VSA will hold ‘Grains Festival’ to provide natural farm fresh produce

PUNE: Vasundhara Swachata Abhiyan (VSA), an organisation working towards restoration of the environment through various activities, has organised ‘Grains Festival’ to provide urban consumers with natural farm fresh produce.

Similarly, it will also provide a platform to farmers to sell their natural produce directly to urban customers. The festival will be held from April 12 to 14, between 9 am to 9 pm at Siddhi Gardens, Near Mhatre Bridge, Erandwane. Under the guidance of Krishi-Rishi Padmashri Subhash Palekar, Abhiyaan promotes farmers who grow produce as per the Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF) technique. This technique advocates doing agriculture under extremely natural conditions and reducing the farming budget on buying things like external seeds, fertilizers, pesticides.

During a press conference, Deepak Shrote, member of Abhiyaan and SPNF movement, said, “More than 50 lakh farmers of the country were practising this technique from the last three years. Advantages of SPNF technique for us as consumers was that we get nutritious, toxin-free produce that will keep us naturally healthy.”

“The items that would be available include pulses, rice, wheat, desi cow ghee, cold pressed oil, amongst others, along with freshly cooked delicious traditional foods,” Shrote added.

This is the third year of the Grains Festival. This year, it is being jointly organised by VSA and Siddhi Gardens. Along with it, there will be Desi Seeds and Environmental Pavillion and interactive sessions by experts and organisations like octogenarian botanist SD Mahajan, groundwater expert Upendra Dhonde, indigenous seeds expert Sanjay Patil, Geetatai Deshmukh and agriculture tools innovator Dada Wadekar, who are working for the betterment of the environment at ground level in the city.