Britain's Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge jokes with children from Vauxhall primary school after they attempted to herd a pig into a pen during a visit to a "Farms for Children" farm in Gloucestershire, May 3, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - Britain's Duchess of Cambridge joined schoolchildren at a farm in western England on Wednesday as they learned about rural life and how food is produced.

Catherine, wife of second-in-line to the throne Prince William, watched pupils tending to pigs, sheep and chickens as part of a week-long education programme.

The "Farms for City Children" charity runs the courses in which kids from urban areas live and work on farms with their teachers for a week.

"It is an intense, 'learning through doing' experience of a different life for children who may not know where their food comes from and have limited opportunities to explore the outside world," Catherine's Kensington Palace office said.

The charity has three farms, with 3,200 children and 400 teachers visiting per year, the palace added.

Catherine was joined at Wick Court Farm in the Gloucestershire village of Arlingham by children's author Michael Morpurgo, who founded the charity with his wife Clare in 1976.

The visit came the day after the second birthday of the Cambridges' daughter Princess Charlotte and as the royal pair are seeking damages in a French court over the publication in celebrity magazine Closer of topless pictures of the duchess in 2012.

Reuters