78000 Kids Now Grow Food in School Thanks to This Delhi Woman’s Urban Farming Mission

On a sunny morning in Delhi, the rooftop of a school buzzes with activity. Children crouch over planters, examining tiny green sprouts, feeling the soil between their fingers, and learning lessons far beyond what a textbook can offer. This is the world that Pragati Chaswal, founder of the SowGood Foundation, has been nurturing since 2017.

“I started growing food with the objective that my son would start eating vegetables,” she recalls, with a smile. “But what I noticed was so much more. He was connecting with soil, observing how plants grew, noticing when it was hot or cold, and beginning to understand that plants, like him, needed care. It was a world of learning that textbooks could never teach.”

The road that began as a personal experiment gradually grew into a vision of bringing hands-on sustainability education to schoolchildren. By 2018, she had developed a three-year integrated curriculum and partnered with government schools, embedding urban farming directly into students’ timetables.
 
Today, her programme has touched 78,000 children across 28 schools in Delhi, the NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Gujarat, including 20 government and eight private schools.

From curiosity to curriculum

She realised that for most children, knowledge of soil, crops, and climate change existed only in theory.

“They may be able to tell you what composting is, but if you ask how to do it, there is often no answer,” she tells The Better India. “I wanted children to experience where their food comes from and understand the actions they could take in their daily lives. Experiencing nature is learning at its purest.”

The SowGood programme is designed to immerse children fully. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she adapted the curriculum into online modules, making sure that even without classrooms, children could continue connecting with nature.

Laying the foundations

For schools eager to start, Pragati emphasises the importance of having a committed champion.

“Creating a garden is easy. But if you want a learning farm, someone must lead the project, a teacher or volunteer who will nurture it, guide the children, and make sure it becomes part of the school’s routine,” she emphasises.

Children and teachers can make every corner of the school a growing space. She has revamped rooftops into flourishing farms with bamboo planters, repurposed walls into vertical gardens from recycled bottles, and breathed new life into concrete courtyards by turning them into vibrant growing beds with old tyres.

“There is always a way to find space,” she insists. “Even corridors, classroom windows, or small patches of sunlight can become children’s learning plots. The key is imagination and involving the students from the start.”

Choosing crops that capture the imagination

The founder’s advice for beginner schools is to begin with low-maintenance crops. Microgreens, spinach, amaranth (cholai), fenugreek (methi), and beans give children immediate and visible results.

“When they see something grow and harvest it within days or weeks, it stimulates curiosity. It motivates them to try more,” she says. “They can even take the greens home, make a paratha with their parents, and bring it back to school to share. It becomes personal and joyful.”

She guides schools in choosing seasonal crops that are easy to grow and rewarding to harvest. For summer, leafy vegetables such as Malabar spinach (poysag), cholai, water spinach (kalmisag), and gourds like ghiya and tinda grow easily, giving children a sense of achievement and responsibility.

Where the classroom meets the garden

Farming at SowGood becomes a gateway to understanding a variety of subjects.

“Science comes alive when children study plant life cycles and soil types,” Pragati explains. “Mathematics becomes real when they measure plots or calculate harvest yields. Even language and storytelling find a home here because children write about what they see, whether it is a bird taking seeds or the leaves turning colour.”

Students actively engage with per-square-foot gardening, learning to manage space and track growth. They can plan their crops in small plots, track growth, calculate yields, and manage space. Through this, they experience problem-solving, observation, and planning in a natural setting.

Ownership and responsibility

One of the most important steps in building a school farm, the founder believes, is giving children real responsibility. They begin with manageable tasks like watering, feeding, and weeding, and gradually move on to more complex roles.

“When children feel that the farm is theirs, they start taking ownership. They decide what crops to plant with the changing seasons, learn to manage pests responsibly without harming the ecosystem, and document harvests. This engagement connects them strongly to the environment,” she explains.

The habits formed in school extend to home. Pragati notes, “Once children practise composting and waste segregation regularly, it becomes muscle memory. A banana peel no longer goes in the bin; it goes back into the soil. It is a small act, but it instils lifelong habits.”

Systems that work

A sustainable school farm needs processes. The founder recommends rosters for watering, composting, and waste management. Senior students mentor juniors, creating a system that runs with minimal teacher intervention.

“When systems are in place, children know exactly what to do, and teachers only need to remind them occasionally,” she says. “It empowers students and keeps the farm manageable.”

The results speak for themselves. Teachers see stronger academic engagement, particularly in environmental studies and mathematics, and they notice that experiential learning days bring higher attendance.

“Teachers see a visible shift,” the founder explains. “Children answer questions with greater confidence, apply what they learn in practical ways, and begin to grasp sustainability beyond theory. We also monitor compost production, harvest yields, waste reduction, and even how many students bring segregated waste from home, all of which reflect the programme’s impact.”

Pragati believes that mental commitment is the first hurdle. “The main challenge is deciding to do it and having a champion teacher,” she says. “Once you overcome that, solutions for space, sunlight, and resources are manageable. It’s about starting small and being consistent.”

Involving families and communities

Teachers can also bring parents into the journey. Parent-teacher meetings can become a space to share what children are growing and learning, while encouraging families to take part.

“They see what their children are doing, understand the lessons being learnt, and often want to participate at home,” she explains. “The school becomes a hub of community engagement.”

The founder adds, “In many government schools, we have found that some parents are interested in supporting the farm as a part-time activity. It might be helping maintain the garden or assisting with small tasks. These may seem like smaller aspects, but they strengthen the programme and create a stronger connection between the school and the community. Using PTMs as a time to introduce and discuss these opportunities is extremely valuable.”

SowGood has grown into a movement that combines education with environmental guardianship. Each child tending their farm gains more than practical skills; they develop curiosity, responsibility, and a lasting bond with nature.

“Start small, but start. A permanent farm in the school, not a one-off activity for a month, is what we aim for,” Pragati says. “The real impact comes when children engage with it every day over three or four years. It then becomes part of their routine, be it watering the plants, composting, or observing changes, and gradually these practices turn into habits. They carry these habits home, apply them in daily life, and they stay with them for a lifetime, shaping how they think about food, nature, and sustainability.”

Through SowGood’s work, it is obvious that education can be immersive, joyful, and life-changing. Apart from learning about plants, students are learning to care, observe, and act responsibly towards the environment.

For schools and educators who wish to bring this vision to life, Pragati Chaswal can be reached at [email protected] or visit sowgood.org.in.

Read Pragati’s full journey from a concerned parent to the founder of a sustainability movement here.

All pictures courtesy Pragati Chaswal

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