Organic farming lessons in school to catch 'em young

In an effort to spread greater awareness on organic farming among the masses, the Karnataka government plans to introduce lessons in the primary and secondary school curriculum.

The department of agriculture is taking up the matter with the department of education to include lessons in the science book from the next academic year.

According to senior officials in the state agriculture department, the contents of the lessons on organic farming have been drafted in consultation with the Institution of Agriculture Technologists (IAT), a NGO formed by the agriculture graduates.

"We are presently in the process of finalising the details of the syllabus and are chalking out a programme with the education department. We intend to introduce the lessons for students from the next academic year. Our aim is to include lessons on organic farming at the school level to get the next generation to adopt good agriculture practices," S C V Reddy, additional director, organic farming cell, department of agriculture said.

As of now only the agriculture universities offer courses at the degree and post-graduate levels on organic farming. They also plan to introduce diploma courses, he said.

Reddy said that the department is taking a number of measures to popularise organic farming among farmers in the state as envisaged in the organic agriculture policy of the state.

The department is presently implementing a pilot project to convert 3,000 hectares spread over 27 districts into organic farming. The decision to introduce lessons on organic farming at the school level follows the huge response the state had received at the recently India Organic 2005, an organic farming trade fair, he said.

He told Business Standard, the department is also planning to bring some 17,600 hectares under organic farming in the state during the current year. At present, organic farming is taken up on over 7,500 hectares in the state.

Reddy said that efforts are on to convert the department's farms into organic farms at various places in the state. They include an 80-hectare farm of the department of agriculture at Davanagere, 40 hectare farm under the University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS) at Bangalore, 35 hectare farm at UAS, Dharwad and a 56 hectare site belonging to horticulture department at Kunigal.

"The department of agriculture will play the role of a facilitator in converting these farms into organic and encourage all the R&D labs to conduct their field trials as per organic farming practices," he said.