Connecting with our food

Just as much it fills my heart with joy to see a sapling poke its head out of the ground and slowly grow and unfurl its leaves to the light, so also it gives me immense joy to see a new educational initiative take root and steadily grow each year. A couple of years ago, I joined Foodlink, the Auroville Farm Distribution Center. I strongly felt that as the name suggests, Foodlink should link farmers and consumers by creating awareness about the importance of local, organic food. Also, given my previous experience as an experiential educator, where I would have students work in farms and forests for at least three months, I was dismayed to discover that teaching children on how to grow food was, by and large, not included in school curriculums in Auroville. I discussed the issue with farmers and school teachers to see if we could start a project together.

Udavi school

Last year, with the enthusiastic support of Priya from Buddha Garden and with encouragement and funds from SAIIER, Foodlink started a pilot project in Udavi School to teach one class of students on how to grow seasonal vegetables. This year that initiative was repeated with the same group of children in the same location, and it was gratifying to see them apply the practical skills that they had learnt last year with great dexterity. Equally gratifying for the children and Priya was the fact that this year there was a higher yield of vegetables. Presumably, as is the experience of farmers in organic farming, over time the soil quality improves leading to better harvests. The students grew beans, lady fingers, maize, brinjal, tomatoes, and chillies. The food production cycle could also be taken a step further this year with students learning to grow seedlings from seed (in the first year seedlings had been provided by Buddha Garden). Seeing the perseverance of the children, Ravikrishna, another teacher from Udavi School, joined the team and proposed setting up a permanent garden with him taking primary responsibility for it. The students helped measure the area for the garden this year, and next year, they plan to set up at least eight vegetable beds and plant a fruit orchard. Undoubtedly, this educational initiative at Udavi School will continue to bear fruit in the coming years.

Deepanam school

Discussions with Deepanam school children and teachers had revealed their previous challenges in growing vegetables, and the children indicated that they wanted to learn about rice cultivation.

Consequently, Priya put together a project that comprised weekly classes about food growing in general and grain cultivation in Auroville. As millets are recognized as a healthier alternative to rice and wheat, and are climate change resilient crops, we felt the need to convey the importance of millets in ensuring greater food security and agro-biodiversity.

The classes at Deepanam included growing a small patch of rice and kambu in the school garden and two site visits to Annapurna farm to watch rice planting and rice harvesting. At Annapurna farm, the students also learnt how having integrated practices such as keeping livestock (cows) are a key to sustainability. The crops provide fodder for the cows and the cows provide nutrients (dung and urine) that enrich the soil. The students also learnt about various post-harvest rice processing activities, some of which are labour intensive or require machinery, to make the grain ready for consumption. All grain grown in Auroville is processed-milled and de-stoned at the Annapurna granary. Paddy (rice in husk) is processed in the following different ways:

– Complete rice (red and brown varieties): where only the husk is removed from the kernel totally (10,000 kg of these two varieties are grown and consumed in Auroville)

– Raw rice (Ponni varieties): where the husk, bran and germ are removed from the kernel

– Par-boiled rice (Ponni varieties): where paddy is soaked, steamed and re-dried before husk, bran and germ are removed.

The classes gained a sobering relevance about how climate change was going to affect food production when the students learnt how the failed monsoon and subsequent unseasonal showers impacted the rice harvesting process. The Deepanam class was deemed to be a success and there are plans to offer a similar class next year.