Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
An idea planted years ago at ASJA Girls’ College in San Fernando, took root and mushroomed into a hydroponic system officially launched during a ceremony at the school yesterday.
Lettuce is currently being grown in the two hydroponic units donated by Ancil Bhagwandeen, but principal Alliyah Amarsingh explained that the vision is to produce crops to feed the entire school and the community.
She said they have been working on green projects since 2007, under the leadership of retired principal Mrs Yasmin Rahaman-Singh and the umbrella of the environmental club and then the ASJA Girls’ College San Fernando Urban Future Environmental Leaders.
In her remarks, Rahaman-Singh noted predictions by world organisations that a food shortage will be a reality in the next 20 years.
“Across the world there is starvation, there is no doubt about it. The resources we have in the world are not enough to feed our people, but projects like these, when they start here and they mushroom, you will take it, you have to take it and grow the food that will feed you and future generations. That was the purpose of bringing this wonderful idea brought to us by brother Wazir, donated by the inventor and now mushrooming under the present executive,” she said.
Urbanization Committee team leader, Wazir Hosein, said they intend to produce food for the less fortunate and are working towards solarisation of the school.
Noting that a nation that can feed itself is progressive, Parent Teacher Association president Reaaz Dabiedeen said the initiative was a step in that direction.
Lamenting the “ridiculous” local food import bill of almost $5 billion, he said this is concerning because it shows that the nation cannot sustain itself.