Friday Farmers' Market, an encouraging initiative to promote organic farming for safe and hygienic food, is held every Friday between 2 pm and 6 pm at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training (NITTTR), Chandigarh.
U N Roy, department head, rural development, NITTTR, explains, “Till today their have been five gatherings with NITTTR and for the bright future of this movement and spread message of hygiene and safe food consumption this movement will act as an example.” As part of the initiative, workshops and demonstrations of organic farm produce, wherein farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh participate, are held.
The initiative was started on July 17, 2015, following seminars and workshops, which were held earlier at the campus. Soon the market gathered attention of the people nearby and led the idea into a movement. “We are looking forward to form a cooperative society which will enable farmers to come ahead and sell their produce. The society formation will be undertaken only after a registered place is awarded to the initiative,” said Roy, sharing their further plans.
Roy pointed out that the initial idea of the initiative was to providing and imparting farming aids through expertise in engineering, technology and agriculture to help farmers in production. Around 155 people from polytechnic community offer their valuable inputs to the initiative.
Farmers like Raman Mann, Purkhali, Ropar; Vishwajit Jayani from Fazilka; Inderjit Saholi from Nabha; H S Shergill from Suhali, Majri; and few local volunteers - Hari Singh (NITTTR); S K Sharma, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC); and Pranav Nagpal, an IT professional; have been at the forefront of the initiative. Nagpal stated, “Organic farming can solve many problems of young generation by making it healthy and it can contribute in constructive growth of healthy society and healthy nation.”
In a recent weekly workshop, Prof. M P Poonia, director, NITTTR, stated, “Next century would be of organic food producers.” He promised that NITTTR, Chandigarh, would continue to support the venture by promoting organic crops production in north-west region.
Dr Pawan Sharma, senior agriculture scientist, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said, “It has encouraged farmers to grow organic food by learning various methods of preparing natural inputs like compost, bio-fertilisers and other natural bio-pesticides etc.”
About 200 people from the institute and local people from Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula join the organic food market every week Roy felt, “The increasing number of people every other Friday encourages the farmers and volunteers from the institute to strive hard for the next meet.”
