Yes, two cropping areas in the NCUE promote sustainable agriculture, that is, producing food continuously. Among them, one area is the Crop Garden that is being developed by the Department of Biology, which facilitates sustainable food production on the campus. Second, the Happy Farm (Yusin Garden), established to the south of the Jinde Campus, is dedicated to students belonging to general education courses, such as Exploration, Development and Practice of Life, to learn corn cultivation. The farmland is a 1,000 square meter plot. About 150 students from three classes farmed the land in 2021, growing a total of 330 corn plants (including a papaya tree). Corn seedlings were planted at the beginning of the semester and the mature crop was harvested by the end of the semester. After harvesting, the corn stalks were pulled out and composted onsite (for carbon capture and storage), and saved as fertilizer for planting corn during the next semester. To express their gratitude, students sent some of the harvested corn crop to faculty members and staff. Interestingly, after harvesting the crop, students of some courses cooked the corn on the spot to share it with others. As students enjoyed the corn that they had worked so hard to grow, they could understand the principle underlying the adage that people reap what they sow. Moreover, they could eat a zero-carbon footprint diet, straight from mud to mouth, thus conforming to the sustainable development goal of reducing the intensity of carbon emissions.

Crop Garden, Department of Biology

Guiding students to plant corn

Mature corn crop