Developing a Culture of Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyle Through Organic Production and Consumption in State of Rajasthan

The major objectives of this initiative include: 1. To develop a culture of sustainable development through sensitisation awareness generation, and education on organic consumption and production. 2. To generate awareness among consumers about organic products like benefits, availability etc. 3.To build capacity of farmers to adopt organic farming. 4.To promote and increase consumer’s demand for organic products. 5.To encourage consumers to shift towards organic products and sustainable consumption and, 6.To sensitise and advocate with the concerned stakeholders including government agencies to promote organic products in Rajasthan. One of the basic idea of the project is promoting sustainable consumption and production, which are important aspects of sustainable regime. This is largely consistent with the environmental and social factors, and education and empowerment of consumers. In ‘ProOrganic II’ project, focus is on the aspect of sustainable food and farming, and to formulate an agenda to achieve it. This will be acquired through promoting organic production of farm products on one hand, and promoting organic consumption, on the other. Consequently, this would lead to sustainable development in agriculture and environmental sector, as a whole. The target group of the project comprises entire population of the covered 10 districts, 96 blocks and selected 192 gram panchayats in Rajasthan. Major Activities conducted/in progress under the project are following: 1. Scoping Visits 2. Project Launch and Partner’s Orientation Meeting 3. Base Line SurveyAwareness Campaign on Sustainable Consumption 4. Training and Exposure Visit of Farmers(One Training Exclusively for Women Group) 5. Green Action Week 6.Follow up Workshop on Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) 7. Establishment of Organic Compost Cell 8. Establishment of Community Seed Bank 9. Formation of Organic Clubs and Developing Organic Gardens in Schools 10. Organic Fairs 11. State Level Sensitisation Workshops with Media 12. State Level Stakeholder’s Consultation Meeting 13. End Line Survey to Gauge Project Effectiveness 14.Publishing Relevant Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Materials The first phase of the project was concluded in March, 2017 with major activities getting accomplished in a span of three years like Awareness Generation Campaigns, Organic Fairs, Farmer’s Training and Exposure Visits, Consultations apart from research components in the project area. The project had a deep impact as a remarkable increase in the area of organic farming was observed in the State. In addition, there was also a hike in demand for organic products by the consumers. The second phase of the project(2017-21) is expected to witness change in farming patterns with more farmers shifting to organic agriculture and more consumers opting for organic products. Also, activities like formation of organic community seed banks are expected to push farmers to switch back to natural varieties of seeds and also formation of organic clubs and organic gardens are designed to make a similar impact at urban level too.