The program aims to increase sustainable consumption of food among urban consumers in three cities in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India, by promoting sustainable urban and rural production. Food information channels in the form of Food Information Marts (FIMs) are established in urban areas for increasing awareness among consumers on good food habits and ecological footprints of food.
Implemented in
- Asia / Pacific
- India
Sectors of activity
Agricultural and Fishery, Consumer Goods, Food & Beverage
Type of initiative
Capacity Building & Implementation, Education & Awareness Raising, Research, Analysis, Assessment
Type of lead actor
Civil society
Start date
15/02/2018
End date
01/08/2018
Submitted on:
22/08/2018Objectives
1. To enhance sustainable food production and consumption in peri-urban and urban areas
2. To reduce the environmental impacts of urban food consumption by promoting ‘Connected Ecological Farming’ in food producing rural areas
3. To build capacities of urban households on sustainable and healthy food choices
4. To develop a model and methodology that helps assess the footprint of the food production and consumption leading to reduced ecological footprint
5. Share the experiences of the project for long-lasting impacts at the sub-national and national level
The project will reach out to 2500 farmers as part of ‘Connected Farming Enterprises’ to adopt sustainable production systems which reduce the ecological foot print in production of food through 10 Producer Knowledge Centres (PKC) in rural areas.
It will also reach 200 urban households to produce food in urban areas and adopt food waste recycling practices which helps in reducing the footprint of cities. Capacity building for urban consumers will be done through Food-Info-Marts in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with a target of reaching 50,000 urban consumers during the project period.
Activities
As collected through the One Planet Reporting
Outcome level
Education on SCP
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School & College Program for Sustainable Production and Consumption Education
School & College Program for Sustainable Production and Consumption Education
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. G V Ramanjaneyulu Karthik Teja Pulugurtha P. Madhusudhan Reddy N. Kumar
Objective
School garden programs are multi-intervention packages incorporating agriculture, nutrition and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) education, and community outreach to improve community food security and nutrition. Good nutrition relies on healthy food systems, access to health services, and clean environments. A school garden can be regarded as a small food system; a healthy garden can include the production of plant and animal food and be designed to address biodiversity, healthy diets and eco-friendly environments. These gardens can be used as platforms for environmental education, nutrition behaviour change communication, and to promote community engagement.
Achievements
Accomplishments: 1) Created a curriculum to teach sustainable consumption and production practices. 2) Successfully trained about 300 students in SCP module 3) Successfully created a piratical lab/school garden for learning sustainable food production which includes a) Reusing material for food production b) Soil management & Sowing Techniques c) Organic Pest Management techniques d) Organic fertilizer production Techniques e) Building nutrient recycling/composting modules 4) Imparted skills within student to grow food Expected Achievements: 1) Creating a Herbarium for the Student 2) Arranging more student field visits 3) Enhancing the program
SCP monitoring and reporting
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Panel data collection
Panel data collection
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
The panel will help collect data at regular intervals, the initial data will serve as a baseline to gauge the present availability, accessibility, affordability and change in food consumption and production habits of the target population. The terminal year data will statistically & scientifically present the shift to SCP and will also measure the change in EDI
Objective
The panel aims to collect data at regular intervals, the initial data will serve as a baseline to gauge the present availability, accessibility, affordability and change in food consumption and production habits of the target population. The terminal year data will statistically & scientifically present the shift to SCP and will also measure the change in EDI
Achievements
85 Baseline surveys collected 120 diverse participants for the next step of the study identified Participant interaction to be set up to initiate the study
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Ecological Debt Index - food production
Ecological Debt Index - food production
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture: Divya Veluguri Dr. G V Ramanjaneyulu Mr. Ramprasad Sana
Objective
Methodology for quantifying the ecological footprint developed and used to validate in the field for the entire crop cycle.
Achievements
A framework for understanding and reporting on the sustainability of agricultural practices at the national level was developed by the project team. This work will be adapted to create a "sustainability index" to compare the production practices at the farm level (of project farmers) to the national average. We are measuring the kg per hectare use of agri-chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides specific to crop type, energy used for irrigation, soil nutrients, moisture and overall soil health in various locations across Andhra Pradesh. Such an index will allow consumers to see how their consumption choice is impacting the environment (as amount of GHG emissions saved, reduction in water and chemical use, etc.) Baseline is complete and data is presently being analysed.
Output level
Outreach and communication for SCP
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Sustainable Urban Gardening and Nutrient Recycling Outreach
Sustainable Urban Gardening and Nutrient Recycling Outreach
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu
Objective
To Induct participants into the Urban Gardening program
Achievements
To begin 200 urban kitchen gardens
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Interaction between rural Producers and Urban consumers to promote connected
Interaction between rural Producers and Urban consumers to promote connected
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Karthik Teja Pulugurtha, Nambur Kumar.
Objective
Interaction sessions to build a symbiotic relationship between consumers and producers
Achievements
Interaction sessions to build a symbiotic relationship between consumers and producers
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Nutrition Counselling
Nutrition Counselling
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Daisy John
Objective
The project will provide a unique experience of addressing changing lifestyles in Indian cities through food as an entry point as food plays an important role in the life of Indians. While education (e.g. schools) has mostly been tested as an entry point to influence the environmental awareness and sustainable lifestyles, there is no concrete evidence for it to make a dent largely due to the environmental education being in nascent stages in the country. To successfully achieve these food and nutrition goals, our nutrition workshops have the following elements: • Awareness sessions on healthy ways of eating • Provision of individual counselling sessions based on the diseased status as well as the needs of the people attending the sessions • Change in the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the food consumption patterns The nutrition workshops are intended to create awareness amongst the people about the food they eat and if it is all healthy for them. To generate understanding on various ways of eating healthy like consumption of more organic food, reduce the unhealthy food items they are eating, importance of diversification of food items and their health benefits and the identification of various healthy traditional ways of eating. The nutritional counselling sessions at the workshops provides the customized way of eating the food which are specific for their disease condition for any individual. There are also cooking sessions which would help the people practice themselves by making use of the idea that providing information directly to the people would want them to practice it in their daily lives.
Achievements
A nutrition workshop is for the people to understand more about healthy ways of eating in terms of what organic food is, the importance of the organic food consumption, diversification of food and the possible toxic items in food and the adulterants in the food items. The understanding of these things is important because they are necessary to make a change in the lifestyle that people are living, thus it can contribute to a better health. The nutritional counselling sessions by the physician and a public health nutritionist aims at developing customized diet plans for the people attending it based on the and helping them how to incorporate them to their daily diet. Since these are one to one sessions, people might find it useful to talk and make clarifications about the doubts they have. The follow up sessions will help to see if people are able to practice these diet changes and if it is benefiting them in terms of health. Nine nutritional sessions have been completed. The first one was at the Government Nehru Memorial High school, Malakpet colony, Hyderabad, Telangana. The participants included the students and their parents. These students were chosen by the class coordinator on the basis that these students frequently complained of the health issues. Initially a talk was given to the students and their parents on the topic healthy eating. Following these, the physical examination and history collection was done with the help of the global nutritional assessment questionnaire. Then the parents who accompanied them were given a meal plan for them to follow at home as most of the ailments that the children suffer are due to malnourishment. Thus, these students will act as proxy for the nutritional status of the family and will serve as a contact point. The fourth workshop was conducted at Excellentia infinitum school at Shamirpet. A talk was given to the students of class 7 on healthy eating simultaneously reducing the carbon footprints. Following the talk a question answer session also was arranged for the students. The remaining counselling sessions were at the Sahaja aharam stores in Tarnaka and KPHB respectively. Advertisements were given for the counselling sessions which have been taking place at the stores every Friday and Saturday respectively from 3 pm to 6 pm. The people who walked in were registered for the nutritional counselling sessions for the follow up study as well. After the nutritional counselling sessions, they were also helped to pick up the proper food items from the Food Info Mart based on their health conditions and their nutritional need following the nutritional counselling. These people will are given follow-up sessions and the health changes are being assessed. Also, the people who walk into the stores are given support to pick up the products based on their health needs or in order to maintain a balanced diet. A conference on traditional food systems was also attended in order to incorporate the knowledge into the nutritional counselling sessions.
Training for SCP
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Urban Gardening Program
Urban Gardening Program
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. Ramanjaneyulu G.V, Karthik Teja Pulugurtha, Madhusudhan Reddy Panyala, Nambur Kumar.
Objective
To Set-up kitchen gardens 200 households
Achievements
Set up 38 kitchen gardens conducted 20 urban gardening training sessions
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Organic Farming Training
Organic Farming Training
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. Ramanjaneyulu G.V, Dr. Raja shekar, Dr. G.Chandra Sekhar, Mr Ramprasad
Objective
To Train 2500 Farmers in sustainable food production practices, thus helping to promote sustainable consumption
Achievements
Trained up to 2512 farmers Farmers were trained in chemical free farming practices, promoting soil health, crop diversity and in improving water use efficiency through practices like creating bio fertilizers and pesticides using locally available resources, mulching, farm ponds, preserving local seed varieties, inter cropping, mixed cropping, etc. Further, farmers from across the state were provided training on marketing and business management activities, to improve sustainable supply chains by creating consumer-producer networks. Farmer groups were also provided exposure visits to the Sahaja-Aharam Food Info Mart model. Our experience has been that farmers are very enthusiastic and receptive to sustainable practices. Moving beyond organic farming, this project adds value as it also trains farmer groups in connecting directly to consumers, shortening the supply chain and increasing value, negotiating power and security for the farmers.
Knowledge resource and technical tool
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Food Info Marts
Food Info Marts
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. Ramanjaneyulu G.V, Karthik Teja Pulugurtha, Madhusudhan Reddy Panyala, Nambur Kumar. Daisy John
Objective
The FIMs are equipped with all audio and video materials to help educate the urban and peri-urban consumers, will display different diet charts for different categories of people, will distribute IEC materials and help connect urban communities with input suppliers to grow food in urban spaces. The FIMs will also perform the role of a market place.
Achievements
The FIMs have been equipped with all audio and visual materials to help educate the urban and peri-urban consumers. The FIMs display different diet charts for different categories of people, will distribute IEC materials and are helping to connect urban communities with input suppliers to grow food in urban spaces. The FIMs are also providing nutrition and cooking training
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Producer Knowledge Centres
Producer Knowledge Centres
Regions
Asia / Pacific
Lead organization
Dr. Ramanjaneyulu G.V, Dr. Raja shekar, Dr. G.Chandra Sekhar, Mr Ramprasad
Objective
To help up to 2500 farmers that form the 'Connected Farming Enterprises' who adopt sustainable production systems which reduce the ecological foot print in production of food.
Achievements
The PKCs help up to 2500 farmers that form the 'Connected Farming Enterprises' who adopt sustainable production systems which reduce the ecological foot print in production of food.
Impact and Results
Expected outcomes of the project:
1. Enhanced sustainable food production and consumption in peri-urban and urban areas: Establish Food-Info-Marts that provide healthy, locally grown food and complement with food from Connected Farming Enterprises (CFEs) along with education and advisory on sustainable food production and consumption in rural, peri-urban, urban areas.
2. Reduced environmental impacts of food production: By establishing Producer Knowledge Centres (PKCs) at strategic locations support the farming community to understand the environmental impacts of food production, adopt sustainable production systems, establish nutrient recycling plants to recycle nutrients from the food waste and use the same for food production within and beyond project boundaries.
3. Improve knowledge on ecological impact of production and consumption to different stakeholders through decision support system: Project aims at developing a methodology to quantify the ecological impacts of food production and consumption patterns and develop resources for better decision making. The DSS consists of two components.
• Online resource on ecological footprints of food: This provides useful information on footprints of food for educating the consumers, producers and other stakeholders engaged in food production, supply and consumption.
• Ecological debt index: Multiple social, environmental and climate indicators, coordinated with SDG indicators, developed as an index to monitor the benefits of project interventions.
The concept is briefly detailed as follows:
The GHG mitigation benefits will be measured on a life-cycle basis starting from the production of the food to the consumption at the consumer level. This is achieved by establishing what is called an Ecological Debt Index (EDI) that combines GHG mitigation benefits, resilience benefits and other environmental benefits in terms of water miles, food miles, and carbon footprint that will be assessed and combined into an easy to understand index. The data for the EDI will be collected by direct measurements from the panel data established under the project, sample surveys among the respondents, participatory exercises and published government records. The GHG emissions reductions will be calculated by comparing the emissions under the project with the baseline emissions using the standard methodologies prescribed by IPCC including the emission factor databases.
Next steps and how to get involved
Residents of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam can support sustainable production by purchasing directly from farmers who have adopted eco-friendly production practices.
Volunteers are welcome to reach out to communities, schools and colleges to promote knowledge on the environmental impacts of food production in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA)
Interested parties may also reach out to CSA to find out more on other ways to get involved