For serious participants preparation support will be done thr coordinators. For understanding strengths and to choose opportunities.
Facilitators are Arun Wakhlu CEO Pragati Leadership, Shitole Kaka Activist n Trustee of Gram Gaurav Pratishtan, Sadanand Pendse : Activist for Gramoday, in Dapoli, Dr. Sonali Shinde: Ayurvedic n Panchakarma expert
By Natasha Coutinho, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Feb 20, 2018, 04.03 AM IST
The actress who often takes off to her two farms, will be the face of a women’s organic festival coming to the city for the first time.
Actress and environmentalist Juhi Chawla has now been announced as the brand ambassador by the Government of India for a women empowerment project. The actress will be the face of Women’s Organic Festival of India. Juhi who owns two farms on the outskirts of Mumbai, says she couldn’t be happier to take on this new role.
Confirming the news she told Mirror, “The idea is to create awareness about this organic festival happening in Mumbai for the first time. I’m taking my duties further and using my friendships and contacts to invite people who are interested in organic farming. We have organic produce coming from all over India, from as far as Leh-Ladakh and Kanyakumari, from Kohima and Kutch. The aim is to whip up nostalgia for the small markets of the ’70 and ’80s.”
A proud farmer herself, Juhi loves working in her fieldwhenever she finds the time. “Twenty years ago, when my father was close to retirement, he bought land in Wada, outside Mumbai, on the banks of the Vaitarna river. He would travel there often to develop his farm. I barely visited then, being busy with my films and shoots. But when he passed away ten years ago, it became my responsibility to look after the land,” she reminisces.
Initially she knew nothing about farming but has developed a passion for it over the years, “During my father’s time we had a lot of trees which died due to neglect. But now we once again have as many as 200 mango, banana, and papaya trees. We have started farming pomegranates and pears, along with other kinds of fruits, vegetables and even rice. It is delightful to leave the city and enjoy the farm in all its glory,” she beams.
Juhi bought another farm eight-10 years ago, 15 minutes from the Mandwa jetty, at the foot of the hills. “We have two wells and several mango and papaya trees there. We also cultivate rice. Jay (Husband Jay Mehta) recently decided that he would like to grow vegetables for his restaurant there. He has now got an organic horticulturist on board and we are learning how to grow fruits and veggies in a better way.”
In a world where the hybrid seed has become a norm, it is important for seed keepers to continue to ensure that varieties of indigenous plants and vegetables are available for posterity!
In today’s world, if one had to make a shopping list for buying vegetables, you would say –
Beans – half a kilo Cucumber – half a kilo Carrots – one kilo Capsicum – quarter kilo and so on.
This is because there usually is just one variety of any vegetable available in the market. It is indeed an exception to find, say, three colours of capsicum or two kinds of beans.
But if you went to the market 100 years ago, you might have seen hundreds of varieties of cabbage, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and sweet-corn to choose from!
Brown and Violet Peppers
The July edition of 2011, National Geographic magazine carried this info-graphic that succinctly captures the gravity of the situation.
In 1983 the Rural Advancement Foundation International conducted a study on the kind of biodiversity that existed in 1903. What you can see from the slide is, that in just 80 years, we had lost 93% of all the vegetable varieties that existed.
That was in 1983. If we did the same study today, we would find that we have lost 99% of the biodiversity amongst vegetables.
For thousands of years, dedicated farmers and seed keepers created and preserved tens of thousands of varieties of vegetables. In just 100 years we have lost nearly all of them.
What has changed in the past 100 years? Till just a century ago, passionate farmers selected the best plants in the fields to create seed for the next season. There was never a business model in the multiplication of seeds. If the Seed Keeper shared just a seed with a farmer, that farmer could make any number of seeds from it, and grow the same vegetable season after season. In effect, every farmer was a Seed Keeper who preserved seeds for posterity.
Somewhere after the Green Revolution of the 60s, it was felt seed production could be a profitable business model. But to sustain this business model, it required farmers return to the seed company every season to buy new seed.
Selling indigenous seed that belonged to the Seed Keepers could never be a sustainable business model because farmers could buy it once and then multiply it themselves at the end of the season.
Pink Corn
To ensure that a sustainable business model was established in the seed industry, companies started to make seeds from which the farmer could not make seed for the next season. That started the era of the hybrid and GMO seeds. Today almost all the seeds sold by seed companies to vegetable farmers are hybrid or GMO.
In the past 50 years, farmers have lost the tradition of saving seeds almost completely. It is the norm today for farmers to buy seed every season for growing vegetables.
I remember the late 70s when I was completing my doctoral studies in agriculture. I belonged to the lineage of Dr M.S. Swaminathan and Dr Norman Borloug, who created the Green Revolution. It was my generation of agricultural scientists who promoted industrial agriculture. We were the ones who persuaded farmers to adopt chemical farming. We were the ones who told farmers do put urea and D.A.P.
We were the ones who told farmers to use hybrid seeds. We needed to create national food security and to give due credit I do believe that our generation of scientists achieved that.
Dr. Rao explaining seed varieties
But somewhere deep inside there was a small voice within me that kept asking me if we were doing the right thing. That small voice kept asking me if this was a sustainable model for agriculture even after I left the field to pursue a career in landscape architecture.
During the course of my career, I had many opportunities to travel to the remotest parts of the planet. One of the things that I particularly enjoyed doing on these trips, was to spend time with the older generation of farmers. I used to discuss with them about the kind of vegetables they grew during their times, and how times have changed.
Surprisingly, many of these farmers actually retained a few seeds of the ancient indigenous native vegetable varieties with them. Understanding my passion to preserve these ancient varieties, they shared with me a few of their seeds.
And so, for 25 years, I collected indigenous seeds from many parts of India and far-flung corners of the Earth. As a part of the Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization based in the US, I shared these seeds with many other Seed Keepers across the world.
When I returned to India in 2011, I decided to become a full-time Seed Keeper. I collected nearly 540 varieties of indigenous native vegetable seeds that were on the brink of extinction.
Participants harvesting exotic vegetables and fruits
At Hariyalee Seeds farms, just on the outskirts of Bengaluru, I started testing these varieties for genetic stability and environmental suitability.
At Hariyalee Seeds, you will find, 19 varieties of 23 tomatoes, 24 varieties of capsicum and chillies, six varieties of brinjals, five types of Okras, 11 varieties of Basils, 15 varieties of edible lettuces and mustards and many more wonderful vegetables that you and I need to protect for posterity.
Over the past six years, I managed to successfully multiply about 142 varieties of indigenous vegetables that anyone can grow in India.
Over the past two years, all these vegetable varieties have been made available to friends, farmers, and urban gardeners. Hundreds of people have enjoyed the experience of growing these vegetables with their own hands. Many farmers have used these exotic indigenous vegetables to generate a high-income revenue stream.
In fact, there was one farmer who grew a variety of cherry tomato with multiple colour variations that looked like candy. He was able to sell this variety at Rs.300 per kilo.
In a world where a farmer is happy to get Rs.20 per kilo for tomato in the best of times, selling tomatoes at Rs.300 a kilo sounds like a dream too good to be true.
Another advantage of growing indigenous vegetable seeds is that they are incredibly hardy and easy to grow. This is because native vegetable seeds have been selected by nature over thousands of years and had learnt to survive under the harshest of conditions.
While growing these exotic indigenous seeds can be an enjoyable pastime for home gardeners, they are at the same time making an extraordinary contribution to the genetic biodiversity of vegetables on this planet.
It doesn’t matter if the vegetable is growing in a pot on your balcony, in your kitchen garden, or in a farmers’ field in some remote part of India. The fact is that we are giving a chance for that vegetable variety to remain with us for posterity.
We are in effect, becoming modern-day Seed Keepers.
I am sure that in each one of you, at this very moment, there is this desire, to be a part of this movement to preserve these ancient indigenous seeds for posterity. Let’s all join hands to revive the Golden Age of The Seed Keepers!
प.पु.गुरुमाऊलींच्या आशिर्वादाने सेवा मार्गाच्या ग्रामअभियानातून शेतकऱ्यांसाठी अनेक सेवाभावी उपक्रम राबविले जात असून या महान कार्यात सहभागी होण्याची सुवर्णसंधी आपणास प्राप्त झालेली आहे. कृषिशास्त्र विभागात सेवा व सक्रीय सहभाग घेऊ इच्छिणाऱ्या व ग्रामाभियानातील कार्यरत सेवेकरीसाठी आदरणीय आबासाहेबांच्या प्रमुख उपस्थितीत विशेष प्रशिक्षण शिबीर आयोजित करण्यात आले आहे. या सुवर्णसंधीचा सर्वानी लाभ घ्यावा
प्रशिक्षण संदर्भात अधिक माहिती व नाव नोंदणीसाठी संपर्क :
दिंडोरी कार्यालय:
७७५७००८६५२,९४२०१३४४५९
(०२५५७) २२१७१०
विशेष सूचना
येताना स्वत: सोबत वही, पेन इ साहित्य आणावे.
दूरच्या जिल्ह्यातील सेवेकरीकरिता आदल्यादिवशी कार्यक्रमस्थळी निवास व्यवस्था करण्यात येणार आहे, त्यासाठी 18 ऑगष्ट पर्यंत संपर्क करून नाव नोंदणी करणे गरजेचे आहे.
Organic Farmer Study Group (OFSG) meeting that takes place regularly at Khalad, Pune is scheduled for 27-28 august 2016 contact Pandurang Shitole kaka ( +91 98-22-012442) to participate.
The agriculture ministry says an area of 12.1 million hectares has been planted with pulses, over 11% more than the five-year average sown under the crop
New Delhi: Buoyed by good rains and higher prices, farmers across India have planted a record area under different varieties of pulses, shows data released by the agriculture ministry on Friday. So far, an area of 12.1 million hectares has been planted with pulses, over 11% more than the five-year average sown under the crop.
While these numbers could rise as the data is updated in the coming weeks, compared to year-ago figures, sowing of pulses is nearly 35% more—12.1 million hectares as against 8.97 million hectares in 2015-16.
While area under pulses touched a record high, sowing of cotton is down 12.6% compared to normal on fears of pest infestation, the data shows. So far, an area of 9.65 million hectares has been planted under cotton, compared to 10.57 million hectares planted by this time last year.
Interestingly, the data shows that while area under the genetically modified Bt cotton fell from 9.7 million hectares in 2015-16 to 8 million hectares in 2016-17, area under non-Bt desi (indigenous) cotton rose from 0.88 million hectares to 1.66 million hectares during this period.
The reasons for the reduction in area under cotton during the current year are the fear of whitefly infestation in Punjab and Haryana and pink boll worm in central and southern India, said a note from the agriculture ministry.
On pulses, the data shows that farmers in states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have planted a record area under arhar or pigeon pea—a variety that touched Rs.200 a kg in retail markets a few months ago and is still selling at over Rs.140 a kg. A rise in prices of pulses and its impact on food inflation has been a cause of concern for the Centre.
The government took a number of steps such as import of pulses, raising their support prices and creation of a buffer stock of 2 million tonnes to keep prices under control.
It expects production of pulses to come in at 20 million tonnes in 2016-17, over 21% higher than the 16.47 million tonnes estimated for 2015-16. Two consecutive droughts in 2014 and 2015 reduced production of pulses, mostly grown as a rain-fed crop, by over 11% between 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Overall, the data on rain-fed kharif sowing shows that crops like rice, coarse grains, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton has been planted in an area of 88.5 million hectares, about 5.2% higher than the area sown by this time last year.
While rice has been sown in 28.2 million hectares so far, marginally higher than the 27.6 million hectares sown by this time last year, coarse grains have been sown in 16.4 million hectares, higher than the 15.9 million hectares sown by this time last year.
Maize, which falls under coarse grains, has seen a 13% rise in sowing compared to last year, the data shows. Sowing of oilseeds is also higher by about 6.3%—from 15.7 million hectares last year to 16.7 million hectares this year.
The better-than-normal progress of sowing this year is due to ample rains across India. Data from state-run India Meteorological Department shows that the rainfall recorded till Friday in the ongoing south-west monsoon season is in excess of normal by 2%. Over 80% of India’s area has received normal to excess rainfall so far, the data shows.
Ample rains have also boosted the storage levels in major reservoirs across the country. The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending 4 August was 45% of total capacity, up from a low of 17% at the beginning of the monsoon in June.
This event has been continuously organised for the 3rd year commemorating the mission of Dr. Nammalvar, Natural Farming Scientist from Tamil Nadu.
Seed Food Festival is a two-day exhibition cum convention organised at Makkal Mandram, Thillai Nagar, Trichy - encourages seed producers conserving the traditional crop diversity, sale of traditional seeds, food and exchange of collective knowledge by seed producers themselves.
We request you to participate in the event and make it more colorful. Also share the invitation with friends who may be interested in the event.
The event: Two day residential retreat on Mahua and Music in the pristine green forests of the Vanvadi community. Taste and learn to cook a variety of tribal heirloom mahua dishes from all over India, which are on the verge of disappearance, collected and demonstrated by Aparna Pallavi.
About Mahua: Mahua is one of the primal foods of the Indian subcontinent. This highly nutritious, sweet tasting and delicious flower, now known mostly for its liquor, has had an interesting and vastly varied tradition as a food staple among the indigenous peoples all across India. It has long been seen as a strength-giving, immunity building and illness-preventing food. Some of these claims have been corroborated by modern science in recent years. Because of its high food value and productivity, the long-lived mahua tree is also believed to be sacred, and is part of the cultural traditions of many tribes. Sadly, due to the pressures of modernity, the food traditions around this indigenous and zero carbon footprint super-food are now disappearing fast.
About Aparna Pallavi: An environment journalist for the past two decades, Aparna gave up her job as senior special correspondent with Down to Earth Magazine last year to work on her passion – forest foods and indigenous knowledge of India’s forest dwelling populations. Since March this year, Aparna is travelling across the country on a journey she calls Mahua Yatra, collecting fast disappearing food traditions, recipes and knowledge around the mahua tree.
DATE : Sat,30 and Sun,31 July 2016
VENUE : at Vanvadi near Neral, Karjat in Maharashtra. It is a 21 year old collectively owned and regenerated forest and farm (more forest), in the Sahyadri foothills, about 100 km from Mumbai, going towards Pune. It aspires to evolve as an ecological forest community and learning alliance. Directions to reach Vanvadi: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oRhHFslrE9xibMEfQVGCqgPNz1eTwKTTkWcBXZHyscs/pub
About Workshop:
> Find healthy, mahua- based alternatives for curing health issues created by nutrient deficient food practices. > Buy mahua at an earth-care price directly from tribals. > Enjoy music and tribal dance performed by Ambibai and her team of tribal women. Join in and sing and dance yourself against the backdrop of gentle rain. > Learn to connect with the forest, which is our primal, spiritual home, for a more balanced and healthy inner... life.
> Dishes you get to learn: Mahua Sondhoga: A tonic prepared by the Ho tribe of Jharkhand that builds up body mass, cures anemia and enhances immunity. Sargi-Konda : A dish prepared from mahua and saal seeds by tribals across Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhyapradesh. This dish, consumed regularly, builds up rock solid immunity, stamina and strength. Mahua Laata : Another filling and highly nutritious long shelf -life dish that can be consumed in many different ways to build up your immunity and strength. Mahua Teke : A dish of mahua and tamarind seed from Santhal tribals of Jharkhand and Bengal, known to build rock solid immunity and strength. Several other easy to prepare mahua dishes like mahua roti, mahua chutney, tangy mahua rasam, mahua subzi, mahua sattu and so on, which can easily be incorporated into your daily diet. Learn to extract zero-carbon footprint mahua and saal oils.
Contribution: The event is being organized in the spirit of gift culture. You are requested to make a purely voluntary donation Rs.1000 for two days - to the Vanvadi community for food & shared accommodation and Rs.1000 to Aparna Pallavi for the continuation of her work in forest foods and indigenous knowledge. So a total voluntary contribution of Rs.2000 is expected (more or less is equally welcome and helpful to meet various expenses!)
Participants are requested to bring with them a sleeping mat, 2 sheets, notepad, pen, torch, plate, glass, mosquito repellent/ mosquito net (optional), umbrella/raincoat, and anything you would like to swim/bathe in. (The rock-pool is very deep, and should be used by swimmers only; shallower stream zones are available for non-swimmers and beginners.) There is no piped water or electricity.
For any more details, email to vanutsav@gmail.com or contact ; Bharat : +91 9967371183, bharatmansata@yahoo.com | Zui/Vinita: 022-23542420 Tejal : +91 9833707598 | Aparna Pallavi : 9422559833, aparnawildfood@gmail.com
जैविक SRI चावल एवं जवारी, बाजरे, रागी जैसे अनाज की व्यावहारिक कार्यशाला
संचलन : जेकब नेलिथनम । तारीख : ९-१० जुलाई, २०१६ । स्थल : वनवाडी (नेरल, कर्जत) महाराष्ट्र
सिस्टम ऑफ राईस इन्टेंसिफिकेशन (SRI ) या चावल गहनता प्रणाली यह एक सस्य विज्ञान का तरीका है जिसका उपयोग भारत एवं विश्व के कई भागो में किया जाता है | कई बार इसे सिस्टम ऑफ क्रोप इन्टेंसिफिकेशन (SCI ) भी कहा जाता है |
उपयुक्त परिस्थितयों में इस तरीके के इस्तमाल से कई किसानो ने अपने बीज और पानी के उपयोग में घटाव पाते हुए, उत्पादकता दुगनी की है | परम्परागत फसलों के साथ जैविक SRI/SCI के इस्तमाल से खेत की प्राप्ति में बढ़ाव देखा गया है |
जेकब नेलिथनम परम्परागत फसलों की विविधता संरक्षण की लिए बहोत समय से रिछारिया अभियान से जुड़े हुए है | और विविध प्रकार के पारंपरिक चावल एवं रागी/जवारी / बाजरे की उत्पादकता बढाने के लिए वे किसानो को जैविक SRI/SCI तकनीक अपनाने की लिए मार्गदर्शन करते है | जेकब ‘भारत बीज स्वराज मंच’ के सक्रीय संस्थापक एवं सदस्य है | यह कार्यशाला SRI/SCI तकनीक के व्यवहारिक अभ्यास पे ध्यान देगी और इस कार्यशाला के अंतर्गत प्रतिभागी SRI/SCI तकनीक से चावल और रागी/जवारी /बाजरे की रोपाई करना सीखेंगे |
यह कार्यशाला (२०-२५ लोगो के लीये) शनिवार, ९ जुलाई सुबह १० बजे शुरू होकर , रविवार शाम ४ बजे ख़तम होगी. पुरी कार्यशाला के लिए मात्र रूपये १५०० (भोजन और रहने की व्यवस्था) का स्वयंस्फुर्त योगदान अपेक्षीत है| लेकीन क्षमतानुसार इससे कम या जादा का योगदान दिया जा सकता है|
कार्यशाला में प्रतिभाग लेने के लिए इस फॉर्म में अपनी जानकारी दे और योगदान का भुगतान करे –
प्रतिभागियों से निवेदन है के कार्यशाला में आते समय नीचे लिखी हुई चीज़े साथ ले आये –
सोने के लिए चटाई, २ चद्दर , लिखने के लिए कॉपी और पेन, टोर्च ,थाली, छत्री / रेन कोट और और कोई सामान जो आपको तालाब में तैरने के लिए जरूरी हो. (वहा का तालाब बहोत गहरा है जो सिर्फ जिन्हें तैरना आता है वे इस्तेमाल करे. जिन्हें तैरना नहीं आता या जो सिख रहे है वे कम गहरी धारा के क्षेत्र का इस्तेमाल कर सकते है)
SRI, or ‘System of Rice Intensification’, a set of agronomic practices, is being practiced in many parts of the world, including India. With innovative use of the SRI approach to successfully grow other traditional crops, including millets, the acronym also stands for ‘System of Root Intensification’. Some call it ‘System of Crop Intensification’ (SCI).
In suitable conditions, farmers have doubled their productivity while significantly reducing seed and water inputs by carefully following this approach. Organic SRI/SCI with traditional crop varieties has been similarly successful in greatly enhancing yields, while being more climate-resilient.
Jacob Nellithanam, long associated with the Richharia Campaign for conserving traditional crop diversity, has been guiding farmers on adopting organic SRI/SCI for increasing yields of traditional varieties of rice and ragi/millets. Jacob is also an active founder-member of Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch. The workshop conducted by him will be practice-oriented, and will include hands-on transplanting of both rice and millets at Vanvadi, following the SRI/SCI approach.
The workshop (for about 20-25 people) will begin at 10 am on Saturday, July 9, and end by 4 pm on Sunday, July 10. A voluntary contribution of Rs 1,500 per participant is requested for the two-day workshop, including food and shared accommodation. (More, or less, would be equally welcome and helpful to meet various expenses!)
Participants are requested to bring with them a sleeping mat, 2 sheets, notepad, pen, torch, plate, umbrella/raincoat, and anything you would like to swim/bathe in. (The rock-pool is very deep, and should be used by swimmers only; shallower stream zones are available for non-swimmers and beginners.) There is no piped water or electricity.
Vanvadi is a 21 year old collectively owned and regenerated forest and farm (more forest), in the Sahyadri foothills, about 100 km from Mumbai, going towards Pune. It aspires to evolve as an ecological forest community and learning alliance. Directions to reach Vanvadi: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oRhHFslrE9xibMEfQVGCqgPNz1eTwKTTkWcBXZHyscs/pub
For further information, please email vanutsav@gmail.com OR contact any of the following:
