Green Action Week -2016

Organic Food and Farming for All

Activity Completion Report

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Executive Summary

The Green Action Week Campaign 2016 ‘ Organic Food and Farming for All’ aimed to facilitate awareness generation among consumers of Jaipur city of Rajasthan about organic food, specifically vegetables and fruits that would encourage consumers to shift towards sustainable pattern of consumption. The campaign was targeted to women and youth amongst consumers.

With the rationale of influencing consumer behaviour in favour of organic food, various activities in the form of cottage meetings, street plays, signature campaign and stakeholder consultation were held in various parts of Jaipur. CUTS collaborated with several civil society organisations, consumer and producer groups, policymakers and media to lead towards enhanced availability, affordability and consumption of organic food products.

Objectives

To generate awareness among consumers about organic food, especially vegetable and fruits that would encourage them to shift towards organic food products and sustainable consumption;

To promote consumers’ demand for organic food; and

To foster policy and practice for promoting the use of organic food products and thus contributing towards sustainable pattern of consumption.

About the Campaign

This year the theme was ‘Organic Food and Farming for All’ which targeted urban consumers to expand the outreach at 30 localities in city of Jaipur. The major activities covered were: school campaign, cottage meetings, street plays, signature campaign and stakeholder consultation meeting. The first activity commenced on September 20, 2016 with School Campaign and concluded by October 14, 2016. The outcome of the campaign was maximum participation of mix group of people and queries about organic farming (kitchen gardening) which showed the level of awareness among people, which has been raised now than earlier. One of the our key speaker, Amit Sharma from Kisan Call Centre, Jaipur, M.Sc-Agriculture briefly explained the requirements, methodology and benefits of organic farming. He shed light on how to can plant and promote kitchen and roof top gardening in surrounded (house) areas. Sharma provided four major tips for identification of fresh vegetables/fruits which are free from chemical contaminants.

1. Do not purchase off-season vegetables and fruits 2. Always buy vegetables and fruits in evening in spite of early morning 3. Plant organic farming in your house area (specifically kitchen gardening) 4. Be aware of buying shiny vegetables/fruits

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Details of the School Campaign

SL. No Date Venue Type Remarks

1 September

20, 2016

Geeta Bal Nikaetan, Jhalana

Dungri

School

Campaign

45 students

2 September

20, 2016

MVG Public School, Pratap Nagar School

Campaign

45 students

3 September

23, 2016

Vikas Bal Niketan, Mansarover School

Campaign

25 students due to

sudden visit of

inspection team

4 September

29, 2016

Madhu Public School, Vaishali

Byepass road

School

Campaign

66 students

5 September

29, 2016

Vedik Kanya School, Raja park School

Campaign

110 students

6 September

29, 2016

Government Senior Secondary

School, Gopalpura road

School

Campaign

50 students

7 September

30, 2016

Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Sindhi

Colony

School

campaign

35 students

8 October

07, 2016

Jawahar Secondary School,

Malviya Nagar, Jaipur

School

Campaign

60 students

9 October

08, 2016

Guru Nanak Dev Senior Secondary

Sch0ol, Raja park, Jaipur

School

Campaign

55 students

10 October

14, 2016

Mansarover Priyanka Public

School

School

Campaign

50 students

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Cottage Meetings

In order to sensitise and create awareness among consumers on incorporating organic food in their consumption pattern, 10 cottage meetings were organised in different localities of Jaipur city. The participants were of diverse backgrounds ranging from school students to house wives, women entrepreneurs and from home makers to higher academia and consumer belonging to different socio-economic groups including Aanganwadi workers. This awareness generation-cum-sensitisation meetings were held in school, colleges and various communities, including residential areas. Experts working extensively in the field of organic farming were invited to facilitate these meetings.

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SL. No Date Venue Type Remarks

1 September 24, 2016

Sanganer, Anganwadi Cottage meeting

45 group of women in Anganwadi

2 September 24, 2016

Model town, Jhalana Dungri Malviya Nagar

Cottage meeting

70 group of women

3 September 26, 2016

Mukherjee path, Mansarover Cottage meeting

60 group of people

4 September 28, 2016

Deepshikha College of Nursing Cottage meeting

55 group of people

5 October 04, 2016

Ganesh Park, Sodala Cottage meeting

45 group of people

6 October 05, 2016

Hardev Vihar, Khatipura Cottage meeting

60 group of women

7 October 06, 2016

Vidhasthali T.T college, Durgapura

Cottage meeting

65 group of students (girls only)

8 October 07, 2016

Jagatpura Cottage meeting

60 group of women

9 October 08, 2016

Geeta Bajaj B.Ed college Cottage meeting

68 group of girls students

10 October 09, 2016

Bani Park, Sindhi colony Cottage meeting

40 group of people

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Street Plays

In order to reach out to a wider audience in an attempt to modify consumer behaviour in favour of organic products, 10 street plays were organised at various market places of Jaipur. Through these plays, actors depicted the importance of consuming and producing organic fruits and vegetables. The script of the play was very coherent in terms involving every aspect of organic production and consumption and actors gave a vivid representation to it. Plays targeted not only consumers but also farmers. Also, places chosen for conducting plays were very appropriate in terms of attracting large number of people. The audience comprised of all age-groups, from different socio economic background and gender thus catering to needs of entire consumers group.

SL. No Date Venue

1 September 15, 2016 Ramganj Chaupar & Ghatget Taxi stand

2 September 17, 2016 Badi Chaupar & Char Darwaja

3 September 19, 2016 Adarsh Vidya Mandir &Sadhu Vaswani School

4 September 22, 2016 Satkar Market & Gaurav Towers

5 September 23, 2016 Transport Nagar & Adarsh Nagar

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Signature Campaign

With an aim to create such awareness that will translate into ownership that pressurises the government to act in favour of organic agriculture, a signature campaign along-with sensitisation meetings and street plays were organised at various places of Jaipur city.

Stakeholders’ Consultation Meeting

To mark the conclusion of GAW activities, a Stakeholders Consultation meeting was organised at Jaipur on October 20, 2016. The objective of this consultation meeting was to advocate for a shift in policy towards organic consumption and production, where more than 50 representatives from civil society/consumer organisations, farmers’ group, government departments and media participated.

The major key speakers were Shital Prasad Sharma, Director, Rajasthan State Institute for Agriculture Management; A K Gupta, Dean of SKN Agribusiness Management College, Jobner; S Mukherjee, Professor of Horticulture, RARI, Durgapura, Jaipur and Satyaveer Beniwal, Deputy General Manager, Morarka Foundation, Jaipur.

George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International while delivering the opening remarks stated that only 2.8 percent of farmers are doing organic farming and there is still lack of availability of organic food due to huge gap between demand and supply. Even framers are able to buy organic things but major problem is that they are not ready for cultivating them. Hence, there is a need to raise awareness at wider level, for instance, Sikkim is 100 percent organic state which motivates other states, such as Meghalaya and Kerala where selling of pesticides are strictly prohibited.

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Partners of Green Action Week Campaign

1. Mualik Foundation

2. Parivar Seva Sansthan

3. Hardev Sikshan Evam Jan Kalyan Sansthan

4. Mahila Jagrati Evam Vikas Sansthan

5. Manav Kalyan Vidhya Peeth Sansthan

6. Ras Rang Manch

7. Swajan Social Development and Health Education Samiti

8. Shorya Smaj Sevi Evam Swavayavsay Prashikashan Sansthan

Highlights of Campaign

Maximum participation of women’s group and students

Reached out to major parts of walled and outer areas of Jaipur city

Awareness level among people were 65 out of 100 percent

Requirement of such kind of awareness campaign (on higher side)

Development of organic school is also required

More awareness programme about kitchen gardening

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Publications/Media