Govt high school uses hydroponics to grow food for midday meals
2
Mangaluru: A govt high school in Badaga Yekkar, which has a space constraint to have its own kitchen garden for midday meals, found a new way to grow food through hydroponics technique.
Hydroponics is a method of growing crops in water mixed with nutrients. On a trial basis, they started with amaranth and lady finger and are planning to add more crops based on the success.
"The 15-year-old school with over 138 students faced land constraints. The total land is around 50 cents, and we have fully covered the available land, including a small kitchen garden, where produce is used for Akshara Dasoha (midday meal programme).
However, the produce was insufficient to cater to our midday meal, and to increase the produce, we had no land. Therefore, I decided to try hydroponics to address the shortage," said Anith Kumar, a teacher at the school.
The initiative was kicked off with help from the eco club led by Ramya K, a teacher at the school. In the available land at the school, they have grown curry leaves, spinach and black pepper. The yield supports the midday meal programme or Akshara Dasoha.
Kumar told TOI: "We started the process a few days ago, and results so far are encouraging. It was launched as a part of World Environment Day celebrations. The advantage of this technique is that it requires less space and uses 80% less water. There are no diseases to the crop, unlike those grown in soil, and the product output is higher," said Kumar, adding that pesticides are not used to grow the crop.
Currently, they have sowed amaranth crop in two trays and lady finger in one. Kumar said they are expecting the amaranth crop to be ready in another 45 days. He said as they are doing it for the first time, it will be a trial-and-error method. The technique requires major nutrients of potassium, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, sulphur and other micronutrients. The pH level should be maintained strictly while preparing the solution, Kumar said.
Follow more information on
Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here
. Get
real-time live updates
on rescue operations and check
full list of passengers onboard AI 171
.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
AI-based warning systems facilitated 2,500 safe elephant crossings in Coimbatore
It was in February 2024 that the artificial intelligence (AI)-based early warning systems were implemented by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department in the Madukkarai forest range of the Coimbatore Forest Division. In a year, the system has facilitated 2,500 safe crossings of wild elephants across railway tracks. Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary of the environment, climate change, and forests department, who was pivotal in implementing the project, said that the system generated 5,011 alerts to enable these crossings, helping the department achieve zero elephant accidents. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai Sahu, who used to visit the Madukkarai forest range where the command centre was set up to review the functioning of the early warning system, had posted on her X handle that the result of the early warning system in the past year was 'stunning'. 'AI-powered thermal cameras installed on 12 towers, controlled by a command centre and manned by local tribal youth, monitor railway tracks 24/7, alerting loco drivers and patrolling teams in real-time who will reduce the speed of the train in the stretch. Two underpasses made by railways are being used by elephants extensively; a model of tech-driven wildlife conservation by the Tamil Nadu forest department,' she wrote. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like SRM Online MBA | India's top ranked institute SRM Online Learn More Undo The department has plans to employ tethered drones to supplement the AI-based system for 24x7 surveillance of elephants and other wild animal movements in the dark area between the two railway lines, Supriya Sahu told TOI. 'The camera will alert the ground control on the elephants' movements, and another drone will be used to chase the animals away from the track.' With the help of the Tamil Nadu unmanned aerial vehicles corporation, they will engage the drones from the first week of Oct to prevent elephant movements towards the railway tracks in the sandwiched forest area. N Jayaraj, district forest officer (DFO), Coimbatore, said the department and the railway officials work in sync to prevent accidents based on information generated by AI. The data generated not only prevents accidents but also provides valuable data on elephant movement, elephant behaviour, profiling of individual elephants, and further morphological and behavioural studies for future decision-making. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Time of India
Rs35.7 lakh push to document, preserve Madiya language
1 2 Nagpur: The state govt has sanctioned Rs35.73 lakh for the Madiya Language Project at Riddhapur's Marathi Language University to safeguard one of the rarest Gond languages, spoken only in select pockets of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. Madiya, a dialect steeped in oral traditions, songs and folklore, survives mainly among scattered Gond hamlets in Vidarbha's forest belt, especially in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts. However, decades of migration and the growing dominance of mainstream languages have left it vulnerable, with fewer young speakers carrying it forward. A Government Resolution (GR) issued by the Marathi Language Department on Monday confirmed the sanction under the State Marathi Development Institute's grants. The amount will fund the project's further work — part of an ongoing initiative to document the dialect in a systematic manner. Vice-chancellor Dr Avinash Awalgaonkar told TOI that the project aligns with the university's expanded mandate following discussions in Mumbai after Marathi was granted the status of a classical language. "One important point that came to the fore was the conservation of other Marathi dialects spoken in various parts of Maharashtra. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Retalhuleu: Kitchen Remodeling Trends in 2025 May Surprise You Kitchen Remodeling | Search ads Search Now Undo The state has entrusted the university with that responsibility." In one of the first such initiatives, led by researcher Manjiri Paranjpe who has worked extensively on Madiya, the university will be publishing her and her team's work. "The university will pitch wherever the gaps are needed to be fulfilled. This includes various documents, vocabulary lists, dictionaries, and books purely on the Madiya language," Dr Awalgaonkar said. The Madiya project is just the beginning. The VC said, "We also have other proposals in the pipeline. There are many such dialects, especially among the tribals, which are on the verge of extinction and that need to be conserved, documented for future generations." The GR notes that the Madiya Language Project was initiated to document the dialect and ensure its preservation in written form. The latest funding will support this effort, with the goal of creating a permanent linguistic record. Language scholars believe the project could serve as a model for preserving other endangered tribal tongues in Maharashtra. By formally documenting Madiya, they say, the university is helping ensure that the Gond community's voice — and the worldview embedded in its words — will not fade into silence. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Giant planet found orbiting tiny star ‘should not exist', astronomers say
Source: Astronomers have discovered a giant planet named TOI-6894b orbiting a very small red dwarf star that has only one-fifth the mass of the Sun. Despite the star's small size and low brightness, TOI-6894b is larger than Saturn but has only half its mass. This surprising discovery challenges previous ideas that such tiny star s cannot form or hold large gas planets. According to a study published in Nature Astronomy and reported by large planets may be more common around small stars than scientists once believed, opening new possibilities for understanding how planets form. Huge planet discovered orbiting one of the smallest red dwarf stars: TOI-6894B TOI-6894b was found using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Its host star, TOI-6894, is a cool red dwarf, much smaller and dimmer than our Sun. Despite this, TOI-6894b has a radius larger than Saturn but with only half its mass. This makes the star the smallest known to have such a large gas giant orbiting it. This discovery challenges the assumption that small stars cannot form or hold giant planets. Challenging planet formation theories: How TOI-6894b formed around a tiny star by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pierce Brosnan's Wife Lost 120 Pounds - This Is Her Now Undo Traditional planet formation theories, such as core accretion, suggest that low-mass stars have thin discs of gas and dust that are not enough to build large planets. Scientists believe TOI-6894b could have formed through a modified core accretion process or through gravitational instability, where parts of the disc collapse quickly under their own gravity. Neither explanation perfectly fits current data, highlighting the need for further research to understand how such a massive planet can form around a tiny star. James Webb Telescope to study TOI-6894b's rare methane and ammonia atmosphere TOI-6894b orbits far enough from its star to have a relatively cool atmosphere, with an estimated temperature of 420 Kelvin (about 147 degrees Celsius). Its atmosphere is expected to be rich in methane, which is rare among exoplanets , and may contain ammonia as well. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will observe this planet soon, providing valuable data to better understand its atmosphere and formation. This could offer important clues about planet formation in environments very different from our own solar system. Implications for astronomy and the Milky Way This discovery has big implications for astronomy. Since most stars in the Milky Way are small red dwarfs, finding a giant planet around one suggests that such planets may be more common than previously thought. The study involved researchers from the University of Warwick, University College London, and the University of Birmingham. TOI-6894b challenges existing models and will help scientists improve their understanding of planet formation and the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy. Also read | Seven superclouds: Giant gas neighbors of our solar system discovered
