Establishment and maintenance of school gardens in the Tucupita municipality, Delta Amacuro state

Abstract

School gardens are small extensions of land, which are dedicated to the production of legumes and vegetables, to promote healthy, fresh and nutritious food, throughout the year (Pérez, 2012). They are also spaces that allow the use of valuable educational tools that promote respect for the environment, ecological values ​​and knowledge of sustainability, allowing the taste of food grown by the schoolchildren themselves, valuing their nutritional properties, as well as the advantage of achieving quality products, obtained organically. The gardens must be an educational instrument aimed not only at children, but also at their families, community and the school itself. Therefore, horticultural activities should support theoretical classes and vice versa (FAO, 2010).

Education is an important means to raise the nutritional level of the student population, through an impact on the consumption and biological use of food. Nutritional food education for the teaching-learning process, in the alternative context, involves teachers, instructors, workers (Photos 1 and 2), parents and representatives, in the area of ​​food and nutrition. (Rodríguez et al., 2006). School gardens alone cannot increase the health of children or substitute for school lunches, but they can do so.

In the educational institutions of the Delta Amacuro state, at present they are not providing enough elements for the development of the orchards, with regard to incorporating the training of the personnel in charge of planting in the schools, supply of materials, monitoring, supervision and advice (Photo 3). Although the educational zone carries the All Hands to Sowing Program, this being a main requirement demanded by the Ministry of Education, few personnel have taken advantage of this strategy in the institutions. Taking into account this situation, the National Institute of Agricultural Research of the Delta Amacuro state (INIA), in the years 2013-2014 created a school program where actions were taken to encourage seven educational institutions in the establishment of small gardens (Table), as part of the rural extension activities and then within the framework of the AFICUP Urban and Peri-urban Family Agriculture project, strengthening the knowledge of students and teachers about obtaining seeds and providing them with alternatives to grow crops in confined spaces.

The main objective pursued by the INIA is to promote the establishment and monitoring of orchards in educational establishments, providing them with support and strengthening the knowledge necessary for the production of foods that are found in the second strip of the nutritional spin, such as vegetables and fruits, Which provide minerals and energy for the proper functioning of the human body.