Vegetable Garden Talk by CETDEM on the 31st of March

As part of our collaboration with CETDEM to establish an organic vegetable garden in our school, Miss Tan, the head of CETDEM came to our school to give an interesting and informative talk on organic farming, which would serve as sneak preview to what awaits us in our endeavour to establish our vegetable garden. She started her presentation off by giving a brief introduction about CETDEM. The objective of CETDEM is to promote sustainable development on climate change. This NGO also carries out a lot of community initiatives, such as holding seminars and carrying out exhibitions. They even organized a fundraiser for the Slow Food Dinner and Organic Farming Community Centre.

After the brief introduction, Miss Tan moved on to the topic of composting, a topic we thought we were moderately knowledgeable on. We were proved wrong as the presentation progressed, as there was much we still did not know about composting. Miss Tan explained that a large variety of organic waste was important in making fertile compost. On top of the usual kitchen waste we utilise in making compost, we also needed sugar cane fibre and soya bean residue. A good compost fertiliser improves soil structure and increases soil fertility. Miss Tan also mentioned that a compost frame was required for us to begin our efforts in producing compost for our vegetable garden.

Miss Tan then moved on to other aspects of organic farming, such as water management, which can be carried out through mulching, a process that involves putting organic matter over the soil bed in order to stump the growth of weeds and protect the soil. Besides organic matter, lalang and sugar cane residue can also be used, depending on the type of plant that is being grown. She also briefly mentioned carbonized dry husk, which can be used as black soil before being burnt as by doing so, the soil acidity can be reduced.

On top of that, Miss Tan also stressed that we must avoid monoculture, which is practice of growing only one type of plant over and over again on the same plot of land, as the fertility of the soil will decrease. Instead, we should practice diverse cropping, which  not only does not reduce the acidity of the soil, but also reduces pests and diseases. Intercropping, which is the process of planting brightly-coloured flowers on a plot of land filled with dull-coloured plants, is also a measure we should take, as by doing so, insects would no longer be attracted to our vegetables, choosing instead to flock over to the brightly-coloured, attractive flower. Miss Tan also urged us to carry out crop rotation, which is the practice of planting different types of plants on the same plot of land after the previous batch of plants are harvested. This greatly reduces soil erosion and weed growth on top of loosening up the soil when it is compact.

She then concluded her talk, and briefly discussed how we should begin our vegetable garden project. She told us to begin by preparing the compost we would use on the plants in our vegetable garden. We would need to start collecting all the necessary materials we would require for our vegetable garden, which includes sugar cane and soya bean residue, kitchen waste, dried leaves, fresh grass and fresh leaves. We also fixed a date for us to meet up once again and begin our Vegetable Garden project.