More PTA - Agriculture Program

Another one of the main responsibilities of the PTA is the school agriculture program.
Right now, the school lunch program requires each parent to bring in 4 kg of maize and 4 kg of beans per term per child. The is cooked and used for the lunch program.

The parents were very keen on setting up some kind of agriculture program with the school to improve this program. At the beginning of the growing season, we decided to grow maize, soya beans and sukuma wiki (kale). The intention is for the kale to be used to add some much needed nutrients to the lunch program. Here is the chairman of the PTA transplanting kale seedlings from our nursery bed to the main garden.



Here is the kale garden a few weeks later, seems to be growing well. We will have some greens in the lunch program in no time!



The maize and soya beans that we planted have two purposes. We have decided to sell a small amount of maize to sustain the program. We aren't planning on making money from selling maize, just getting enough to buy seeds and gardening supplies for the next growing season. I think this has potential to work, because we can just sell some to the parents for their regular contribution to the lunch program. The remaining maize will then be combined with the soya beans to make a porridge for the kids to eat at the morning break. Look how tall the maize is growing! This is Yassin, the PTA member in charge of agriculture helping out on our weeding day.