Green revolution sweeping Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 8: A green revolution is gathering momentum in Kerala with 1,000 schools taking a lead in vegetable cultivation, ...

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 8: A green revolution is gathering momentum in Kerala with 1,000 schools taking a lead in vegetable cultivation, boosting the State8217;s efforts to end its dependency on neighbouring States for vegetables worth Rs 1,000 crore annually.

Enthused by the success of last year8217;s programme, the State Government has decided to involve more schools this year. During last year, the project was implemented on 30 hectares of land by 560 schools, with an annual yield of 650 tonnes of vegetables, according to Agriculture Director Satyajit Rajan.

Several schools have already set up vegetable farms varying from 10 cents to 25 cents of land depending on the availability of land. The State Government has allocated Rs 10 lakh for implementing this novel scheme this year. Besides, a sum of Rs 13.5 lakh was set apart for digging 100 open wells and setting up 100 pump sets for irrigation.

8220;The project was conceived with the aim of making aware the students about the importance of agriculture sector andeffectively utilise their leisure time. But now it started contributing in a big way in the efforts of the Agriculture Department to make the State self-sufficient in vegetable production,8221; Rajan added.

Besides vegetable farming in schools, selected 4,000 students in each of the 14 districts in the State will be given assistance to start vegetable cultivation in 56,000 houses. Under the scheme, 2,400 tonnes of vegetable could be produced from 448 hectares of land during last year.

Rajan said during this year, each school under the project will be given a financial assistance of Rs 1,000. Agricultural offices in the respective panchayats were given the task of giving training to the students while teachers will assist to set up garden clubs.

To infuse competitiveness in the field, the State Government had also introduced cash prizes at district and State levels.