Participants of the Vegetable Growing project took 1st place at the Ton regional agricultural fair “Harvest Festival 2023”. At the fair, the attention of those gathered was attracted by 14 different vegetables grown by the “Jolly Girls” farming group from the village of Tort-Kul. This is because they put on display vegetables such as onions, peppers, tomatoes and basai, which were not previously grown in the area.

“At the fair we exhibited onions, beets, carrots, cabbage, etc. When we said that we grow all the vegetables ourselves, the district governor B. Astanakulov was very surprised and asked: “It turns out we can also grow onions here?” and praised us,” says group leader Shaigul Bekturova.

 This time, the group members focused on using vermicompost in growing vegetables. This helped them get a bountiful harvest. Personally, Shaigul Bekturova has more than 152,000 soms in income. Other participants also received a good harvest.

 “I collected 200 kg of carrots, 250 kg of beets, 102 kg of tomatoes, 100 kg of cucumbers. Cucumbers - 18,000 soms, tomatoes - 16,000 soms. I froze the remaining harvest after the sale and saved it for the winter,” said group member Gulzhan Bakieva.

The Vegetable Farming Group “Jolly Girls” employs 15 people. They are very interested in growing vegetables and are considering expanding their acreage next year because self-grown vegetables are environmentally friendly and do not cause allergies and diseases of the digestive system in young children.

 The project “Vegetable Growing” is financed by the International Seed Fund (SPI - Seed programs International) and is implemented by the public foundation “AVEP”.