Gujarat's Sabarmati Prison promotes organic cultivation

Ahmedabad, Mar 23 (ANI): The Sabarmati Prison in Ahmedabad has launched an initiative to promote organic cultivation.

Taken up by Siddharth Jaiswal, an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), with the help of prison authorities, the initiative is aimed at training prison inmates in organic cultivation.

Armed with an MBA in Agribusiness management, Jaiswal wanted to start organic farming in the state and got in touch with the prison authorities. They agreed to let him start the project in their premises.

Jaiswal is working with inmates to produce vermicompost, organic manure, which is excreta of earthworms rich in minerals and nutritional value.

He also plans to provide training to farmers and gardening enthusiasts in organic farming.

"We wanted to start a revolution in the state for organic cultivation which is sustainable in the long run. So this vermicompost, we caught this idea with the IG, Keshav Kumar, they already have 35 acres of land cultivation, but which is not organic. They use the conventional, normal, urea, fetilisers, so we want to develop the Sabarmati Jail as hub for organic cultivation," said Jaiswal.

"We are giving training to farmers in organic cultivation plus this urban populace. Suppose they want to develop their own vegetables in the kitchen garden, we will be providing them the seeds, fertilisers, earthworms so that in their earthen pots they can grow organic vegetables," Jaiswal added.

The inmates at the Sabarmati Prison are quite happy to learn the new cultivation technique which they feel is better than the conventional method of farming.

"Conventional farming uses a lot of chemical and other stuff. In organic farming, all these things are not required. I can use this technique to grow crops like wheat, cotton. I can utilise that to cultivate organic crops on my field," said Raju, an inmate.

Initially, crops like wheat would be grown in the prison under the project and slowly they will pick up vegetable cultivation.

Jaiswal is also working on an annual crop table for organic cultivation in the prison. By Ami Sharma(ANI)