Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Students take to paddy farming

CELEBRATION OF PADDY: Students participating in a pageantry organised as part of the paddy festival at Nedumangad.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Students of the Edanila UP School, near Nedumangad, recently celebrated the paddy festival with gusto. They sowed seeds, sang ‘vayalpattu’ and transformed themselves into little farmers. The festival was organised by the Agri Friends Samskarika Vedi.

As part of the celebrations, the students who decorated the entire school with paddy, palm and plantain leaf festoons, converted a part of their school ground into a mini paddy field. They sowed rice grains and took the ‘annam adyam’ pledge to protect and promote paddy culture. The students of Edanila UP School also made artistic patterns on rice grains, depicting symbols of paddy culture such as ‘kathirukala,’ ‘Nellu Ganapathy’ and ‘Theyyam’ on the occasion. NSS volunteers from the Manja Boys HSS and students from the Anappetti Lena English Medium School joined the celebrations.

“The idea of the paddy festival is to instil the essence and importance of paddy culture amongst the younger generation. As a mark of respect, paddy grains were neither consumed nor sold on the day of the paddy festival. Instead, it was treated as sacred and worshipped,” said S. Jayakumar, agriculture assistant of Tholikkodu Krishi Bhavan and a volunteer of Agri Friends Samskarika Vedi.

Mr. Jayakumar said the paddy festival was celebrated on the ‘Makom rashee’ of the Malayalam month of Kanni, which is considered to be the birthday of paddy. Traditionally, during the paddy festival rice grains are collected from the fields and worshiped in granaries after being washed and smeared with sandal and ‘kumkum.’ On that day, the farmers abstain from ploughing and tilling their fields.

The paddy festival at the Edanila UP School had other components such as exhibition of traditional farming tools, including `manvetti,’ ‘kalappa,’ ‘villu,’ ‘chatta’ and ‘para.’

In the ‘Nellu vicharam’ programme, the students also shared stories, thoughts and science behind paddy farming and its contribution to our culture. Later, the students, along with their teachers, parents, farmers and people’s representatives, took out a paegentry.

Another special event held as part of the paddy festival was the Annam adyam samarpanam’ in which every student contributed a handful of rice and one rupee coin to a veteran farmer.

School headmaster Ajith Kumar, PTA president Salim and Nedumangad municipality education standing committee chairman S.S. Biju also participated in the function.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

‘Steps on to procure low-floor buses’
Fire at printing press causes damage in crores
Probe ordered
Slew of programmes on Tourism Day
Call to end dual pricing system
AIR music concert
Congress must clarify stance on pact: RSP
Journalists told to emulate Swadeshabhimani
Dairy farming to go hi-tech
Varkala murder an act of terror, say police
Laxity in safety norms caused hostel collapse
Murder: forum has wide reach in city
Move to link two projects sparks protest
Students take to paddy farming
Showcasing Kerala in Europe
Debate sought on draft of Bill

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu