By Kailash Ram­lal

In a world in­creas­ing­ly threat­ened by cli­mate change and en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, in­sti­tu­tions of learn­ing are tak­ing up the man­tle of lead­er­ship in sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and En­vi­ron­ment, So­ci­ety and Gov­er­nance (NY­SESG) pi­lot project was launched at QRC in Oc­to­ber 2024 with sup­port and guid­ance of the teach­ers, par­ents and en­vi­ron­men­tal club with­in the school.

A group of en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious stu­dents at QRC em­barked on a ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive through the NY­SESG im­ple­ment­ing sus­tain­able farm­ing prac­tices on the com­pound. This stu­dent-led move­ment is a shin­ing ex­am­ple of how youth can take mean­ing­ful steps to­ward en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship while deep­en­ing their un­der­stand­ing of sci­ence, agri­cul­ture, and com­mu­ni­ty re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

What Is sus­tain­able farm­ing?

Sus­tain­able farm­ing, al­so known as sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, refers to agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices that meet so­ci­ety’s food and needs with­out com­pro­mis­ing the abil­i­ty of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions to meet their own needs. It in­volves the re­spon­si­ble use of nat­ur­al re­sources, main­tain­ing soil fer­til­i­ty, con­serv­ing wa­ter, re­duc­ing chem­i­cal in­puts, and fos­ter­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty. Un­like con­ven­tion­al farm­ing, which of­ten leads to land degra­da­tion, sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture en­sures long-term pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal health. At QRC, the con­cept has been adapt­ed to fit the school set­ting, with a fo­cus on ed­u­ca­tion, in­no­va­tion, ac­tion and lat­er on en­tre­pre­neur­ship.

The QRC Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Ini­tia­tive

The spe­cif­ic en­vi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tive will be­gin with the trans­for­ma­tion of a small, un­used plot of land on the school grounds in­to a thriv­ing gar­den, man­aged en­tire­ly by stu­dents. What will start as a sim­ple gar­den­ing project will evolve in­to a mod­el of sus­tain­able agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices. The gar­den will in­cor­po­rate sev­er­al key el­e­ments of sus­tain­able farm­ing that in­clude crop ro­ta­tion, wa­ter con­ser­va­tion, and no chem­i­cal pes­ti­cide us­age.

Stu­dent in­volve­ment and ed­u­ca­tion

The sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture project at QRC is not just a hands-on ex­pe­ri­ence but al­so a valu­able learn­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty. Stu­dents from var­i­ous forms are par­tic­i­pat­ing in its im­ple­men­ta­tion and through their in­volve­ment, will gain prac­ti­cal skills in plant­i­ng, soil man­age­ment, and en­vi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion, Teach­ers can al­so in­te­grate the project in­to the cur­ricu­lum, us­ing the gar­den as a live lab for ex­per­i­ments and lessons on plant growth, soil pH, and sus­tain­able re­source man­age­ment.

Im­pact and 0utreach

The QRC gar­den will be more than just a learn­ing tool - it’s a sym­bol of stu­dent em­pow­er­ment and en­vi­ron­men­tal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The pro­duce har­vest­ed is planned to be sold at school events, with pro­ceeds go­ing back in­to the main­te­nance and scal­ing up of the project.

To deep­en stu­dents’ un­der­stand­ing and in­spire con­tin­ued in­no­va­tion, the NY­SESG pro­gramme al­so in­cor­po­rates ed­u­ca­tion­al field trips to hy­dro­pon­ic farms. These trips ex­pose stu­dents to mod­ern, soil-less farm­ing tech­niques that use nu­tri­ent-rich wa­ter to grow plants ef­fi­cient­ly in con­trolled en­vi­ron­ments.

Hy­dro­pon­ics of­fers a sus­tain­able so­lu­tion to food pro­duc­tion, es­pe­cial­ly in ur­ban ar­eas or places with poor soil qual­i­ty. By wit­ness­ing large-scale, high-tech sus­tain­able farm­ing in ac­tion, QRC stu­dents gain valu­able knowl­edge about al­ter­na­tive agri­cul­tur­al sys­tems, wa­ter con­ser­va­tion, and food se­cu­ri­ty.

These ex­pe­ri­ences com­ple­ment their hands-on work at school and en­cour­age them to think cre­ative­ly about how such sys­tems could be scaled or adapt­ed with­in their com­mu­ni­ty or even at home.

The field trips have al­so sparked new project ideas among stu­dents, some of whom are now ex­plor­ing small-scale hy­dro­pon­ic sys­tems as school projects with var­i­ous crops such as patchoi, let­tuce, kale.

Why it mat­ters

Sus­tain­able farm­ing is crit­i­cal in to­day’s world, es­pe­cial­ly in the Caribbean, where cli­mate change, food in­se­cu­ri­ty, and en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion are press­ing con­cerns. By ed­u­cat­ing stu­dents on sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, QRC is help­ing to shape a gen­er­a­tion of re­spon­si­ble, en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly aware cit­i­zens. Young lead­ers are prov­ing that sus­tain­abil­i­ty isn’t just a con­cept for pol­i­cy­mak­ers or sci­en­tists - it’s some­thing that can be­gin in the class­room, on a school com­pound, and in the hearts of stu­dents.

Look­ing ahead

With on­go­ing sup­port from HAR­CON, teach­ers, alum­ni, and lo­cal agri­cul­tur­al ex­perts, the fu­ture of sus­tain­able farm­ing at QRC looks promis­ing. There are plans to ex­pand the gar­den, in­tro­duce hy­dro­pon­ics, and even launch a school-wide cam­paign to re­duce sin­gle-use plas­tics and food waste. Through ded­i­ca­tion and in­no­va­tion, QRC stu­dents are plant­i­ng the seeds for a more sus­tain­able fu­ture--one crop at a time.

About the project

The HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and ESG Pi­lot Project was launched in Oc­to­ber 2024. It iden­ti­fied two sec­ondary schools who over the course of one aca­d­e­m­ic year, will learn, de­vel­op, and main­tain a pro­gram that pro­motes sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals in­te­grat­ed with En­vi­ron­men­tal, So­cial and Gov­er­nance (ESG) prin­ci­ples. The pro­gram is en­vi­sioned to be main­streamed through­out the en­tire sec­ondary school sys­tem in Trinidad and To­ba­go.