School Agriculture Programme (SAP)

Rationale

“Agricultural Education is the systematic format study of agricultural activities. Agricultural education is the opportunity to attain knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding needed for the systematic production of useful plants and animals for human use.

“Is there a place for agricultural education in agricultural development?” The response appears obvious. “If you give a child seeds, tools, a plot of land and a little help, he/she will make a garden”. Even if a child cannot make the garden; at least he/she will get the basic knowledge of agriculture by just touching the soil, seeing different sizes, shapes and varieties of seeds and handling tools etc.

Today, the most popular reasons for gardening relate to inflation, the cost of food and availability of food. But as educators want more than that, we are interested in total value of any topic that needs to be covered in teaching in schools to achieve the nation’s objective “WHOLESOME EDUCATION.”

Consider another aspect of this type of food production is nutrition. It is very likely that the schools’ diet would include few if any of the vegetables and meats produced in the school farm. Adding different vegetables in the diets make people healthier and make them to have satisfaction of eating something that has produced economically. It is not only cheap but also readily available, safe and fresh too. These varieties of foodstuffs produced in the school farm would significantly help to balance the diet of students of boarding schools. Even the day school students could share their creative ideas and skills that they have gained from school with their parents and improve their food habits replicating the same practice in their parents’ back yards.

Objective:

  • To stimulate the sense of dignity of labour.
  • To impart lifelong skill of self sufficiency through farming.
  • To promote age old traditional of farming with improvised techniques.
  • To apply prior learning of making integrated farming scientific and meaningful.
  • To understand school agriculture as the fundamental basis for self-reliance and sustainability of a GNH society.
  • To regard and practice agriculture as foundational learning, sustaining the fundamental association between plants, animals, human and the environment.
  • To provide basic knowledge, skills and values of integrated farming (forestry, vegetable and fruits production, livestock, horticulture, crops preservation of indigenous food crops, food values & nutrition)

Strategy:

  • The membership to the club should be open as per their interest and abilities.
  • The club should composite of 20-30 members.
  • The coordinator should have working plan for smooth functioning of the club.
  • Divide the club members into different groups to work effectively to produce high yield.
  • The coordinator will arrange sufficient number of tools required in the field.
  • Orient theories on agriculture education to the members before they work in the field.
  • Arrange manure in the vegetable garden to consider the products as organic.
  • Equally divide the agriculture plot for the collaborative groups (if possible to the classes).
  • Distribute saplings of all vegetables to the collaborative groups equally.
  • Orient collaborative group leaders and captains in the area of transplanting, watering, staking, weeding and tendering of the vegetable saplings.
  • Prepare standard rate for different vegetables to be sold in the school mess and to the outsiders.
  • The products from the field will be sold in the school mess and find market for the excess product.
  • Maintaining clear record of opening balance, expenditure, income and closing balance of
  • the year for auditing.
  • 50% of respective CG agricultural income to be retained as a seed fund and another 50% will be rewarded to the respective CG.