What do you do with excess plants after establishing a trial? Well, at Western Sydney University's research facility, the excess plants are donated to neighboring schools.
The university's Hawkesbury campus is home to the National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre (NVPCC), which is a high-tech greenhouse currently researching some challenges which exist for the Australian Protected cropping sector.
Students from a high school visit the center
The university has always had a strong focus on community support with all the high-quality produce from the facility being donated to Foodbank, a charity that provides food to struggling families.
The state of New South Wales in Australia has a well-developed agriculture and horticulture program in schools. Most rural schools and many high schools in urban and peri-urban areas offer the subject to their students in years 9 to 12.
Andrew Heath from Bede Polding College collecting capsicum seedlings
The relationship between schools and the university has existed for several years and the schools have appreciated the support from the university. Over the past few years, advanced seedlings of eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, capsicum and chili have been gratefully received by local schools after the experiments in the NVPCC greenhouse have been established.
The plants are grown in the greenhouses, hydroponic systems and soil-based systems at the schools and support student learning on crop nutrition, crop production, cooking and marketing.
Lettuce plants donated by Western Sydney University growing in Richmond High School's outdoor NFT system.
Western Sydney University also supports school horticultural education by hosting visits from schools to see high-tech horticultural production. Since the establishment of the NVPCC nearly 900 students and over 100 secondary school agriculture teachers have had the opportunity to learn about this type of food production from the staff of the university.
For more information:
Western Sydney University
westernsydney.edu.au/