A small seed was sown in 1992 and the same is now grown into a headlining event for St Francis Xavier’s School, Siolim, which has helped make the careers of many students in agricultural studies. The Green Heritage Eco-Club of St Francis Xavier’s School, Siolim will be organising the ‘31st Annual Festival of Plants and Flowers’ on August 26, 27 and 28. The theme of the festival is ‘Millets in our meals’ and the sub-theme is ‘Save Water Save Future’. Delilah Lobo, MLA of Siolim will be the chief guest who will inaugurate the festival and release a book on millets, ‘Millets in our Meals’.
Diogo Pinto, the chief co-ordinator of the festival and a science teacher at the school has been with the festival since the school took over the festival in 1997. “In 1992, visionaries like Alexyz Fenandes, late Joel D’souza, Dr Miguel Braganza, Lawry Fernandes, Francis Borges, Lumina and ex-teacher Robert D’Mello, organised the first plant festival in Siolim which was handed over to our school in 1997 and this gave birth to our ‘Green Heritage Eco- club’. Through these years, the students have certainly gained a new perspective towards agriculture and gardening. When the course on agriculture was introduced in Goa, there were many students who were inspired by this festival, who joined the course. We curated projects that made the students curious to learn more and that generated interest in the child. We have surely made a positive mark on these students over the years,” says Diogo, who will be retiring from teaching in March, after 34 years of service at SFX School, Siolim.
Alexyz Fernandes, a noted cartoonist, has played an important role in bringing this festival to Siolim. This year, he has created two caricatures that will be presented to Fr Santow John and Diogo Pinto. “The two caricatures for
Fr Santow John, who for the last two decades had been strongly supporting the Plants Festival and to Diogo Pinto, the founder of the Green Heritage Eco-Club, who has worked tirelessly and was the inspiration for the last 30 years of the plant festival. Both are retiring at the end of this academic year. I will be presenting two separate framed caricatures to Fr Santow and Diogo as a tribute for their promotion of the festival of plants,” says Alexyz proudly.
However, one must not forget the role of the students, teaching and non-teaching staff from pre-primary to the higher secondary section, PTA of the school, renowned horticulturist Miguel Braganza and Alexyz, who initially were instrumental in organising the Festival of Plants and Flowers in the school. Miguel Braganza and Alexyz are still involved as consultants of the festival.
Konkani singer, O’Luv will be performing a song on millets as well as Amboli flowers at the festival. Besides performing pop songs at various big events across the state, O’Luv is silently working on preserving Goan heritage in his own way. He composes songs and also shoots the videos with the Goan culture in mind. His most recent song was ‘Gauntti Mitt’, which was based on sea salt, a Goan traditional occupation.
“I first performed the millets song at the first ever Millets’ festival, Nachneachem Fest in Mapusa. Now, I added a few more lines for this song. I love working on songs based on agriculture and my songs are like short documentaries as they will remain forever, even after the occupation fades away. These traditions will be lost in time, but these songs will show the future generation on what they are missing out on. Some farmers requested me to write a song on farming as they wanted to show how they plough the fields with oxen. Through the millets song, I explain how millets especially nachne or ragi is grown, sold and eaten in Goa,” says O’Luv.
There will be an exhibition of plants put up by the students of the school in the school campus. Students from pre-primary till higher secondary will present different varieties of plants which include flowering, ornamental, cactus, medicinal, vegetable, fruit plants, herbs and exotic plants. Around 25 schools, higher secondary schools and colleges will participate in the project competitions such as projects on ‘Finger millets’, ‘Method of conserving water’, ‘Honey Bee Quiz Competition’, ‘Best Honey Competition’, ‘Salad making’, and drawing competition and food competition for students and PTA of the school.. Reputed plant nurseries will be putting up stalls and selling plants, garden implement and organic manure. The students will also put up displays in pottery, artefacts and wealth from waste articles. The festival will be open for the public on all three days from 9 am to 6.30 pm.
Another interesting feature at the festival is the celebration of the National Honey Bee Day which will be held with a session on Bee Keeping. Agricos Alumni Association in collaboration with Green Heritage Eco Club Of Sfx School-Siolim will celebrate the day with the session conducted Melwyn De Souza in partnership with Goa Khadi and Village Industries Board on August 26 at 12 pm at SFX High School, Primary Hall. The session is open to students as well as the public.
After successfully conducting the best honey competition at the annual Plant Festival 2022 and the Konkan Fruit festival in April this year, Alumni Association will be conducting the competition at the Festival of Plants and Flowers in SFX Siolim on August 26. The competition is open for students of any school/higher secondary school in Goa from Class 5 to 12 and the students should get honey produced by Beekeepers of Goa. Judging will be done by professional beekeepers/food technologists and will be based on honey colour, flavour, taste, consistency and clarity.
Liza Pinheiro, secretary of Agricos Alumni Association informs, “We received nearly 20 entries from all over Goa for the previous two competitions which was very encouraging. The children are very interested in learning about honey bees and this is the first year that Goa will be celebrating the National Honey Bee day ever. We will also conduct a Quiz Competition on Honey Bees which is open for Class 6 to 10 students of any school in Goa. Top five teams having highest total score will go for the oral quiz round which will consist of four rounds.”
The book, ‘Millets in our Meals’ is published by The Green Heritage Eco- Club of St Francis Xavier’s School, Siolim and comprises of various articles written by experts in the field as well as students, parents and teachers. “We had organised an interschool essay competition and the best essays of the students are featured in the book. We have also included recipes like ragi ladu, jowar paratha, ragi chocolate cake and ragi pinagr,” concludes Diogo
