#1. Fertilizers, milk, eggs, meat, and processed foods.
#2. Appropriate technologies, capacity building for business plan development, and linkages to technical / financial resources.
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Hi Joy
We are a startup from Pondicherry (realfoods.in) I will be happy to associate with your farmer groups to source there produce . Reach me on [email protected]
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We have now begun training other NGO staff and animators at the grassroots on rural circular economy, “Basket of Needs” analysis, business plan development, and monitoring of the village development products (VDP). Long way to go and we have just begun.
We did a facilitators training on what we call as ACRE - Accelerating Circular Rural Economy - for staff and animators of NIRMAN. NIRMAN is a grassroots organisation based in Bubhaneshwar and works for sustainable livelihood of Adivasi and small holder farmers
We plan to handhold them till they complete their Basket of Needs analysis and business plans of potential rural entrepreneurs.
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this is fantastic, thanks!
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Thanks to Smita and Pranuti from Well Labs for establishing contacts with Maulik Sisodia of Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS). We are now in the middle of our training of TBS on Accelerating Circular Rural Economy (ACRE).
Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) is a reputed NGO known for their pioneering work on rejuvenating rivers and johads (community managed percolation tanks). Their impact covers 11 rivers and over 1000 villages in Rajasthan.
The TBS team want to make their livelihood activities targeted to reduce food miles, carbon footprint, and water footprint. What better way than to go through the circular economy way. The dedicated team is presently going through a 3 day training conducted by Lipok. Lipok will be mentoring them as they do the “basket of needs” analysis and facilitate enterprises that fulfill the livelihood needs in the villages.
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At the Regenerate 2024 symposium organized jointly by Kumaraguru Institutions of Coimbatore and Janani Regen, farmers and key practitioners on soils, water, farming, and rural development congregated at the Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, from 3-4 Feb 2024. The workshops were followed by a day of exhibition where farmers and exhibitors demonstrated technologies, services, and products from different parts of India that are appropriate.
Joy Daniel from Lipok Social Foundation presented at this symposium on the topic “Soil’s Future: Ecology + Economics to Solve Climate Crisis.” He delved on the link between rural enterprises and sustainable farming. A rural economy that is circular in nature sustains an ecosystem that enables farming and local livelihoods, and has potential to solve the soil, water, and climate crisis.
The Basket of Needs was done and many of the identified entrepreneurs started their own enterprises to meet the Basket of Needs in their respective villages. It was time to take stock of these enterprises. The team at Lipok and the 30 participants (all entrepreneurs) were pleasantly surprised at the achievements made. Many of them started from scratch and now have started enterprises that produce jams, pickles, herbal powders, biodynamic compost, vermicompost, paneer, ghee, masalas, dal batti flour, dhokla flour, and some other products. Some like the dal batti flour and paneer meets the full requirement in the Basket of Needs in the village. There is more enterprises to look forward in the coming months.
At the 2 day workshop that was conducted from 13-14 Feb 2024 for these entrepreneurs, resource persons also briefed the participants on the other potential enterprises that could be possible in the village. These include solar vegetable drying, bakery, dal mill, potato / banana chips, livestock feeds, and plant nursery. Besides, there were discussions on different composts, masalas, and other dairy products that meet the Basket of Needs.
In the next few days, the entrepreneurs will develop business plans for new enterprises that may include - bakery, solar dryer, masala making, dal mill, plant nursery, among others.
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Great Work Joy,
Waiting to come and see it in Action and give some Business to the Entrepreneurs
Wow… all of us will be very glad to know who is backing all this. Please do come.
Have you all heard of 180 degrees consulting? I just had a preliminary meeting with the team after exchange of a couple of emails. They are a group of IIT Chennai alumni involved in finding solutions to society’s problems.
We have requested them to
- find ecofriendly packaging for masalas, pickles, jams, and whatever our women produce. Packaging that can be done locally.
- help us in marketing (both online and offline)
- develop a tool to trace our organic farm produce to the farmer involved.
The 180 degrees consulting team will get back to us in a couple of days on the steps forward.
Please visit https://www.180dc.org/ . This may be helpful to others in the group as well.
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Here is a video that you may be interested. It was developed by our team to educate NGO staff, extension workers, and volunteers on the importance of a rural circular economy to combat climate change.
It takes one through the basic concepts of green house gases, food miles, carbon footprint, water footprint, etc, and how local production for local use is more important than ever before.
Our team members are in Rajasthan for 3 days to train NGOs and young rural extension workers there. They have found the video very useful.
It is in Hindi and it will be available in other languages soon.
Please do let us know your thoughts.
Thanks to Well Labs for the networking support. Thank you so much.
Our team mate, Sachin Gore, is on a mission to promote rural circular economy in Mewat region of Rajasthan and Haryana. Here, he is clarifying the concepts of food miles, carbon footprint, water footprint, green house gases et al., with the core staff of an NGO - Tarun Bharat Sangh.
Further, he takes to the field to know what is the situation of the local economy there. To his and our amazement, 1700 households in the village of Patkhori in Firozpur district of Haryana spends about ₹6 crores (Yes, ₹6,00,00,000) annually on Mountain Dew that comes from outside their village and district - i.e. the amount of money that goes out of the local economy for an unhealthy carbonated drink!
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Partnership for Better Tools for ACRE
We have created the awareness on the importance of a rural local and circular economy, done the basket of needs survey, facilitated the communities to identify potential entrepreneurs, helped them develop a business plan, and facilitated technical knowledge for the enterprise. This process, we call as ACRE - Accelerating Circular Rural Economy.
However, we envision a process that is owned and run by the communities. For this, we need the appropriate tools developed participatorily and able to be understood and handled by the communities.
It is our honour to be selected as a partner of Tech4Good - @Tech4GoodCommunity - to help develop the tool. Initially, we will develop a tool that will help us assess the basket of needs. Further, it will help the potential entrepreneurs to develop business plans. The developed tools will be useful to all the organizations involved in the promotion of rural entrepreneurship. We will keep you updated on the progress.
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