Farming makes my school life cool

Just how much land does a school need to feed its own?
Not much, according to head of agriculture at Aquinas High School Caroline Otunga, whose squad treated the institution’s 1,200 students to a feast of ‘home-grown’ maize from a mere quarter-acre plot last year.
It was eureka moment for Otunga for whom it’s now a lot easier to convince students that farming could, indeed, be the mainstay of one of the oldest schools in Nairobi’s Eastlands.
But if the Aquinas green maize fiesta was a one-off, the plot is repeated many times over at Moi Primary School in Nakuru Town which saves up to Sh71,000 a year through farming, besides providing lunch for its more than 1,000 pupils.
It’s here where Marvin Macharia, with no kitchen garden at his parent’s home, enjoys learning agriculture and practising it on the school’s one-acre farm.
The 13-year-old Class Seven pupil is a member of the Security Club, but often joins 4K Club members at the school farm.
“I enjoy participating in growing crops and weeding,” he toldSeeds of Gold. Macharia is just one among thousands of learners countrywide, who produce food for their schools, thereby conquering hunger and lifting the national economy in their own little way.
Moi Primary’s headteacher Charles Njoroge knows the importance of this too well.
“We harvest an average of 10 bags of maize and two bags of beans per season. The school also gets two bags of kale weekly, which saves us Sh2,000,” he says, adding, they are now diversifying to carrots and cabbages.

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