Education and Agricultural Transformation in Centro Madre
Thursday, June 18, 2009 (19:02:42)

Posted by maheshvarananda

by Mariah Branch, Director of Planning and Development PRIV

A group of school children from the local school came to visit our farm and were able to see recommended techniques for organic farming first hand. One of the Cuban agronomers has been working with their class and brought the children and their teachers out to see the farm so that they would better understand how to grow their own food. He introduced Didi Ananda Sadhana and she welcomed the students and began their tour of the farm.

We started in the compost area to show them how nutritious soil can be developed. Dada Atamapranananda helped the students gain a better understanding of the amount of heat generated by composting material by sticking an iron post into the center of the compost pile. The students were amazed to feel how hot the iron post got after just a few minutes in the compost pile.

Then Didi took the children to the worm composting section and allowed the kids to gently touch the worms, while she explained how vermacomposting works. [Use the Read More... button below]

After the composting section the group visited the poultry cage and admired the 80 chickens.

Our next stop was the fish ponds and we think that several of the children told their parents about our fish ponds because later that day several adults came to our farm and asked us about where to get fish as they also wanted to have fish ponds. The children were delighted with our 3 ducks and admired their nest and eggs. Next we showed them some of the options for creating vegetable beds that we have employed in our vegetable garden as well as our medicinal garden.

After the extensive tour, the children were treated to a snack of bread, cheese and lettuce from our garden. They enjoyed the snack immensely and spent some time further exploring the compost area, poultry and gardens.

The climate of Barlovento is very hot and humid, which means that controlling plant diseases and pests is very challenging. Our gardens will be more productive if we can install shade netting. We also want to invest in the development of our seed bank, extend the irrigation system, and build a laboratory and food processing kitchen as we continue to provide educational opportunities. For this, donations will be gratefully appreciated. Please get in touch with the director if you’re interested in helping out.

We invite suggestions and proposals for research and experiments. Volunteers, especially those with experience in controlling pests and disease in organic gardens are most welcome.

Director: Didi Ananda Sadhana

www.centromadre.org

Tel. (58) 0234.511.8549, 0416.400.3628