Vegetable Garden Workshops in NUFED, Guatemala
INTRODUCTION
The students at Nuclear Family Education for Development (NUFED) High School they do not receive education in agriculture. They do not know how to plant, to care for, or cultivate vegetables. The families would like their children to learn so they can contribute to their economy.Vegetable garden workshop at NUFED high school will train students to plant, care for and cultivate their own vegetable garden in order to contribute to their families’ economic welfare.
BACKGROUND
The rural community El Jicaral, Jutiapa, Guatemala seven years ago did not have a high school. People who wanted to continue in secondary school needed go to urban communities far away from our community. The economy of many families did not allow their children continue their education. So many young people decided not to study. Now the community has the Nuclear Family Education for Development (NUFED) High School as a means of providing secondary or intermediate education to the youth that make up the rural population. The school is focused on responding to the needs of the community, based on its socio-economic and cultural characteristics. The objectives of the school are to involve students in different activities and local projects to increase their interest in agriculture and livestock. One of the problems that affects the school in the community is the lack of teachers in the agricultural field. The high school was giving agricultural classes, but because of this lack had to cancel classes.
PURPOSEOF THE REPORT
The workshops on vegetable garden will be a teaching tool to bring support, knowledge, abilities, and leadership to youth, teachers and community members. They will be able to learn about the entire process to produce vegetables. The students can to use this knowledge to cultivate different vegetables at home. This way they contribute to their families, and they will not need to buy expensive vegetable at the stores.
SCOPEOF THE REPORT
The information that this project includes is the following: vegetable garden workshops at NUFED, which is the place to carry out the project, aspects of the specified problems that affect students at NUFED, contacts including the president of the high school Ms. Sandra Bermudez andthe Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, who will providing the radish seeds. Sources of information that will be used in the project, knowledge learned during the classes at FVTC,a survey given to the students to know the percent of knowledge in vegetable gardening and its importance to them, five workshops with specific dates to develop and topics and activities to cover. To harvest radishes this activity includes a final meeting with the students, President Ms. Sandra Bermudez and teachers where each student will receive a certificate of partition in Vegetable Garden Workshops. This project does not include to plant different vegetables just radishes because the fast growth.
VEGETABLE GARDEN WORKSHOP AT NUFED HIGH SCHOOL
Vegetable Garden Workshops will be given at NUFED high school. The project will impact education, knowledge and skills to the students and benefit community members. They will learn about the entire process to plant, care for and cultivate vegetables. The workshops will run from July 13, 2012 to October 12, 2012.
ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM:
The students in NUFED High School do not receive education in the agricultural field. The reason is that the school does not have enough teachers, and especially in agriculture. Now they are not giving any more agricultural classes. The families of this community would like their children to receive knowledge of vegetable gardens because most of them depend on agriculture. When they go to the store to buy vegetables, they are expensive. Some of the families can afford them; some cannot.
CONTACTS
1. Ms. Sandra Bermudez, the president of NUFED has already received on explaining the project and the process to follow. She has agreed to talk with the teachers and students about it.
2. The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) has already sent an e-mail and agreed to provide the radish seeds.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION THAT WILL BE USE
The majority of the sources that will use during the project to teach students is knowledge learned in the crop production classes and agribusiness work experience at FVTC. This knowledge includes lasagna gardening and control of pests and diseases in vegetables.
SURVEY GIVEN TO THE STUDENTS:
The president, Ms. Sandra Bermudez, has sent an e-mail with a survey to the students asking the following:
1. Do you know what a vegetable garden is?
Yes or No
2. Do you know how to create a vegetable garden?
Yes or No
3. Would you like to learn how cultivate vegetables?
Yes or No
4. Do you believe that is important that students learn about vegetable gardens in high school?
Yes or No
5. Do you think that leaning about vegetable gardening may help you to create and to cultivate vegetables in your home?
Yes or No
She has replied and the answers were the following:
40 students were surveyed which is equal to 100% (See Figure 1 below)
Figure 1
| | Question | Yes | No | |
| 1. | Do you know what a vegetable garden is? | 15% | 85% | |
| 2. | Do you know how to create a vegetable garden? | 10% | 90% | |
| 3. | Would you like to learn how cultivate vegetables? | 98% | 2% | |
| 4. | Do you believe that is important that students learn about vegetable gardens in high school? | 97% | 3% | |
| 5. | Do you think that about learning vegetable gardening may help you to create and to cultivate vegetables in your home? | 100% | 0% | |
(“Students of NUFED)
WORKING WITH WORKSHOPS
Each workshop has been assigned specific date to carry out. Those dates have already been discussed by e-mail with the presidents, Ms. Sandra Bermudez. Five workshops have been planned to cover the process of vegetable gardening.
FIRST WORKSHOP
The first workshop will be carried out on July 16, 2012.The topics to develop are the following:
· The importance of vegetable gardening
· How many vegetables the community of EL Jicaral cultivate
SECOND WORKSHOP
The second workshop will be on July 20, 2012. The topics to develop are the following:
· How to plant, care for and cultivate vegetables
· They will learn about radishes because this will be the crop to plant in the vegetable garden. Why? They will plant radishes because of the fast growth, and it grows in all seasons of the year. Also, it is a good vegetable to explain all the steps necessary to keep growing any vegetable.
· The radish seeds will be provided by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA), who has already sent an e-mail and replied agreeing with it.
THIRD WORKSHOP
The third workshop will be on July 23, 2012. The topics to develop are the following:
· The students will learn the pests and disease control of radishes especially root maggots which is the most common insect that may tunnel into radishes.
· They will research information about organic insect control for radishes.
FOURTH WORKSHOP
The fourth workshop will be all the steps to make a lasagna garden, including the following
WHAT LASAGNA GARDENING IS
Lasagna garden beds are a series of layers that help to harvest vegetables on top the soil at any time of year. It is a method that tries to use as many free things as possible because the layers are made up of things you can find around the yard or community. It is used to improve the soil by planting with organic material. Use the steps below to create your lasagna garden. (Vanderlinden)
MATERIAL
· cardboard
· water
· compost
· straw
· grass clipping
STEPS
1. Place cardboard in the first smother layer on top of the grass or weeds in the area selected for the garden.
2. Pour water to wet the cardboard to begin building layers of organic material to help hold down the cardboard.
3. Spread out a layer of compost to cover all the cardboard.
4. Cover the cardboard and compost with a layer of straw.
5. Cover the straw with a layer of grass clippings.
6. Place more compost on top. (Vanderlinden)
The lasagna garden is ready to plant and mulch with more grass clippings to grow vegetable.
FIFTH WORKSHOP
The fifth workshop will be on August 3, 2012 and includes the following:
· To prepare and to plant in the land area. It will be at school the space should be approximately 20 meters long by 2 meters of wide.
· All the students will be divided into groups with a specific day assigned to keep taking care of the radishes until they are ready to harvest.
TO HARVEST RADISHES
The students will harvest radishes in the last week of October or the first week of November. After this activity, all of them will have the final meeting which includes the president, Ms. Sandra Bermudez and teachers. Each student will receive a certificate of participation in the Vegetable Garden Workshops.
CONCLUSION
The Nuclear Family Education for Development (NUFED) High School has students which do not receive education in agriculture. A lack of teachers, especially in the agricultural field, is affecting to them by canceling agricultural classes. Students do not learn how to plant, to care for, to cultivate vegetables.
Vegetable Garden Workshops will benefits the students at NUFED High School as a teaching tool to bring knowledge and abilities of vegetables. The project will be divided into five workshops where the students will learn about the importance of vegetable gardening in order to learn how to plant, create a lasagna garden, to care for and harvest vegetables.
In conclusion the students can to use this knowledge to cultivate different vegetables at home. This way they contribute to their families, and they will not need to buy expensive vegetables at the stores.
RECOMMENDATION
1. Implement agricultural techniques learned at FVTC through vegetable garden workshops at NUFED High School.
2. Train the students in workshops to learn the entire process to care for, to plant and cultivate vegetable gardens.
3. Put into practice at home the techniques learned on planting vegetable, in order to contribute to the economics of the families and the community.
REFERENCES
Students of NUFED. E-mail survey by Sandra Bermudez, Principal. 08 03 2012.
Vanderlinden, Colleen. "Organic Gardening." about.com. The New York Times Company., 2012. Web. 1 May 2012. <http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm>
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