Organic farming initiative unites families in Pune’s Palash hsg society

The society has been converting wet kitchen waste into compost since the past two years

An organic farming initiative, that began in January 2019, has succeeded in bringing together various families which reside at Palash housing society in Wakad.

Palash housing society, Wakad, has allocated 1,500 sq ft of land for farming purposes. (Milind Saurkar/HT Photo)

The society has been converting wet kitchen waste into compost since the past two years. It is now growing vegetables using the kitchen compost and at least 1,500 sq ft of land in the society has been allocated for this project, where children and parents come together to learn farming. The society members are not farmers, instead a majority of the residents work in the information technology (IT) sector.

“This is our vegetable farm and we grow our own vegetables,” says Rijul Tayade, who is six years old and is with his mother Shital Tayade, one of the residents of the society.

Sarika Shrikhade, Sumeet Sapkal, Deepa Sapkal, Pritam Phalak, Shital Tayade, Kalpana Goswami, Neeru Kedia, Ashwini Tapasvi, Gauri Joshi, and Rashmi Mangale, all members of Palash housing society, began experimenting with the farm concept. The idea is the brain child of Sarika Shrikhande, which has in turn brought in fresh, organic vegetables, directly to their homes.

“We began the process of ideating the project on January 12. By January 15, we had completed the creation of the beds for which we also used compost created by us. The children were, then, involved and by January 26, the seeds planted by the children germinated. It has been an interesting process as the children are very curious about the process,”said Sarika Shrikande, who works at L&T infotech.

The organic farm has vegetables which usually the children don’t like such as fenugreek, beetroot, radish, carrot, and black gram, added Shrikande.

“Growing your vegetables offers you the opportunity to reduce the amount of pesticides that you use in your garden, making them healthier, saves money, increases physical activity, especially among children. We were very happy to see our children working at the society farm,” said resident Pritam Phalak, whose son Shaunak (10) also loves farming now.

“I love sowing seeds and wait for them to germinate. I am responsible for watering the plants,” said Shaunak, who had zero knowledge about farming, until the project began.

This little farm with plans for expansion has transformed the lives of the residents of Palash and helped them enjoy the benefits of home-grown vegetables and also saved them a lot of money besides adding an outdoor activity for children.