Mangaluru, (The Hindu): After converting four acres of various abandoned paddy fields into cultivable plots in Konaje village last year, the students of Government First Grade College on Car Street here have doubled their target for this year.

The students who are volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) of the college had used rice from those fields last year for serving midday meals to about 300 poor students in the college. The fodder had been supplied to a cow shelter nearby Konaje.

The students had chosen the barren paddy fields in ward numbers 1 and 2 under Konaje Gram Panchayat to cultivate paddy. They have extended cultivation to ward number 3 this year.

Naveen N. Konaje, associate professor and NSS programme coordinator at the college, said that of the target of eight acres set for the current year, transplantation in phases was completed on seven acres on Sunday. The volunteers transplanted paddy on three acres at Taripady near Aeliyarpadavu. The remaining one acre will be covered next week.

Though the volunteers have been working on transplantation on Sundays for the past six weeks, the initial two Sundays were used to help eight farmers who have been growing paddy in the village. The students encouraged them not to give up paddy cultivation. From the third Sunday, the students took up transplantation work.

Mr. Konaje said an expert was guiding the students on manuring aspects this year to ensure greater yield. The college is hopeful the harvest will be enough to feed 800 students. The college, located in the heart of the city, has over 1,500 students.

Mr. Konaje said that of 14 quintals of paddy harvested last year, 30% was given to the owners of the fields.