On the 17th of September 2019, the International Service Avenue of the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura organized a workshop together with Dilmah Conservation Sustainable Agricultural Research Centre (DCSARC) based on getting basic ideas and methodologies to create and maintain a vegetable cultivation. The IS Avenue of the RACUSJ is conducting a joint project named “Plant to Sustain” with our twin club, the Rotaract Club of de Rescende in Brazil as the first joint project of the IS Avenue in the Rotaract year 2019/20.

This workshop was organized as the very first step of the project “Plant to Sustain” where we aimed to cultivate and maintain a sustainable vegetable garden in a school. Werahera Vidyalaya, Boralesgamuwa was chosen as our plot to cultivate our little garden.

The workshop started at 9.00am with the participation of the organizing committee of this project and fellow rotaractors. In the first few hours we discussed about the logistic matters such as the place we have chosen, the surrounding environment and the facilities we can get from the particular place towards our vegetable cultivation. During the workshop we were given instructions on how to prepare compost and what plants should be planted together according to their companionship.

Since there are a limited number of students in the school we chose, the resource person for the workshop Mr.Nuwan highly focused on the methodologies that we can use to cultivate the vegetable garden with less cost and less effort on maintenance (making our own liquid fertilizer and earthworm concentration). At the end of the workshop we had a field visit which was really useful for us to get a clear idea on how to prepare our vegetable garden in an effective way.

This workshop was a huge helping hand for all of us who participated in this event to increase our knowledge in sustainable gardening and it was an encouragement for us to carry out our project towards our aim as we were given instructions not only to create a garden but also to earn profits from the garden itself to maintain it. As the very first step of our Plant to Sustain project, this workshop was highly beneficial and supportive since it built a strong foundation for the betterment and for the success of the project.

– Rtr. Dulmi Gunaratne –