd and others. As the school was reopened a month ago, I have just planted okra and brinjal,” the teacher said.