Sattvik: Food for thought, policy and action
The action research on exploring market based mediation for generating opportunities for knowledge and resource rich but economically disadvantaged people has generated several new alternatives. We realized that women groups from over fifteen districts of Gujarat tried to commercialise their products and cooked traditional foods, they may not be able to compete well with the professionals or more experienced entrepreneurs. Colleagues at SRISTI tried many ways to move customers in their direction. Further, several mentors gave tips to these inexperienced entrepreneurs to attract the consumers with their stall. What better way of teaching entrepreneurship than by direct encounter with customers. There were four different stalls from J&K providing the consumers a choice of quality, variety and prices. The organic farmers had displayed far more value added products this time compared to the previous Sattvik festival. This is an extremely encouraging sign. It is a pity that policy thrust towards in-situ value addition is extremely weak in the country. There are a very few incentives for technology providers and seekers to take risk and provide choices of different food processing technologies to the farmers and tribal people. Our failures include a) inability to convince policy makers to look at innovative potential solutions for the purpose, b) find any permanent location in Ahmadabad for providing consumers, a round the year supply of healthy and diverse food products and other materials and c) a multi-media multi-language exhibition of innovations. But, sooner or later, consumers and philanthropist will have to come together to provide such outlets to the producers or put pressure on policy makers to do so. There is an exhibition of innovators organized on the occasion by NIF(National Innovation Foundation) to stimulate interest among children as well as other innovators and entrepreneurs to explore synergy. On Dec 18, evening a clearing house has been organized at 7.00 pm where value added products dealing in foods, energy, transport, utilities, etc., will be showcased to the potential entrepreneurs and companies as well as designers and fabricators to get involved in building a fair, transparent, profitable and sustainable value chain.
This time, creative communities from Manipur have introduced healthy dishes including endemic lichens, nutritive mushrooms and other herbs not found anywhere else. Similarly, conservators of biodiversity moving with the yaks between 12000 to 18000 feet from Arunachal Pradesh have brought products made of different kinds of yak hairs and handloom bags. Recipes from Assam, Rajasthan , Bihar, Jharkhand and many other regions are being offered to those who want to learn new ways of combining taste, diversity, nutrition, and aesthetics. There are many young artists of Ahmedabad showing their creative works to the connoisseurs of cultural diversity. There is a expert sculptor, Ram Dev bhai who has mentored many others and an engraver Dilip bhai who has designed an exact miniature replica of different facets of Taj Mahal besides copper wearable dresses for women. Salom bhai has design a very detailed Taj and motorcycles out of match sticks. A bamboo windmill originally designed by Mehtar Husain and Mushtaq Ahmed in Assam for Rs.5000/= was modified by a local entrepreneur for salt workers. Already 25 wind mills have been installed near Pipavav. Another 25 are being installed shortly. Four Dutch students from Delft are showcasing the improvements in the design of wind mill.
SRISTI and other members of Honey Bee Network also honoured eight grassroots change agents about whom I will write next week. What is remarkable is that many primary school teachers though working in government schools are creating new benchmarks of performance and social connect. Sattvik is a celebration of healthy food not just for palate but also the mind. Whether the policy makers will pay attention is a moot point so long as consumers can vote not just for healthy consumption but also for volunteering to support transformation of rural livelihoods. Healthy soil, healthy crop and animals and healthy food is the only path to sustainable future. We are waiting for many more volunteers, entrepreneurs and other contributors to enlarge this mission with empathy and efficiency, excellence and equity and conserving environment through participative education.
Anil K Gupta
