APSCC
The Trust for Sustainable Living organized the 2016 Schools Sustainability Challenge Trophy in Dubai on 18-21 April 2016. Javahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a residential school partnered with APSCC and participated in the challenge. The school was among the top 8 finalist in the event for short video contest on sustainability and also received an honorable mention for the essay competition. APSCC team was also awarded as Teacher Champions for their contribution.
Frequent soil testing is essential for sustainable agriculture to maintain and improve the existing soil structure and innate productive capacity of the soil. In this context, APSCC explores the feasibility of establishing and promoting a cost effective soil testing laboratories equipped with alternative analytical technology (AAT) for the benefit of thousands of farmers in the region. The team participated in the AAT for soil testing workshops organized by Shri AMM MCRC, Chennai.
Why alternative analytical technology (AAT) for soil testing: Indian agriculture occupies an eminent position in global cultivation of rice, wheat, sugarcane, pulses and vegetables. There is no simple, cost effective and reliable technology available to determine the level of organic carbon, humus, nitrogen, phosph
orus, potassium and micronutrients (10) in soil so as to provide the farmer the information he requires for maintaining the health of the soil. The present methods that are available require sophisticated, costly equipment. Depending on the information required, the cost of testing a single soil sample could vary between Rs. 250 to Rs. 1250 per test. AAT for testing soil nutrients: Shri AMM MCRC and IIT Madras has jointly undertaken a project titled “Integrated Knowledge Systems on Soil Nutrient Analysis through Image Processing of Chromatograms” funded by Department of Science & Technology and Murugappa Group for a period of 3 years. More than 12,000 soil samples have been processed for the determination of physicochemical properties, circular Paper chromatograms, image processing and case based reasoning. Software for image processing of soil chromatogram so as to know the soil composition, fertilizer recommendation and best suitable crop has been developed and was tested at various levels. For more details, visit http://www.amm-mcrc.org/
A newer version of this challenge is available here.
Past Challenges:
The Sustainable Campus Challenge – 2013 is being organized as a parallel event to the Green Campus Summit for high schools, colleges and Universities of India. As part of this challenge, student teams will collaborate with a faculty/ staff adviser to develop a qualitative project narrative describing their effort for improving their campus sustainability quotient.
The sustainable campus status is attained by means of a fundamental transformation of the way in which the institution conducts their regular activities encompassing the academical, ecological, environmental, economical, social and cultural dimensions. This challenge encourages the teams to showcase their sustainable campus initiatives that plans, formulates, designs and implements a package of solutions by the campus community to reduce the environmental impact, enhance the campus sustainability and to protect the health and well-being of the surrounding community & ecosystem. This challenge is one such initiative which serves as a platform to not only showcase your institution‘s work on addressing the pressing issues of sustainability but also acts as a knowledge transfer medium to share, learn, develop and implement solutions with a cooperative approach.
The aims of the “Sustainable Campus Challenge – 2013” (SCC-2013) are as follows:
A further aim of the event will be to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences available today by publishing all selected entries for the benefit of every institution.
Theme : Environmental Education , Sustainability Assessment, Waste Management, Water Resource Management, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Energy Generation, Food Services, Land Use, Biodiversity Conservation & Habitat Restoration, Sustainable Transportation and Outreach Activities