For the seventh-semester students of the Agriculture College at Karekere near Hassan, it is the time to stay in villages and experience farming.
As many as 101 students of BSc in Agriculture have been put in six villages of Arasikere taluk for the last month as part of the Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) programme.
They will continue to stay there for two more months, sharing their knowledge with the rural people.
The students have been divided into six groups and each group is allotted one village. Now, they have been working in T. Kodihalli, Jyothi Mallapura, Thalalatore, Kunighattahalli, Thalaluru, and M. Habbanaghatta in Arasikere taluk. Teaching faculty guide them regularly.
“All these days we learnt about agriculture within the four walls of the classrooms. Now, the RAWE programme has given us an opportunity to see the actual life of a farmer on the ground,” said Kushal Sagar, a native of Chitradurga district, staying put at T. Kodihalli along with 17 other classmates.
The students begin their work by gathering information about the village. They study the crop pattern, traditional farming methods adopted by the community, and significant issues bothering them on the field, among other things.
“One of the major issues we found is stem bleeding in coconut farms,” pointed out Ravi Teja J., a native of Telangana.
With no agricultural background, Mr. Teja has been staying in the village for the first time in his life for such a long time. “We are suggesting to farmers how to tackle stem bleeding. Besides that, all these years the farmers seldom did soil testing. We are educating them why soil testing is essential,” he said.
In each village, the students are developing a demo farm, where they will cultivate 48 varieties of crops. “We are cultivating different varieties of ragi, paddy and millets among others in the demo farm. The villagers have given away five guntas of land for the demo farm,” said Mallamma, also a student.
The students regularly conduct awareness programmes, health check-up camps, and run an information centre, where the villagers can get the necessary guidance.
“It is not one-way learning. We have been learning many things from the farmers as well. They have found many indigenous techniques they had been following to tackle various diseases affecting their farms,” said Poorvika Gowda, another student at T. Kodihalli
The students are impressed with the cooperation they have been getting from the villagers for their programme. The villagers are providing the students with food and shelter.
“We are all happy here. The days we spend here remain forever in our memory. The local people are treating us on a par with their family members,” said Bindu K.R., a student at Jyothi Mallapura.
The villagers said the RAWE programme benefits them. Chidanandamurthy, a farmer at Jyothi Mallapura, said he had been following traditional farming methods that he learnt from his ancestors.
“Now, we are getting information about advances in agriculture from these students. We are thankful to them,” he said.
