After having successfully launched its ‘Be a #FarmDost’ initiative in March, Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) extended the initiative to the leading schools in Tiruchi. This marks the beginning of the next phase for the #FarmDost initiative wherein school children across Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchi will be reached out to. This is a significant step as these children are tomorrows’ leaders and they need to be taught about the importance of the farmer and their contribution to society.
Through this outreach to students, the #FarmDost initiative wants to not only raise awareness but also instil a sense of gratitude among students towards the farmer. It seeks to inspire them to feel the earth, experience the joy of growing and harvesting a crop and in the process, empathise with the farmer.
TAFE reached out to about 10,000 school children in the city by distributing #FarmDost kits containing seed packets, cocopeat, a friendship agreement, an instruction manual and letters to the students and their parents, requesting their child’s involvement in this initiative. Students were asked to show their gratitude to the farmer by cultivating the seed in a small way at home.
The participating students also stand to win prizes for competing in the Best #FarmDost award and #ThankYouFarmers award. Interested students are expected to click pictures of their cultivation process at regular intervals and post it to www.FarmDost.com. These pictures will later be promoted on the Facebook page, facebook.com/FarmDost. TAFE will also give away #ThankYouFarmers awards to encourage students to meet, interact, and thank farmers in an innovative way. The top three students from each city with the most popular pictures in terms of most ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ will be adjudged the Best #FarmDost.
The students not only soaked in all the information about the initiative with much interest but showed great enthusiasm to become FarmDosts and thus, thank the farmers.
Apart from students, the top three schools of each city with the highest participation percentage for Best #FarmDost award and #ThankYouFarmers awards, will also be honoured with the ‘Best Farm Dost School Award’ and ‘Thank You Farmers School Award’ for the respective cities. The top school with the highest participation percentage in the two awards together would be crowned with the Champion of Champions Award.
The initiative would be launched in Coimbatore, Madurai, and Chennai soon.