School Science Lessons
School food gardens for tropical regions
2012-05-10 SPwp
Preface
Before teaching this project, discuss the content of the lessons with a field officer of the Ministry of
Agriculture and get advice on planting material, planting distances, site for planting, approved mulch,
composting, and control of pests and diseases. Use only the procedures, agricultural chemicals
recommended by the local field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture. If you cannot control insects by
hand-picking, ask the Ministry of Agriculture to recommend a chemical spray. All insect sprays are
dangerous. Show the students how to use them safely. Do not get the spray onto your hands. Do not
breathe in the spray. Wash your hands well after using spray. Keep the spray container in a safe place
where students cannot get it. Spray on a day of no wind but if you must spray when there is a wind,
spray downwind. Make sure the spray does not blow on other people.
Table of contents
6.9.1.0 Administration and planning
6.9.6.0 Agricultural crops
9.14.0 Composting
9.12.0 Crop care
6.9.17.0 Fertilizers
16.13.6.0 Fungicides
16.13.7.0 Herbicides (weedicides)
6.9.16.0 Legumes, bean, pea
6.9.18.0 Pesticides
9.13.0 Mulching
9.10.0 Multiplying plants
6.9.18.0 Pesticides
9.8.0 Planting crops
9.9.0 Seeds
6.9.17.2 Soil acidity
9.7.0 Soil improvement
9.10.0 Vegetative reproduction
6.9.1.0 Administration and planning
6.9.1 Planning school food gardens
6.9.2 Choosing land
6.9.3 Choosing crops
5.24 Crop management
6.46 Crop rotation
6.9.4 When to grow crops
6.9.5 Clearing land
6.9.6 Preparing ground
6.9.1a How to use school food gardens
6.9.2a Aims and goals
6.9.3a Types of school food gardens - kitchen gardens, field gardens, perennial crop gardens
6.9.4a Organizing school food gardens
6.9.5a Duties of a supervisor of school food gardens
6.9.6.0 Agricultural crops
6.9.6.12 Calculate food crop production
6.9.6.5 Grain crops and pasture grasses
6.9.6.8 Leafy crops
6.9.16.0 Legumes
6.9.6.6 Maize (Zea mays), corn, Indian corn
6.9.6.1 Rotations for raised beds
6.9.6.2 Rotations for field crops and perennial crops
6.9.6.3 Planting guide
6.9.6.4 Starchy root crops
6.9.6.7 Tap root crops and bulb crops
6.9.6.11 Tropical grasses and pasture legumes
6.9.6.9 Vegetables, tomato family (Solanaceae)
6.9.6.10 Vegetables, pumpkin family, cucurbits, (Cucurbitaceae)
6.9.6.6 Maize (Zea mays), corn, Indian corn
13.6.1 Cornstarch, cornflour slime, isotropy and thixotropy
5.29 Germinate maize grain (Zea mays) (Primary)
9.80 Monocotyledon stem, maize, (corn)
6.5.3 Mineral salts, Plants need salts
9.5.8 Popcorn pericarp of maize
6.9.1 Planning school food gardens
Goals
1. To get the students interested in the vegetable project
2. To involve the students in the planning of the project by discussion
Principles of teaching
Students will want to learn if the teacher can get them interested and make them feel that they are doing
something they really want to do. The problem here is to get the students interested in growing their own
food.
Students learn better if they learn by doing instead of just looking or listening. In this lesson the students
have to find some answers and copy them into their notebooks.
Tell the students that you want them to help you plan the school food gardens and tell them about the
seven steps of planning. Tell the students about the aims of your school food garden programme. The
aim of the school food gardens is to learn how to grow vegetables for the school kitchen.
The vegetables grown should be:
1. suitable for school kitchen use and liked by the students,
2. part of a balanced diet,
3. a mixture of local and introduced vegetables.
What advice do agriculture field officers give about the following:
1. which part of the land to use and how to use it?
2. how should you prepare the land for crops?
3. which crops are suitable?
Before starting the school vegetables project, answer the following questions:
1. What amounts of vegetables do you need for the school kitchen?
2. Who will plant, look after, and harvest the crops?
3. When will they do it?
How much money can be spent on the gardens?
1. What tools, equipment, and chemicals are available in the school?
2. What do you need to buy in the town or get from the Department of Agriculture?
3. Where will you store tools, equipment, and chemicals?
4. Who will look after the students and issue them the tools?
5. Which part of the school land can you use for gardens?
6.9.2 Choosing land
1. The choice of the land you can use for the school food gardens will depend on the following 8 points:
1.1 Which parts of the school land are safe from land disputes, claims from villagers who may want
part of the crop, safe from stealing by villagers and school boys?
1.2 What are the best places for raised beds and fields? The raised beds, 1.2 metres × 6 metres,
should be near the kitchen and classrooms to be convenient for kitchen staff and practical agriculture
teaching. For the fields you need large areas of land. These fields should be no farther than 15 minutes
from the school.
1.3 What parts of the school land have the best soils for gardens?
1.4 What type of vegetation is already growing in the different parts of the school land? For example
old school food gardens, old village gardens, coconut stands, regrowth, bush land, swampy land. How
much clearing and cleaning will be needed in these places to prepare the ground for crops? Are there
large trees growing in or near the gardens that can damage crops by shading or root competition?
1.5 Which parts of the land will need draining, fencing, or contouring to prevent soil erosion?
1.6 How much equipment and planting materials will be available?
1.7 How much labour and time will be available for clearing, planting, managing and harvesting? For
example, how big can your gardens be if school maintenance time is one hour per student per day?
1.8 What total area of land will be needed to achieve the goal set for vegetable production? Your goal
may be 2 / 3 of the root crops you need and all the vegetables needed for the kitchen.
2. Calculate how much land you need to plant crops to feed the students, and how many students you
can feed for how many days using the crops planted.
2.1 Amount of sweet potato to feed to each student per day? Let K = 1.5 kg.
2.2 Number of students to feed in the school? Let S = 120 students.
2.3 Amount of sweet potato needed per day = K × S or 1.5 × 120 = 180 kg
2.4 How many days to feed sweet potato to the students? Let D = 30 days.
2.5 Total amount of sweet potato needed = K × S × D or 180 × 30 = 5 400 kg
2.6 What is the expected yield of sweet potato? Let Y = 2 000 kg sweet potato per hectare (per ha).
2.7 Amount of land needed = K × S × D / Y = 5 400 / 2 000 = 2.7
To feed 120 students, plant about three hectares of sweet potato every month.
3. If you have five hectares of sweet potato growing, how many days can you feed the students?
3.1 Area of the crop? Let A = 5 hectares, 5 ha.
3.2 Expected yield of the crop? Let Y = 2 000 kg per hectare
3.3 Total expected yield = A × Y or 5 × 2 000 = 10 000 kg sweet potato
3.4 How many students? Let N = 120.
3.5 Amount of sweet potato to feed to each student per day? Let K = 1.5 kg
3.6 The total amount of sweet potato eaten by the students per day = K × N or 180 kg sweet potato
per day.
3.7 The number of days you can expect to feed sweet potato is equal to the total amount of the harvest
divided by the amount that they will eat per day = A × Y / K × N = 10 000 / 180 = 56 days. So if you
have five hectares of sweet potato to harvest you can expect to eat them for 56 days.
4. The daily diet of the students should contain about 0.5 kg per student per day of vegetables other
than root crops and corn. Each day have one good meal of legumes. Climbing beans can be
picked from raised beds and field beans can be picked from the root crop legume rotations in the fields.
4.1 One meal with both leafy vegetables, e.g. Chinese cabbage, and fruiting vegetables, e.g. eggplant.
4.2 One meal with aibika or pumpkin leaves or local vegetables.
4.3 One meal with banana or coconut.
5. The land you choose should be square or rectangular and the students can probably measure the
boundaries in metres and calculate the area of each garden in hectares.
5.1 length (metres) × breadth (metres) = area (square metres)
5.2 length (metres)breadth (metres) = area (hectares, ha) 10 000
5.3 100 metres100 metres = 10 000 square metres = 1 ha
5.4 You can mark metres on the classroom floor and let the students practice pacing them.
1. Discuss with students the points to be considered in choosing the land. Do this while walking with the
students about the school grounds.
2. Show the students the land you have chosen for the gardens and give your reasons. The reasons
should include as many of the eight points as possible. Do the students agree with the reasons for the
choice?
3. Show the students how to pace 1 metre and calculate the area in hectares pacing around the land.
4. Show the land selected for school vegetable gardens
5. Make a map of the school food garden.
On the map note the length, breadth, area, the direction of North and position of nearby trees and
buildings, water supply, direction of drainage, and position of gates and fences.
6.9.3 Choosing crops
Discuss the needs of the school kitchen and what students like to eat.
When deciding which crops to grow consider the following five points:
1. What are the needs of the school kitchen? How much of each kind of vegetable do you need each
week? How much food are students expected to get for themselves and not from the school kitchen,
e.g. coconut, fruit, and the produce of the students' own weekend gardens? If your school is well
organized, all the food that the students gather should go through the kitchen.
2. Which vegetables do students like to eat? It is no use growing a new kind of crop such as okra if the
kitchen staff do not know how to cook it and the students will not eat it. However, it is a good idea to
try some new vegetables to widen the experience of the students.
3. The vegetables should be part of a balanced diet. Each day the students' diet should be two parts
grain and root crops and one part legumes or meat and one part a mixture of leafy vegetables and
coconut and fruit. Students eat 1.5 to 3.0 kg of food per day. Which planting materials will be available
when it is time to plant? Do not plant the same crop again in the same soil. Grow following crops in an
arranged order, crop rotation. Tables A and B set out crop rotations for school food gardens. These lists
show what can be grown next after you harvest the present crops.
4. Try to get examples or pictures of vegetables that the students may not know. Commercial seed
packets often have good pictures so save these for teaching aids.
5. Make sure that students use the names of vegetables as in these teaching notes, e.g., sweet potato
not "potato", aibika or hibiscus cabbage or bele or pele not "cabbage".
1. Tell the students about the five points to think about when deciding when to grow crops: needs of the
school kitchen, what students like to eat, balanced diet, planting materials, and rotations.
2. Ask the students to help you make a list on the chalkboard of the vegetables they eat in the mess and
in other places. Next to each vegetable show the amount eaten by: eat a lot, eat some, eat only a little,
or not at all or like a lot, like a bit, not like at all.
3. Next to each vegetable write one of the following: S = grain (e.g. maize) or root vegetable
(e.g. cassava, yam, taro) P = legume (e.g. winged bean, pigeon pea, mung bean, cow pea)
L = leafy vegetable (e.g. hibiscus cabbage, pumpkin tips, Chinese cabbage) (S is for starchy food,
P is for protein food, L is for leafy vegetable, F is for fruit.)
4. Tell the students that for a balanced diet they should grow some of each of these types of food.
5. Suggest another food crop they could grow to make a balanced diet and write these on the chalkboard.
Explain that rotation tables list what can be grown after each type of crop. Think of what is already
growing in each garden and decide which of the vegetables needed for the kitchen can be grown next.
6.9.4 When to grow crops
When to grow a crop depends on the following:
1. Suitable climate
If there are wet and dry seasons in your area when is the best time to plant?
2. Growing period
When do you want to start harvesting your crop? Count back the number of weeks of the growing
period to decide the best time to transplant and plant.
3. Harvest Period
You can usually plant crops all at once and later harvest them during some weeks. To make the
harvesting period longer, you can use succession planting, i.e. plant a few rows of sweet potato every
week.
4. After completely harvesting a crop, wait at least two weeks before replanting to allow you to clean
the field of an old crop and weeds and to give time for compost or fertilizer to mix in the soil. Keep the
land bare of crops (bare fallow).
5. Crop Rotation
It is not easy to follow the crop rotation and get the crops harvested when you want the students to do it.
For example, you do not want any of your crops to be ready for harvest during the long school holidays.
Time your planting so that crops such as root crops or legumes are growing during that holiday time. So
they should be ready to be harvest, or turned in as green manure, after the first term starts.
6. Garden calendar
Use a garden calendar to help you decide when to plant crops. The example included in the lesson
should either be duplicated or drawn on the chalkboard. Before the lesson make a crop calendar for
using the crops chosen by the teacher and the students in the last lesson. Use one column for each raised
bed or field. Work backwards from the time of first harvest to planting. Work forwards to end of harvest
and fallow period.
1. The five points to think about when to grow crops:
1.1 Climate,
1.2 Time of first harvest and harvest period,
1.3 Crop rotation,
1.4 Growth period (seed to harvest)
1.5 Fallow period.
2. Use the blank garden calendar and crop rotation tables or copy them on the chalkboard.
Deciding when to grow crops depends on:
2.1. Climate
2.2. Wet or dry season. What is the best time for growing a crop?
2.3. Growing period
2.4. How long from planting seed to harvest, or from planting seed to transplanting to harvest?
2.5. Harvest period
How long can you keep picking the crop?
2.6. Fallow period
This is when you rest the ground before planting a new crop. During the fallow period you can clean out
all the plants from the last crop, pull out all the weeds, and dig in compost and fertilizer.
3. Crop rotation
The advantages of crop rotation are as follows:
3.1. Pests and diseases that infect a particular kind of plant or a particular family of plants cannot be
passed on from one crop to the next crop. Root crops or leafy crops are examples of kinds of plants.
Tomato, chilli, capsicum, and European potato are all in the tomato family.
3.2. Different kinds of crops take in different amounts of plant nutrients from the soil. Legumes add
nitrogen plant nutrient to the soil.
3.3. Different kinds of crops have different depths of roots and affect the way the soil holds together in
different ways.
4. Crop rotation for your school food gardens
See diagram 9.72.1: Mung bean, pigeon pea, winged bean
4.1 Raised beds: e.g. (1). Chinese cabbage then (2). tomato then (3). winged bean then (4). Maize
4.2 Fields: e.g. (1). sweet potato then (2). cowpea then (3). cassava then (4). mung bean
4.3 Garden calendar for your school food garden
4.4 Date Bed 1 Bed 2 Field 1 Field 2
4.5 Planting: cabbage bean corn sweet potato
6.9.5 Clearing land
1. Clearing land is hard work and you must try to make sure that this work is not so hard that the students
hate agriculture period. Most of this work should be done during school food gardening time or school
maintenance time. Do not use agriculture periods unless students are learning something new from the work.
2. You can make hard work more interesting by:
2.1. always praising the best efforts rather than criticizing lazy or careless work,
2.2. arranging for a definite well organized work period, e.g. "all Form 1 students will cut bush between
3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., working with me",
2.3. setting a realistic goal for each work period, e.g. "Let us try to finish the post hole digging this
afternoon",
2.3 developing competition between classes, e.g. "Let us see if you can clear this land better than the
other class". However, do not let boys compete against girls,
2.5 working with the students (do not do all the interesting part of the work yourself) OR training groups
of students to work by themselves with a student leader.
3. Dig up some soil from badly drained land so students can smell it in the classroom. It is sour land.
1. To prepare land for vegetable gardens it must be cleared, drained and fenced.
2. Reasons for clearing
2.1 to stop competition for plant nutrients from other plants (weeds)
2.2 to allow cultivation (no logs, trees, roots or stones)
2.3 to stop shading of the crop from trees.
2.3 Land should be cleared twice before planting.
3.1 First clearing: cut down bushes and trees, remove logs, roots, stones and weeds
3.2 Second clearing: 3 weeks later pull out all new weeds. Put all weeds on the compost heap.
4. Reasons for draining
Soil with too much water is said to be waterlogged. Land that is not drained properly has a bad smell.
The teacher should let the students smell the "sour" soil.
4.1 To allow air to get into the soil for the roots to breathe,
4.2 To stop diseases living in the soil that can attack the roots and stem base of crop plants.
5. Reason for fencing
5.1 To keep pigs and other animals out
5.2 To keep people out
6. After you have cleared the land there is a danger that if the soil is left bare, wind, rain and water can
carry away the soil and destroy the gardens (soil erosion). Grow plants stop or slow the wind
(windbreaks), e.g. Leucaena. If you cover the bare soil with mulch or a leafy crop, this will stop
raindrop erosion. Water erosion can be stopped by good drains with grass growing in them. You can
also lessen water erosion by making ridges and beds across a slope and not up and down it.
6.9.6 Preparing ground
See diagram 6.0: Digging the ground, raised bed, ridges
1. Prepare ground with treatments before planting which allow seeds to germinate easily and quickly,
allow roots to penetrate the soil easily, improve the plant nutrients in the soil, and help to control weeds
nd insects.
2. Dig deeply with a garden fork the rake the soil from different angles to make a soil with a fine tilth.
3. Be prepared to tell the students that good preparation of ground does need hard work, but later the
crops will grow better and you will need less work to look after them.
4. If beds and ridges run North South then all the plants in one row get the same amount of light. Their
shadows fall on the interwove area, and not on each other.
5. Clay soils needs deep digging with the addition of gypsum and compost.
1. Teach the need for good preparation of ground.
2. The objectives of preparation of ground are as follows:
2.1 to loosen the soil so roots can grow easily,
2.2 to make a fine even seed bed so seeds will germinate easily and quickly,
2.3 to control weeds and insect pests by digging them up,
2.4 to improve the soil by mixing in dead plants and compost. This will increase the plant nutrients in the
soil and make the soil easier to dig,
2.5 to form the soil into raised beds or ridges so it is ready for planting.
3. The steps in preparing ground are as follows:
3.1 Turn the ground over to a depth of 15-30 cm. Work backwards using spades for turning and hoes
for breaking up clods of earth. For raised beds use the trench digging method:
3.2 Dig in compost or other fertilizers. (Check if the Department of Agriculture allows compost because
in some countries compost can contain pests and diseases.)
3.3. Use rakes and hoes to make the soil fine and even.
4. Raised beds should be 1.5 metres6 metres15 cm. Put logs around the sides of the beds. When beds
are first made, you can pile the soil 30 cm high but it should settle down to about 15 cm. Hoe fields into
ridges 45-60 cm apart and 15 cm high.
6.9.1a How to use school food gardens
1. Wherever school food gardens are used for the teaching of agriculture, there is always one big danger
- if the gardens are too big, the students may think of school agriculture as just hard work. This may
make the students dislike school agriculture. The amount of practical work in most of the agriculture
teaching notes has been kept small so that it will not make students tired by the hard work. However, in
some places the schools must have big gardens because they must grow enough food for all the students.
These lessons have been written especially for schools that have to grow food for students. Because the
gardens must be big and there is much work for the students to do, you must think of ways of making the
students like this work:
2. All the students of the school must help in the garden work. It must not be just the agriculture students
that do the work.
3. Make the working time as short as possible. It will probably be enough if each student works for one
hour each day. You can call this "food growing time" or "school maintenance time".
4. Allocate each class of students a special garden to work in. This makes it possible for the students in a
class to be proud of their own garden.
5. Work in the school food gardens should never be used as a punishment. Teach each class
of students to be proud of their work so they can grow some of their own food.
6. Praise students when they work hard or do a job properly.
6.9.2a Aims and goals
1. Following are some aims and goals for school food gardens. You may have different aims and goals
for your school but all teachers and students should know them.
1.1 Students will understand the different methods used to produce food.
1.2 Students can use the different skills needed to produce food.
1.3 Students will be interested in taking part in agricultural activities.
2. Long-term goals.
2.1 Students will want to grow some of their own food when living at home in a village or in a town.
2.2 Students will want to have a balanced diet both for themselves and for their families.
2.3 Students will want to try growing both local and introduced food plants using modern methods.
6.9.3a Types of school food gardens - kitchen gardens, field gardens, perennial crop gardens
There are three types of school food gardens:
1. Kitchen gardens
Kitchen gardens are near the school kitchen and the classrooms. Dig the soil to form raised beds. Each
bed may be 6.01.2 metres in area and it is 15 cm higher than the ground. It is separated from the next
bed by pathways 50 cm wide. These gardens are used to grow vegetables that can be picked fresh for
the kitchen, e.g. fruiting vegetables, e.g. tomato, capsicum, and leafy vegetables, e.g. Chinese cabbage,
aibika. Part of the kitchen gardens may be used for perennial herbs, e.g. mint, rhubarb and parsley.
2. Field gardens
These gardens are not near the kitchen. They are large areas of land used for growing root crops,
e.g. potato, sweet potato, cassava, yams, maize (corn) and legumes, e.g. bean, cowpea and peanut.
3. Perennial crop gardens
It is best to use separate gardens to grow long lasting or perennial crops like papaya, banana, chillies,
hibiscus cabbage (aibika, bele or pele) pineapples, coconuts and other tall crops like guava, star fruit,
breadfruit, oranges, limes, durian and soursop. Other parts of the school food gardens will be used for
seed beds, seed boxes, compost heaps and a place where seed bed soil can be mixed up.
6.9.4a Organizing school food gardens
The work of the school food gardens can be done better if there are plans to make the work go well.
Here are some ideas for planning:
1. Food committee
You can form this to help the teacher with his work. It is best if this committee can include the
headmaster, the teacher in charge of gardens and one other agriculture teacher, a teacher of home
economics and one student from each form. Having such a committee will help to make all the
committee people interested in the gardens. 2. Involving teachers
Although only the agriculture teachers will do the classroom teaching in agriculture, all the teachers in the
school should take an active part in looking after the gardens and working with the students.
3. Time for growing time
All the students should do some work in the gardens during a special time each day called "food growing
time" or "gardening time" or "school maintenance time". In some schools all students work in the gardens
or one hour each weekday and there may be some garden work at the weekends. However, on some
islands no work will be done on Sunday. Still, the teacher must know how much gardening time he can
use. He must know how many "student hours" there are each week.
4. Store room.
You must have a store room that can be locked up at the end of the day. You must lock all the tools,
equipment and chemicals up in this room.
5. Stock record book
In the store room you must keep a stock record book or "inventory book". In this you must write a list
of all the things kept in the store, as follows:
Item Number Date Remarks
CP-sprayer 1 2/2/00 handle broken 4/1/00
Fungicide 200 g 2/2/00 about half remaining 2/11/99
Spade 20 2/4/00 one missing 2/11/99
The date tells you when the item was first put in the store or when the store was last closed and
everything in it counted. You call this counting a stock take.
6. Borrowing book
Every day two students must work in the store. They must look after everything in the store. They must
also issue tools or other things to the students who are going out to work in the gardens. However,
before they give anything to a student, they must write it in the borrowing book and the student who is
taking it must write his name. The borrowing book looks like this:
No. Items Item Student Date Out Date In Storekeeper
2 spades R. Kato 2002-10-01 2002-10-04 C.J.S
1 axe M. Apo 2002-10-02 2002-10-04 S.G.
1 sprayer P. Kolio 2002-10-02 2002-10-05 B.B.
Records
The teacher in charge of the gardens should keep records so that the food committee will know:
1. How much food has been harvested and sent to the kitchen
2. The cost of producing this food
3. How much money received from any sales of crops
4. How to plan future food crop production
8. The Production Record Book is used to record the amount of a crop harvested, the amount of the
crop sent to the kitchen or sold, and the amount of money received if any of the produce was sold. In
some schools the value of the crop sent to the kitchen is worked out but no money is paid. The
production Record Book can be kept either as a separate book or as part of the school food gardens
diary.
9. The Receipt Book is used so you can give a receipt to any person who pays you money. The carbon
paper duplicate is used as a record of how much money you have received. If you sell any of the
produce from the school food gardens always give the buyer a receipt for the amount of money.
10. The Cash Receipts Journal is a list of the dates of sales, what you have sold, who you sold it to,
receipt numbers, how much you received. It is usually written at the end of each week by using the
information recorded in the Receipt Book. When you buy something for the school food gardens always
get a receipt for the money you pay. You can keep these receipts on an iron spike. At the end of each
week take the receipts off the spike and write up your Cash Payments Journal that lists the dates of
payments, what you have bought and how much you have paid. If you keep a school food gardens
cheque account this information should be on the cheque butts. The cash receipts journal and cash
payments journal can be written in the same exercise book:
Cash Receipts Journal . . . Cash Payments Journal . .
Date Particulars Receipt Amount Date Particulars Amount
2.3.01 5 chickens 001 $10.00 6.3.01 1 hammer $5.60
4.3.01 1 bag bean 002 $1.50 9.3.01 insecticide $2.60
5.3.01 10 kg potato 003 $0.80 10.3.01 sprayer nozzle $4.75
6.3.01 Total Receipts . $12.30 . Total Payments $12.95
6.9.5a Duties of a supervisor of school food gardens
See diagram: 61.8: Crop diary
Before taking over from a previous teacher or before starting new gardens, the supervisor of school
food gardens should be able to answer the following 8 questions: 1. What are the aims and goals of the
school food garden programme? Talk about these aims with the food committee.
2. How much labour can probably use? How many hours of work by all the students and staff can be
used by you in the gardens?
3. How much money is there to spend on seeds, chemicals and tools? Who can spend this money?
4. Which record books will be kept and who will keep them? Is there an inventory book, Production
Record book, Receipt book, Cash Receipts and Cash Sales Journal, Savings bank book or cheque
book? Is there a borrowing book kept properly? Is there any money owed to the school food gardens?
Does the school food gardens account owe any money? Are there any items that they have not returned
to the store? Are there any items in the store that they should return to their owners? Has a school food
gardens diary been used?
5. What seeds, tools and equipment belong to the school food gardens? Get some students to help you
with stocktaking and making a new inventory.
6. What is the history of the school food garden land? Who owns the land? Are there any claims from
village people to the land or to the produce from it? Do they dislike any use of the land such as cutting
down trees or digging drains? What crops have been grown on this land before?
7. Have they described the land accurately? If they have already made a map check the details on it or
draw a new map. Show the distance on the map in paces of about 1 metre. On the map show direction
of North, scale of paces, type of vegetation or crops grown, direction of slopes, types of soil, position of
trees and rocks, water supply, direction of drainage, fences, gates and buildings.
8. What do the field officers of the Department of Agriculture think about the possible use of the land?
Make an appointment to see the local field officer or invite him to visit the school if he has not been there
before. Ask him what help they can give on: Advice on what to grow, supply of planting material,
chemicals and technical literature, help with spraying and ploughing, and receiving produce for sale.
Do not ask the agriculture field office to give lessons or demonstrations to students because that is the job
of agriculture teachers.
Making Decisions
Students will work together more and learn more if the teacher lets the students do all the activities
needed to run the school food gardens. These activities include planning who to do, ordering things,
working in the gardens, harvesting and recording how much produce harvested, and eating the produce.
The teacher must always first show how to do a job properly and then step back and watch the students
do it. The first 5 lessons suggest ways to decide with the students' help.
6.9.6.1 Rotations for raised beds
3 Beds Rotation
Rotation A 1 then 2 then 3A
Rotation B 1 then 2 then 3B
Bed 1 Bed 2 Bed 3A Bed 3B
leafy vegetables fruiting vegetables bushy
legumes 		climbing legumes
Chinese cabbage capsicum common bean climbing bean
maize (intercrop) choko chick pea cowpea
aibika cucumber haricot bean winged bean
lettuce eggplant mung bean yard long bean
leafy mustard marrow (bushy) peanut .
radish melon (bushy) pigeon pea .
silver beet pineapple winged bean .
spring onion tomato soya bean .
Use some space for:
1. Perennial herbs, e.g. rhubarb, garlic, parsley, mint, ginger
2. Local vegetables, e.g. amaranths, purslane, bitter cucumber, comfrey, fern, rungia, pit pit, sugar cane
3. introduced vegetables: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, basella, kohl-rabi, endive,
rosella, parsnip, beetroot (beet) zucchini. (courgette)
4. Some vegetables can be grown in running water, e.g. water potato, watercress.
6.9.6.2 Rotations for field crops and perennial crops
Field rotations: 1-2-3-4-l, or 1-3-4-1, or 1-3-1-3 or 3-4-3-4.
Choose one or more kinds of plant for each field from each column, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4
Leafy Vegetable Fruiting Vegetable Legume Root Crop or Grain
Chinese cabbage capsicum common bean cassava
choko (leaves) maize (intercrop) chick pea sweet potato
pumpkin (leaves) pumpkin cowpea taro
aibika chilli haricot bean Chinese taro
lettuce cucumber mung bean yam
silver beet marrow pigeon pea sorghum
spinach okra winged bean .
spring onion pineapple soya bean .
Perennial crops
avocado granadilla oil palm
banana guava papaya
breadfruit jack fruit
 pineapple
citrus litchi passion fruit
coconut malay apple custard apple
mango rhambutan five corners
mangosteen sago palm sugar cane
6.9.6.3 Planting guide
Crop Planting depth (cm) How planted Time to transplant (weeks) Distance between plants Distance between rows Time to harvest (weeks)
Amaranthus sprinkle direct thin to 15 15 6
Banana 45 sucker .
 200 200 40
Basella 5 direct thin to 30 30 5
Bean 5 direct . 15 45 10
Beetroot 2 direct thin to 15 30 10
Broccoli . nursery 4 45 45 14
Cabbage . nursery 4 45 60 10
Capsicum . nursery 4 45 45 10
Carrot 1 direct thin to 5 30 12
Cassava 10 cuttings . 100 100 30
Cauliflower . nursery 4 45 60 20
Celery . nursery 4 15 60 20
Bak choi
(Chinese cabbage)
 . nursery 3 30 45 10
Tannia 10 corms . 100 100 120
Chilli 10 nursery 8 75 150 20
Choko 5 fruit . 30 100 12
Comfrey 20 cuttings . 75 100 50
Corn (maize) 2 direct . 15 60 15
Cowpea 5 direct . 15 45 10
Cucumber 2 thin to 30 60 10
Eggplant . nursery 4 60 60 12
Ginger 5 rhizome . 15 45 30
Haricot bean 5 direct . 15 45 10
Hibiscus cabbage
 10 cuttings . 60 100 10
Kohl rabi . nursery 4 15 45 10
Lettuce . nursery 3 30 30 8
Marrow 5 direct . 100 200 12
Melon 5 direct . 100 200 12
Mung bean 2 direct . 15 45 9
Okra 5 direct . 30 75 10
Onion 5 direct thin to 10 30 15
Parsley 1 direct . 15 45 12
Parsnip 1 direct . 15 45 20
Papaya . transplant . 200 200 16
Peanut 2 direct . 30 30 15
Peas 5 direct . 5 45 10
Pigeon pea 5 direct 60 100 24
Pineapple . shoots / slips . 30 60 60
Pit pit,
Saccharum
 20 cuttings . 100 100 8
Pumpkin 2 direct . 100 200 15
Purslane sprinkle direct . 15 45 6
Radish . transplant . 25 25 16
Rhubarb 2 seed / crowns . 45 45 57
Silver beet . nursery . 15 30 10
Snake bean 5 direct . 15 100 8
Snake gourd 5 direct . 30 100 8
Sorghum . direct . 15 30 15
Soya bean . direct . 15 60 12
Spinach . nursery . 15 30 8
Spring onion 10 direct thin to 5 30 12
Sugar cane . cuttings . 100 150 50
Sunflower 5 direct . 45 45 16
Sweet potato 10 cuttings . 45 75 14
Taro 20 tops or tubers . 60 100 80
Tomato . nursery 30 days 60 60 14
Tumeric 5 rhizome . 15 30 35
Watercress 2 root cuttings . 15 15 10
Winged bean
 2
 direct
 .
 15 15 12
Yam 10 tuber cuttings 100 100 40
Zucchini 5 direct . 100 100 8
6.9.6.4 Starchy root crops
This group contains four plant families.
1. Sweet Potato family (Convolvulaceae, dicotyledon)
See diagram 61.7: Sweet potato garden, ridges, mounds | See diagram 61.1: Sweet potato plant
See diagram: 61.6: Planting material | See diagram 9.87: Tuber | See diagram 61.10: Weevil
Ipomoea batatas sweet potato ("potato", kau kau), produces starchy tubers. Creeping plant with
trumpet shaped purple flowers, near relatives are common tropical creepers, e.g. Convolvulus
2. Taro family (Araceae, monocotyledon)
Colocasia esculenta var. esculenta, (Arum esculentum, Caladium esculentum,
Colocasia antiquorum) taro ("taro tru", dalo, dasheen), produces starchy corms.
Xanthosoma sagittifolium tannia (tana, Chinese taro, "Kong Kong taro", taro tarua, taro futuna, daloni,
yautia, cocoyam), has daughter corms to be eaten rather than main mother corm.
Alocasia macrorrhiza giant taro, (wild taro, kape, elephant's ear), used as emergency food if no good
taro is available, but it is the main food in Tonga.
Cyrtosperma chamissonis giant taro (swamp taro, babai, puraka, via kana), are huge taro grown on
coral atolls.
3. Yam family. (Dioscoreaceae, monocotyledon)
Dioscorea alata, (D. rubella) greater yam, (winged yam, water yam, "common yam"), is a large climber
with winged stems from a large single tuber. It climbs from left to right.
Dioscorea bulbifera aerial yam, (wild yam, bulbil yam, potato yam) is a climber with round stems bearing
edible aerial tubers (bulbils) in the leaf axils.
Dioscorea esculenta lesser yam, (pan), is a small climber producing more than 1 small tuber. It climbs
from right to left.
Dioscorea pentophylla - leaf with 3-5 lobes, climbs from right to left, spiny stem.
Dioscorea numularia - very spiny stem, climbs from left to right.
4. Cassava family (Euphorbiaceae, dicotyledon)
Manihot esculenta, cassava, produces many starchy tuberous roots. Rubber tree and castor oil tree are
in the same family.
6.9.6.5 Grain crops and pasture grasses
1. Grain family (Poaceae) grass family, cereals
Maize or corn, sweet corn, popcorn (Zea mays) Produce many fruit (grains) in rows on a cob.
Sorghum, millet (Sorghum) Produces a head of grain. Likes dry climate. Mainly animal food.
Sugar Cane. (Saccharum) Sucrose sugar stored in stems.
There are local canes which are grown for the edible flowers. pit pit grass (Miscanthus floridulus)
2. Bamboo family (Bambuseae)
Bamboo. This is a useful plant for its large canes and shoots which can be eaten.
3. Sunflower family (Compositae)
Sunflower (Helianthus) produces grain in a big flower. It is in the same family as pyrethrum and lettuce.
4. Palm family (Palmae)
Sago (Metraxylon) is a member of the palm family. It produces starch in stems and grows in swamps.
It is in the same family as coconut, Nipa and Betel nut.
6.9.6.7 Tap root crops and bulb crops
These are small plants with the tap roots or leaf bases swollen mainly with stored sugars.
1. Apiaceae (Carrot family)
Carrot (Daucus) has a single swollen tap root that is rich in vitamin A. It is hard to grow.
Parsnip (Pastinaca) has a long white root like a carrot. It is hard to grow.
2. Cruciferae (Cabbage family)
Radish (Raphanus) has a long or round tap root with a hot taste. It is easy and quick to grow.
3. Alliaceae (Onion family)
Spring onion (Allium sp.) is a thin plant with small bulbs which grow quickly and produce daughter bulbs.
It has a strong taste and is used in stews or eaten raw.
Garlic (Allium sp.) has a large bulb with very hot taste. It has daughter bulbs which separate easily.
4. Chenopodiaceae (Beet family)
Beetroot (Beta) has a large red tap root. It is cooked in stews. The leafy crops spinach and silver beet
are in the same family.
6.9.6.8 Leafy crops
1. Malvaceae (Hibiscus family)
Hibiscus cabbage or aibika or bele or pele (Abelmoschus) Perennial bush producing edible leaves
which are an excellent vegetable with a high protein content.
Okra or gumbo (Hibiscus esculentus) is really a fruiting vegetable. Green fruits should be cooked in
stews because of their sticky feel.
2. Cabbage family (Cruciferae)
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) has very large terminal buds but grows slowly and has little food value.
Similar to cabbage are kohl-rabi, broccoli, also turnip and radish (Raphanus) tap root crops.
Chinese cabbage (Brassica Chinensis) Large terminal bud. Easy and quick to grow. Variety Pak Choi
looks like spinach Variety Wong Bok looks like a tall cabbage.
Watercress (Nasturtium) Perennial herb growing in running freshwater streams. Leafy stems eaten raw
or in soup. Plant the cuttings.
3. Lettuce family (Compositae)
Lettuce (Lactuca) has a large terminal bud. It is picked fresh for salad or quickly boiled or fried.
Sunflower, a grain, and Pyrethrum, that yields insecticide, are in the same family.
Silver beet and spinach have large edible leaves. They are members of the beetroot family.
4. Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a perennial herb used to flavour soups. It is a rich source of
vitamin C.
5. Comfrey family (Boraginaceae) includes comfrey, Russian comfrey (Symphytum) The leaves are
cooked as vegetables and the dried leaves cooked in biscuits.
6. Pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae) have shoot tips used as a green vegetable. The family includes
pumpkin (Cucurbita), marrow, (squash, melon, Cucumis), choko (Sechium),
snake gourd (Trichosanthes), bitter cucumber (Momordica), and watermelon (Citrullus).
6.9.6.9 Vegetables, tomato family (Solanaceae)
1. Tomato (Lycopersicon) produces a large amount of fruit if looked after well. It needs occasional
watering for deep root growth, need staking and side dressings. Four kinds of wilt affect tomatoes:
1.1 Verticillium wilt fungus and fusarium wilt fungus are persistent infections from the soil that cause
withering from the base upwards and stems that are black or red brown inside.
1.2 Bacterial wilt causes rapid wilting and death of the plant.
1.3 Spotted wilt virus causes brown leaf spots and rings.
Control these diseases with choice of resistant varieties, crop rotation and burning of infected plants.
2. Chilli, cayenne pepper, red pepper, green pepper, capsicum. (Capsicum) are grown as a perennial
cash crop. Red pepper, green pepper or capsicum are grown as annuals and have large hollow fruit.
All these fruits contain a lot of vitamin C.
3. Eggplant or aubergine (Solanum) produce many large purple fruits which must be cooked.
A close relative is the European or Irish potato (Solanum tuberosum).
Other plants of the same family grown in the tropics are Tree tomato (Cyphomandra), and
Tobacco (Nicotiana).
6.9.6.10 Vegetables, pumpkin family, cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae)
Soft rots occur mainly in the hearts of leafy vegetables and can be controlled by watering only in the
mornings and by not planting too closely besides using copper oxychloride. Leaf tip burn in leafy
vegetables can be caused by soil with very low pH which can be controlled by adding lime to the soil.
Other leaf burns can be caused by using pesticides or weedicides which are too concentrated.
1. Pumpkin, squash, marrow (Cucurbita) Both bushy and running varieties grown for large fruit, tips of
shoots and young leaves.
2. Cucumber, rock melon (Cucumis) watermelon (Citrullus) Smaller and faster growing than most
pumpkins. Melons are too easy to steal. Bushy and running varieties. Choko, choyote (Sechium)
produces large number of green fruit and edible young shoots and leaves, strong climber.
3. Snake gourd (Trichosanthes). It is sometimes called a "snake bean" or "New Guinea bean", but it is
not a legume. It produces many white fruits 10-20 cm long, which can be cooked in soups. It is strong
climber but needs strong support for such big fruit.
Other cucurbits which grow in the tropics but are not well known are as follows:
4. Bitter cucumber or bitter gourd (Momordica) is like a climbing cucumber with a knobbly skin.
5. Vegetable sponge or loofah (Luffa) is a fruit which is dried and used to wash yourself.
6. Gourd (Lagenaria) is like a round pumpkin with a very hard shell used to make cups and dishes.
6.9.6.11 Tropical grasses and pasture legumes
The contents below are for information only and do not constitute advice on how any particular grass or
legume should be used in any school garden. Before purchasing grass or legume the supervisor should
obtain advice from a Field Officer of the Department of Agriculture and should obtain permission from
the school principal. The information below may be incorrect in some countries.
Grasses
1. Batiki Blue grass (Smut grass) Ischaemum indicum, Long narrow seed heads, tufts hairs from flowers.
Grows well in shade, under trees.
2. Bermuda Couch grass, Cynodon dactylon, Restricted growth in dry seasons Widely used for lawn
establishment.
3. Birdwood grass, Cenchrus setigerus, Used in short season environment. Can be used as erosion
control species.
4. Buffel grass, Cultivar Biloela, Cenchrus ciliaris, Drought resistant. Cultivars adapted to wide range
of conditions including drier inland environment
5.Centrosema, Common, Belato Centrosema pubescens,
6. Columbus grass, Crooble, Sorghum almum, Good pioneer species with drought and salt tolerance.
Short lived. Good initial establishment
7. Green panic var. Trichoglume, Petrie, Panicum maximum, Palatable, shade tolerant. Combines well
with Siratro and Greenleaf Desmodium
8. Guinea grass, (Hamil grass), Panicum maximum, Well adapted to high rainfall tropical lowlands.
Robust, erect.
9. Kikuyu grass, (Elephant grass), Pennisetum clandestinum, Palatable, good autumn growth.
Excellent for erosion control.
10. Koronivia grass, Brachiaria humidicola, Strong growing. Leaves used for rough feeling. Forms
thick mat on soil. Grows well on coral soils.
11. Molasses grass, Melinis minutiflora, Pioneer grass in high rainfall areas. Carries fire.
12. Para grass, Brachiaria mutica, Performs well under water-logged conditions. High production on
coastal lowlands. It will not stand heavy feeding.
13. Paspalum grass (Paspalum)
14. Pangola grass (Digitaria)
15. Plicatulum, Rodd's Bay, Paspalum plicatulum, Good legume compatibility. Coastal and sub coastal
areas. Palatable.
16. Rhodes grass, Cultivar Callide, Chloris gayana, Widely used in scrub lands. Easy to establish, giving
quick cover.
17. Sabi grass, Nixon. Urochloa mosambicensis, Combines well with Townsville Stylo
18. Setaria grass, Nandi, Setaria anceps, Adapted to coastal areas. Aggressive, early spring growth
19. Signal grass, Cultivar Basilisk, Brachiaria decumbens, Good ground cover, prefer to Pangola and
Guinea in high rainfall areas
20. Urochloa grass (Urochloa),
Legumes
1. Axillaris, Archer, Macrotyloma axillare, combines well with many grasses and legumes
2. Calopo, Calopogonium mucunoides, pioneer, vigorous growth for weed control.
3. Centrosema, Common, Belato Centrosema pubescens
4. Crotalaria, rattlebox, sunnhemp, Crotalaria ,juncea, suited to tropical lowland environments. Grows
slowly. Hard seeds take long time to germinate
5. Cowpea, hairypod cowpea, Vigna luteola
6. Desmodium. Silverleaf, Desmodium uncinatum, more persistent than Greenleaf under hardier
conditions
7. Hetero, Johnstone, Desmodium heterophyllum, wet tropical coast. Combines well with Pangola and
Signal grass
8. Lablab, Rongai, Highworth, Lablab purpurens, cover crop, green manure, good for hay or silage
9. Leucaena, Peru, Leucaena leucocephala, perennial shrub. Combines well with Signal grass
10. Lotononis, Miles, Lotononis bainesii, well adapted to acid soils. Good palatability
11. Phasey bean, Murray, Macroptilium lathyroides, Self-regenerating annual. Well-adapted to water
logging
12. Puero, Pueraria phaseoloides, pioneer species, palatable and productive. Grows well in shade
under trees. Large rounded leaves
Adapted to coastal areas. Aggressive, early spring growth
13. Siratro, Siratro, bushbean, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Easy establishment. Prolific grower,
persistent. Makes thick mat. Flowers dark red turn purple
14 Stylo, Schofield, Stylosanthes guyanensis, adapted to humid tropics, even poor soils
15. Stylo, Townsville Stylo, Common, Patterson, Stylosanthes humilis, easy establishment, good
reseeder
16. Stylo, Pencil flower, cheesytoes. Carribean, Veran, Stylosanthes hamata, perennial under grazing
17. Stylo, Shrubby Stylo, Seca, Stylosonthes scabra, adapted to seasonally dry tropics
6.9.6.12 Calculate food crop production
Growing food for a balanced diet
If each student eats 3 kg of food each day then the following mixture of the 5 types of food would
provide a balanced diet:
Type of Food Amount eaten, g
1. Starches energy food 2 500 g
Potato (sweet potato) yam, cassava, taro, banana, corn (maize) (or rice or wheat meal) 600 g
2. Fats and oils - high energy foods 30 g
Coconut oil, palm oil, peanut oil, beef or pork fat, dripping (oil in tinned fish)
3. Protein - bodybuilding foods 150 g
Meat, fish, shellfish, bean seeds, eggs, milk (tinned meat, tinned fish)
4. Vegetables - health foods 100 g
Hibiscus cabbage (aibika, bele) pumpkin tips, amaranths, taro leaves, bean pods, leafy vegetables, cooked green papaya
5. Fruits - health foods 200 g
Pineapple, papaya, banana, melon, pumpkin, eggplant, lime, orange, guava, chillies
6. Coconut, which contains oil and sugars
Total amount of food 2 980 g + 1 coconut
The school food garden should provide all these types of food and a variety of each type. The students
should not be fed the same mixture of food every day.
Expected yields
Banana
If planted 33 metres = 1 090 plants / hectare If each plant yields 2 bunches / year and each bunch
weight 23 kg, then the yield / hectare / year = 1 090223 = 50 tonnes / hectare / year
Bean
Up to 37 tonnes / hectare in 3 months
Cassava (tapioca)
12.5 tonnes / hectare in 6 months2 = 25 tonnes / hectare / year
Coconuts
If need one coconut for each student for each day, and if each palm yields 50 nuts / palm / year, if
planted 88 metres = 192 palms / hectare If planted 77 metres = 196 palms / hectare Yields 19650 =
9 800 nuts / year If 270 days in a school year 1 ha yields 9 800 / 270 = 36 students.
Eggplant (aubergine)
At planting distance of 9060 cm yields 27 tonnes / hectare in 4 months
Hibiscus cabbage (aibika, bele or pele)
At planting distance of 2.52.5 metres = 1 600 bushes / hectare If pick 0.5 kg from each bush every 3
weeks, then yield / bush / year = 0.517 = 8.5 kg / bush year yield / hectare / year = 8.51600 / 1000 =
13.6 tonnes / hectare / year
Papaya
If planted 88 metres = 140 plants / hectare (18 males and 122 females) yield = 7.5 tonnes / hectare in
the second year of bearing
Peanut
1.1 tonnes / hectare in 5 months
Pineapple
If planted 6060 cm = 19 tonnes / hectare / year
Pumpkin
At planting distance of 1.51.5 metres yields 37 tonnes / hectare in 5 months.
Sweet Potato
12.5 tonnes / hectare in 6 months × 2 = 25 tonnes / hectare / year
Yams
5 tonnes / hectare / year - 10 months to maturity
History
The contents of this page were written by Dr J. Elfick in the Solomon Islands for the Pacific islands
Agricultural Curriculum Development Project funded by the Australian Development Assistance Bureau.
Many people have helped in the writing of this unit by reading the drafts and by making suggestions.
Among them were Mr Mana Latu, Principal, Tonga College, Tonga, Mr Sitiveni Tu'ilautala, Agricultural
Curriculum Officer, Department of Education, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, Miss Barbara Eisinger, Secretary,
Agriculture Teachers Association, PO Box 57, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, Miss Carol Hartley, Department of
Education, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Mr D. Busse, Lecturer in Agriculture, Balob Teachers College, Lae,
Papua New Guinea, Mr A. L. Voigt, Lecturer in Agriculture, Avondale College, Cooranbong, Australia,
Mr J. Treadaway, Provincial High Schools Course Coordinator, Solomon Islands Teachers College,
Honiara, Solomon Islands, Mr B. Bennett and Mr S. Gwaliasi, Lecturers in Agriculture, Solomon Islands
Teachers College, Honiara, Solomon Islands, Mr M. Miller, Agriculture Master, Betikama College,
Solomon Islands, Mr G. Creek, Principal, Secondary Teachers College, Apia, Western Samoa.