“Are you sure this is going to work?” asked Amadou Thiombiano, a representative from Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to his fellow gardeners in the AVRDC Demonstration Garden, as he measured out a small cup of starter solution, then poured the concentrated fertilizer liquid on to newly planted onion seedlings. “Got to try,” said Max Msuya, from the Tanzania Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, “or we’ll never know!”

Amadou’s question was one of many posed on topics ranging from healthy seedling preparation to strategies for data collection and analysis during the month-long training of trainers workshop for the Vegetables Go to School project, which began on 18 August at AVRDC headquarters. Eighteen participants from agriculture, health, and education ministries in Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines and Tanzania are attending the course.

Max Msuya from Tanzania (left) and Narayan Kashichwa from Nepal fill spray bottles with Bacillus subtilis solution.

Max Msuya (left) from Tanzania and Narayan Kashichwa from Nepal fill spray bottles with Bacillus subtilis solution.

The project aims to address malnutrition among children by establishing pilot school gardens or strengthening existing school garden programs in the participating countries. Project Manager Usha Palaniswamy noted the need for participants to compile strong, science-based evidence that school vegetable gardens can improve the diets and health of schoolchildren their countries.

Gardens must be designed and planted before any data can be collected, however. Despite some of the wettest weather of the year, the workshop participants gamely made their way to the Demo Garden, fields and greenhouses, where, with the guidance of the Global Technology Dissemination team (Greg Luther, Mandy Lin and Willie Chen) they learned essential gardening skills such as preparing garden beds, testing soil fertility, selecting crops and planning a planting schedule, transplanting seedlings, and making compost. Safe methods to control pests were demonstrated by Entomologist Srinivasan Ramasamy. Genebank Manager Andreas Ebert explained how to save vegetable seed—important knowledge to keep gardens growing in places where the seed supply may be erratic.

Head of Communications Maureen Mecozzi walked the group through the steps in analyzing the information needs of students, parents, administrators and the community. The participants then had some fun and created their own school garden mascots by trading cartoon body parts.

Agricultural Economist Pepijn Schreinemachers covered methods to collect data and  evaluate school gardens.

Nutritionists Ray-yu Yang from AVRDC and Jintana Yhoung-Aree from Mahidol University, Thailand discussed evidence-based interventions, vegetable preparation, cultural perspectives and eating habits. Guéladio Cissé from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, a project partner, explained how WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene and health) concepts can be integrated in school garden programs. From project partner the University of Freiburg, Axel Drescher, Steffen Vogt, and Mark Hoschek reviewed collaborative data management methods.

During field trips the group visited several area schools with garden programs and learned how Taiwan teachers and principals have integrated gardens into the curriculum, organized school lunch programs, and involved the community in gardening activities.

With each training session and field trip the participants were able to add more detail to their national action plans, which they presented to a gathering of high-level administrators from their own countries, donors and project partners during a policy workshop from 9-11 September 2013 at AVRDC.

Workshop Participants

BHUTAN
Bal Bdr Rai, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests
Desang Dorji, Department of School Education
Passang Lhamo Sherpa, Royal Institute of Health Science
Namgay Thinley, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests

BURKINA FASO
Mamounata Sandaogo Ouedraogo, Ministère de l’Education National et de l’Alphabétisation
Amamdou Thiombiano, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
Serge Rodrigue Kouamé, Ministry of Health

INDONESIA

Dhany Hermansyah, Ministry of Agriculture
Ratih Rosyiati, Ministry of Agriculture

NEPAL
Krishan Prasad Paudyal, Nepal Agriculture Research Council
Narayan Kaji Kashichwa, Department of Education
Dhruba Bhattari, Nepal Agriculture Research Council
Upendra Dhungana, Ministry of Health and Population

THE PHILIPPINES
Ferdinand M. Nunez, Department of Education
James Roldan, Department of Education

TANZANIA
Joyce Sekimang’a, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
Maximillian Shedrack Msuya, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
Adah Mdesa Mwasha, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives