The three-day student-led event brought together students, teachers, school staff and all their families with the aim of setting a record in seedball making
12th May 2022, Bangalore: TRIO World Academy, an international school located at Bengaluru, organised a three-day seedball making event for the entire school community and families of students and staff. The student-led event was organised from 12 – 14 May 2022 at the school’s Sahakarnagar campus. The TRIO seedball initiative was first conducted in 2009. Students came together to create around 2000 seedballs. The goal this year-round was to create around 10000 seedballs.
A seedball is a seed that is covered in a mix of compost, clay, and water. The seed is rolled in the mix by hand and allowed to dry. Many disadvantages of traditional seed dispersion methods are overcome by doing this. The seeds are carefully chosen based on expert recommendations and are typically tree seeds like Annona squamosa (Seethaphal), Azadirachta indica (Neem), Dalbergia latifolia (Rosewood) etc. The seedballs once dried, can be put into bags and distributed. They can be tossed along roadsides or into home gardens. The event aims to support the ‘Save Soil’ movement piloted by Isha Foundation.
Punati Sridhar, former Indian Forest Service officer and head of Bamboo Society of India, a pan India NGO, commended the initiative and efforts of the students. Mr. Sridhar had initiated the seedball programme in the Karnataka state in collaboration with the Forest department and schools, when he was serving as the APCCF, Social Forestry. He said that reforestation is a dire need of the hour and seedballs are a great method for rejuvenation of urban forests. On his recommendation, the seedballs will largely be dispersed around the Nandi hills and Chikaballapur area.
Over 10000+ seedballs were created and distributed over the duration of the event.
