Professor David Millar, President of the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Cultural Studies, has called for a deliberate policy to promote farming at the second circle level.
According to Prof. Millar, farming should be encouraged at the second circle level to help the schools augment the funding made available to feed students. If some of the schools do not have access to vast land to engage in full-scale farming, he suggests, they could have gardens to help them produce vegetables.
The country once had its second circle institutions embark on School Farm projects. Apart from being able to produce food to feed them, it gave students a practical feel of agriculture beyond what they would often learn in the classroom.
Speaking to Dreamz News as part of a documentary titled; School Farms, Prof. Millar called for a deliberate government policy that would compel secondary schools to bring back the school farms initiative.
Such a deliberate move can involve asking them to produce a certain percentage of foodstuffs for their feeding.
“Just instruct them. GES is a place where democracy goes very far. They just wait for a letter. Tell them, 10% of your budget for feeding should come from your school garden. All schools should know that going forward, it becomes a deliberate policy to have the schools engage in farming. Or you can eliminate some aspects, we won’t buy tomatoes, pepper, garden eggs, but we are all waiting for Buffer Stock to come and supply.” He stressed.
The Documentary highlighted the benefits of the school farm initiative, how agriculture has been relegated to the background after a good start in the 60s through to the 90s.
It also sheds light on how some schools in the country are going out of their way to still have school farms or gardens and equally questions what policies initiatives that are in place or would be rolled out to support such schools.
The Bolgatanga Senior High School (BIG BOSS) features strongly in the documentary. The school has a garden that affords students the opportunity to have a practical feel of lessons in the classroom.
