NRCS TEACHES NETT STUDENTS TO GARDEN
Press Release #0121-17 (US Embassy Release No. 02-2011)
Palikir, Pohnpei – FSM Information Services
January 21, 2011

On January 19, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) Soil Conservation Technician Gibson Santos and 124 sixth graders from Nett Elementary School participated in the Pohnpei State Department of Education Agriculture Fair. Through the Conservation Society of Pohnpei’s (CSP) Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Environmental Education Program, Santos conducts a bi-monthly program that teaches students about sustainable gardening, island agroforestry and soils. Some of the Youth-to-Youth participants began their gardening endeavors during the U.S. Embassy – NRCS gardening program, which taught the students about small-scale garden creation, production, and pest management.

During Wednesday’s program, Santos and the students presented the top two Chinese cabbage heads for judging, while the remaining twenty seedlings remained on display for fair attendees. Noting the tires alongside the garden fence, the Y2Y participants explained that their efforts had spurred the fifth graders to undertake some gardening of their own, dabbling in some beans and papaya production.

As the Agriculture Fair marked the conclusion on the raised-bed gardening component, the second phase of the Y2Y program will include sessions on vegetable seed germination and indigenous soils classifications in Pohnpei.

At the culmination of the island agroforestry program in May, participants will engage in the Y2Y Environmental Fair, during which they will exchange best practices with Y2Y participants from other schools through song, dance, visual diagrams, and theatrical performance.