Providing Training and Establishment of Home Gardens for School Children

The training on establishment of home gardens was initiated as an introductory phase to inculcate the practice of home gardening amongst school children; with the aim of establishment of home school gardens at the project pilot sites, and encouraging the practice of home gardening in the households. The training was carried out at the Department of Agriculture, Horticultural o research & development institute and the Plant Genetic Resources Centre. A total of 22 students from the Gampola, Giribawa School with tutors took part in the training programme.

The training consisted of the basis of home garden establishment; demonstration of established home garden at HORDI, DOA; practical session on methods used for home garden establishment.

The training at PGRC exposed the students to the technological advances in the field of agricultural, with visits to the different divisions under PGRC. Brief lectures were delivered at the exploration division, evaluation, gene bank and the biotechnology & tissue culture division. The students were encouraged to contribute to germ-plasm collection of traditional and local varieties/ land races unique to the habitat around them.
Proceeding the training programme the students at the Gampola, Giribawa School has initiated the establishment of the school garden with financial assistance provided by the BFN project. The project has provided equipment for water supply and gardening tools along with introduction of local/traditional species into the school garden.