Pune News : Vasundhara Grains Festival kicks off with much enthusiasm on Pashan – Sus road
“Vasundhara Grains Festival” an annual event of Vasundhara Vasundhara Swachata Abhiyan, Pune started with enthusiasm today morning in the presence of farmers, volunteers and many distinguished guests from Social and Farming circles. Vasundhara Swachata Abhiyan inaugurated the Natural farming grains festival which will be held between April 14 and 16 at Sant Tukaram Marriage Hall on Pashan-Sus road.
The festival was inaugurated at the hands of distinguished citizens from the Social and farming community. Chief guests for the function were Shubha Kulkarni, Sagar Kulkarni (project coordinators for Jeevit Nadi), Sarita Utkarsha Padman (popular youtuber and host of Sarita’s Kitchen) and Pradeep Masane, Sonal Masane (farmers promoting desi cattle farming). Guests of honour included Rahul Kokate(Social worker), Sunny Vinayak Nimhan(ex-corporator and social worker), B.T. Nimhan (Social worker), Gulabrao Tapkir (Social worker and one of the early supports of this movement), Bhaskar Hari Saali(Retd. bank official). The festival was started by invoking prayers and paying respects to “Bali-raja” i.e. the farmer.
The distinguished guests expressed happiness over being part of the movement and also expressed the how Sustainable farming is the need of the hour. Deepak Shrote, a Vasundhara Swachata Abhiyan volunteer and also an ardent volunteer of the toxin-free movement, stressed how each one of us should come together to adopt “Subhash Palekar Krushi” which has answers to problems such as Climate Change being faced by man-kind.
The festival has a two fold aim to provide farmers with a platform to showcase their unadulterated food grains as well as give opportunity to Punekars to buy the toxin-free produce directly from farmers and stock it. The grains festival, currently in its 7th year, primarily aims to promote farmers that practice “Subhash Palekar Krushi” technique of sustainable and toxin-free farming. While a large number of farmers wish to be part of festival, only those farmers who have been practising this technique for at least three years are chosen.
This year the festival is having around 30 stalls of farmers from Maharashtra. In this festival there will be grains, pulses, as well as sorghum, 5 types of wheat, 18 types of millet, pulses, jaggery, grapes, turmeric etc. Another major attraction of the event is the food stalls offering a variety of delicacies.
Vasundhara Swachhta Abhiyan appeals to all Punekars to take full advantage of this opportunity, thereby taking a positive step towards better health of their families and help farmers who practice sustainable natural farming while doing so. While Subhash Palekar’s natural farming system provides food that is safe from toxins for our health, it also has the power to combat global warming and climate change. As part of the inaugural ceremony, Sanjay Pachpor, one of the organizers appealed: “Let’s buy toxin-free grain for the year directly from farmers, let’s secure our health and that of our families”
