Trichy: At a time when the number of youngsters taking up agriculture as a profession is dwindling, an organization in Trichy conducted a program to teach organic farming to students. The NGO, Voice Trust, has trained 35 school and college students and issued them certificates during the lockdown period.
The students were taught the basics of agriculture in the program named ‘Agriculture School’ conducted at Siruganur, located on the outskirts of the city. The students, most of them girls, were imparted training on growing plants, recycling of wastes for reusing as manure, pest control, and choosing nutritive food for a healthy life.
R Kavitha, a proponent of organic farming and coordinator of the program, said that with the help of the training, some students have started growing plants at the backyard of their homes.
S Praveen Kumar, an engineering graduate from Siruganur who participated in the program said that he has started cultivating onion on a small piece of ancestral land. “Though I am from an agricultural family, the organic farming method is completely new for me. Once I succeed with my attempt to raise onions, I am planning to cultivate onion on around one acre of land”, Praveen Kumar told TOI.
“We are in involved in promoting activities for reviving agriculture as a viable and valuable activity from 1995. We have an organic farm at Siruganur certified by Organic Certificate Department of the government of Tamil Nadu,” A Gregory, project director of the Voice Trust said.