Students visiting Mahaseel Festival attend a session on growing flowering plants, yesterday.
More than 1,100 students from various schools have visited the inaugural Mahaseel Festival in the past two days, say organisers.
Through exhibitions and workshops, the festival provided student visitors real-life learning on farming and the importance of the country’s agricultural sector. Apart from getting a glimpse of the range of vegetables and fruits cultivated in Qatar, the students learned about the process of growing them and the different food production industries linked to them.
Specific facts about the vegetables displayed around the festival venue raised awareness among the young visitors about the benefits of eating healthy food as they visited 34 stalls selling local farm products.
Students and teachers who came to the first edition of the festival appreciated the valuable opportunity to connect educational curriculum with actual learning.
The festival also features student-based activities such as basket decoration competition which runs daily at 5pm, cart decoration competition for 10 local schools and art workshops.
Doha Modern Indian School, Qatar Academy, Pakistan International School and Lebanese School were among the schools that visited the festival.
Kuwait Ambassador Hafeez Mohammed Al Ajmi, Ecuador Ambassador Kaplan Abi Saab and Georgia ambassador Ekaterine Meiering-Mikadze were among the envoys who paid a visit to the festival yesterday.
More than 22 Qatari farms are participating at the inaugural festival. They sell fresh fruits and vegetables, honey, poultry, meat and dairy at lower prices, in addition to a wide variety of flowering plants such as tulip, chrysanthemum, daisy, sunflower, gladiola, daffodil and petunia spread around the festival venue.
The festival also features an exhibition on date palms which raises awareness on the importance of the date palm industry.
Qatari women and housewives share expertise with visitors on how to make delicious local dishes using chicken, poultry, and available milk products at the festival’s local food zone.
There is also a weekly contest entitled “Colour the Sketch” which is open to the public and in which a QR200 worth of purchasing coupons are at stake.
Mahaseel (Harvest) Festival is organised by Katara in collaboration with the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to support Qatari farmers and promote local produce.
