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Fresh crop of courses for farm hands in training

Taller dagricultura per a infantsThe Formentera Council's Office of Agriculture reports that this Tuesday, February 1, registration will open for a series of workshops pitched as “agriculture for kids”. Enrolment will stay open to the start of classes or until no space remains. Even still, the office will put together a wait list for any children not enrolled by the deadline.

The workshops will begin Saturday, February 17 and continue in June when schools break for summer holidays.

Tuned for youngsters and intended as a vector for environmental education and personal and social development, the activity is also being seen as a tool to promote young peoples' connection to rural and traditional settings as well as respect and defence of nature.

Two separate groups will meet for two hours each on Saturday mornings. Kids four to six will meet from 10.00am to 12 noon while seven- to eleven-year-olds will have class from 12 noon until 2.00pm.

The workshops, envisioned for groups of no more than 15, will be led by two instructors at the Hort dels nens (“children's garden”) near Sant Francesc's sa Tanca Vella landmark. Shoes and clothing worn should be both comfortable and appropriate, and children are urged to bring a bottle of water.

Environment councillor Bartomeu Escandell said the decision to bring the workshops back was due to their success in previous years. The idea, he explained, is to “see that our young ones are not only familiar with, but also can take pleasure in, the field work that constitutes such a deeply-entrenched aspect of island life”. He described his department's mission “to reactivate the local countryside” as “a task that is guaranteed to continue in future generations if we start young”.