Page 16 - IB January 2022

and helped develop their gardens by growing vegetables of them full time housewives while others work at the
GARDENS OF
NUTRITIOUS
GREENS
TURNING BACKYARDS
INTO OASIS OF GREEN
Kastom Gaden Association (KGA)’s project on seed
distribution sounds more like the Bible’s reference to the
tiniest of all seeds growing into a tall tree.
How else would you describe the marvellous work of
introducing nutritious meals in the menu of boarding
students of Vonunu National Secondary School in
Solomon Islands’ Western province?
Or the promotion of urban model gardens in the
cannery town of Noro, where women have been able to
16 Islands Business, January 2022
introduce lots of green in their family meals, as well as
earn money from selling their surplus?
Promoting nutritious food was a key objective of
Kastom Gaden’s project, explains Tikai Pitakia, General
Manager of KGA.
“For Vonunu, the school principal wanted us to change
the boarding students’ usual staple of noodles and Taiyo
(tuna).
“Working with their senior students, we provided seeds
like cabbages and root crops.” cannery.
KGA project report states 460 packets of vegetable They were given seeds, and assisted in short term
seeds were provided to the school, including seeds of training the Association organised about building
cabbage, green bean, sweet corn, snake gourd beans and a nursery, composting, potting media and growing
cucumber. vegetables like Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, chillies as well
Some 10kg of mucuna beans were also supplied to help as root crops like sweet potatoes and yams.
re-fertilise the soil. “We reckon working with women to develop their own
In addition to providing seeds and planting materials urban model gardens will work because they do food
to the school, KGA also funded the construction of a preparation for their families, and they do care about the
greenhouse to be the school garden’s nursery. health of their loved ones,” says Pitakia.
It proved to be an outdoor classroom for the children, as “They will always support growing their own fresh,
well as for their teachers, said Pitakia. nutritious food and families realised fairly quickly that
“We taught nursery care, soil preparation, seed sowing, growing their own food saves money and can even earn
pricking, transplanting even pest controls inside the some income when they sell their surplus.”
greenhouse. Said Pitakia in his report to PIFON:
“Needless to say, the Principal of Vonunu Secondary was “As in other Melanesian cities, Honiara and provincial
so pleased with the big changes the school garden caused urban centres are rapidly expanding through rural-urban
to the school menu. migration.
“We are now looking at replicating the school garden “More and more rural people are moving to Honiara,
concept to other boarding schools in Solomon Islands.” Auki, Gizo and Noro, where 2/3 of all Solomon Islanders
The KGA report noted: “Students will eat healthy food, live.
and will trigger good physiology of the body systems that “The increasing population density creates major issues
will enhance and promote good learning. “The healthier for food security as urban dwellers do not have the same
the students become the more successful they strive for resources to be able to maintain household gardens as
rural residents do.
education.”
partnership agreement with KGA for the creation of a to unemployment, particularly of youth, which has led to
“In addition, there are social issues that have arisen due
It went on to say that the school has sought a
the growth of informal settlements and urban poor.
model farm in the school.
once fully functional it will supply the school kitchen with now than pre-COVID-19, so local food systems must
“Urban agricultural production is much more important
“The Principal wants to create the model farm, so that
vegetables and other greens. continue to be strengthened.
“Malnutrition has also become a serious issue in the
“In adding to a nutritious diet, it meets the objectives
country, whereby more processed products are being
of the school’s COVID-19 School Preparedness and
consumed over locally produced plants and livestock.”
Response Plan.”
A practice that became quite popular in Noro was
Located some 23-kilometres outside Gizo Town,
Vonunu National Secondary is a church-operated school requests for fruit tree seedlings to KGA, as these trees
became useful home boundary fences.
with a roll of more than 500 students, about 55 per cent
being girls. lemon grass.
For organic pest controls, KGA advocates the growing of
On a much larger scale, Kastom Gaden Association
exported its model garden concept to the town of Noro, So successful was the introduction of urban garden
on the west coast of New Georgia Island, also in the models in Noro that KGA wants to replicate the concept in
Western province. other urban suburbs in the country.
The economy of Noro revolves around the large cannery A group of women in the town of Gizo, also in the
of SolTuna, and it is estimated that 5,000 people live Western province have already been roped into the
there, many of whom work in the tuna factory. project with some success.
One of the world’s largest tuna canning companies, Tri To help maintain the gardens, KGA also provided basic
Marine holds majority equity in SolTuna and its canned garden tools and equipment and packets of various
tuna is exported worldwide. vegetable seeds, both hybrid and open-pollinated.
This time, KGA worked with mostly women, some