Borneo: School’s urban farming project instills discipline in pupils, generates income
The Bahasa Malaysia teacher said they got the project off the ground by cultivating 75 polybags of cucumbers using the fertigation method.
Broneo Post
Fev 21, 2023
Excerpt:
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): A Setapak primary school’s out of the box approach to disciplining its pupils has succeeded in yielding multiple gains for the institution.
SK Jalan Air Panas’ urban farming initiative called Cityfarm has almost completely resolved the school’s disciplinary issues, mainly pertaining to pupils coming to school late. Not only that, its successful cultivation of rock melon using the fertigation system has garnered the attention of various other institutions.
“Cityfarm is a two-in-one initiative. It teaches our pupils to be disciplined and also (gives them the opportunity to) learn about agriculture. In fact, some of them have even started gardening at home. Their parents and the local community here have also shown interest in the programme and are involved in it as well.
“Apart from that, the farm is also generating an income for our school through the sale of our produce and the consulting fees we impose on those (outsiders) seeking our guidance on the fertigation technique used by us,” shared teacher Ibrahim Ismail, who was responsible for initiating the Cityfarm project.
Located just 10km from the Petronas Twin Towers, SK Jalan Ayer Panas uses the returns from the farm to meet the educational needs of its underprivileged pupils residing in some of the nearby People’s Housing Projects (PPR) meant for B40 households.
