CROPS 4 HD

Under CROPS4HD project a 3 days long (5th- 7th February, 2024) Shared Solution Workshop and Mid Term Review (MTR) was organized by Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). DRCSC as an implementing partner participated in the above MTR and shared Solution workshop held at ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata. One day field visit to DRCSC's one Project implementation location i.e. Hingalganj Block was conducted. In the above-mentioned Workshop, the main Evaluation and facilitation was conducted by Prof. Jay Cummins, The University of Adelaide, Australia along with Dr. Randhir Singh, Assistant Director General (Agricultural Extension), ICAR and Dr. Amritbir Riar, Deputy Head of the Department of International Cooperation Leader of the Group Resilient Cropping Systems, FiBL, Switzerland. Swissaid India team, Swissaid Tanzania team, representative from Swissaid headquarter, Switzerland and different partner NGOs (DRCSC, Kolkata; Bhittibhumi, Odisha, Sahaja Samrudha, Karnataka and WASSAN, Hyderabad) was participated in the workshop.

DRCSC under CROPS4HD programme organized one Food festival at Urban level on 23rd December, 2023. The theme of the festival was winged bean, one neglected and underutilized potential nutritional crop. 12 different organic and environment friendly product retailers presented their products and different recipes from neglected underutilized crops were also presented. One recipe competition on Winged Bena was organized where 09 different participants (Male and female) presented their innovative dishes. Many distinguished speaker enlightened the participants with their talks such as Dr. Prasanta Biswas, Professor, Dept. of Food Technology, Jadavpur University talked on Safe food, Dr. Snehashree Saha, Assistant Prof., Udaynarayanpur Madhabilata Mahabidyalaya gave a talk on Food and Nutrition, Mr. Anshuman Das, Programme Manager, Welthungerhilfe, Germany on how awake we are about our food. The day also coincides with National Farmer Day, The Farmers from Sundarbans also felicitated on the stage.

The final event PMCA-3 (Participatory Marketing Chain Approach) namely 'Launching Event of Neglected Nutritious Crops' was organized on 7th June 2023 with total 80 nos of stakeholders from various sectors. In the event joint innovation products (greengram whole and grinded, lesser yam dumpling and moringa leaf powder) is launched and presented in-front of all stakeholders present and media to generate future marketing scope of the above products.

Two days Quality Seed Production Training has been organized at Ramganga, Patharpratima cluster on 16 and 17 June 2023 with seed producers, champion farmers, seed bank members and project staffs with an objective of producing, preserving and conserving quality seeds of NUS and other crops.

PUSH coordinator and Research Coordinator attended training on Gender, Institution & leadership from 26th to 28th June'23 at Wadsa, Maharashtra facilitated by Dr.Shilpa Vasavada and Ms.Sejal Dave. Discussion was done on gender inclusiveness, leadership qualities & representation at the institution level under the CROPS4HD programme.

Orientation on Gender, leadership and tool bank done at Ramganga, Patharpratima on 14 and 15 June 2023 with project staffs from both clusters. Discussion done on strategic and practical gender needs, gender inclusiveness focusing on awareness, participation and empowerment. Participants get more clarity on gender issues and have opportunity for follow up of previous year activities. Discussion was also done on identification of tools for women drudgery reduction. The orientation was facilitated by Ms.AvaniRawal, Programme Officer, SWISSAID, India.

Two days training of trainers (ToT) was completed at Hingalganj cluster on 26 and 27 May 2023 on Agro-ecological Package of Practices (PoP) covering principles of agro-ecology, nutrient management, pest & disease management and NUS crop specific PoP. Action plan was prepared for followup training for farmers under the project. Champion farmers and field staffs attended the training. The training was facilitated by Dr.Pallab De, Project Director and Dr.Lucina Yeasmin, Research Coordinator respectively.

Discussion on post PMCA activities with Dr Thomas

Moong dal processing unit at Dakshin Gobindapur, Ramganga

Meeting with MCG on processing of greengram

Dr. Thomas visiting to Spencers and explaining about products, packaging, promotion etc

Dr. Thomas visiting to Paushtik Life-retail outlet and interaction with consumers

Deputy Director of Horticulture and Assistant Director of Horticulture (District Level), Assistant Director of Horticulture (Sub Division), Horticulture Field Consultant (Block level) from West Bengal State Food Processing & Horticulture Development Department along with the DRCSC team visited project area of Durbachati, Patharpratima, South 24 Paraganas on 27 April 2023.

The objective of the visit is to identify the Opportunities, Challenges and issues towards the NUS and others vegetables cultivation, betterment of market development etc. in project area and make a strong collaboration regarding technical and Input support for quality production, waste management in market area, market linkage and food processing unit. The team visited few farmer households to observe agro-ecological farming practices, had meeting with farmers involved in marketing of NUS and other crops, done meeting with Addyar bazar market committee at Durbachati & observe the local haat and interact with farmers.

DRCSC conducted two days training on quality seed production of NUS and other crops for selected seed producers on 29-30 April 2023 at 13 No. Sandeler Bill, Hingalganj, North 24 Pgs. Dr.Subhadeep Nath, Asst. Horticulture Officer, Govt. of West Bengal gave the training. Approx. 30 seed producers attended the training. Hands on practical was also done with amaranthus, okra, ridge gourd, bitter gourd etc. crops and at the end follow up action plan was developed mentioning individual seed producer responsible for developing quality seeds of NUS and other crops.

Exposure visit of farmers at Greengram Mother Trial Plot, Patharpratima

Inauguration of Local market shed at Shiber Mela Prangan, Dakshin Gobindapur, Ramganga

Inauguration of Local market shed at Shiber Mela Prangan, Dakshin Gobindapur, Ramganga

Seed and Food festival at Durbachati, Patharpratima

Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) of Greengram at Mother trial plots

Recipe demonstration and cooking class at Hingalganj

Recipe demonstration and cooking class at Kolkata

Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) has organized a two-day (3-4 December, 2022) exhibition on Neglected and Underutilized Crops and Agro-Products at Bibek Nagar Youth Association play ground, Jadavpur, Kolkata. The main objective of the exhibition was to introduce neglected and underutilized crops and to promote chemical free, safe, nutritious food and to give a platform of interaction between producer, retailer and consumer. The exhibition was inaugurated by local MLA Sri Debabrata Majumder and Councillor Sri Tarakeswar Chatterjee and Sri Dilip Kr Sarkar (Secretary DRCSC) and other honourable guests were present in the opening ceremony. Honb'le Agricultural Minister Sri Shobhon Deb Chatterjee visited the fair and given a valuable speech. There were 20 outlets of healthy, chemical free vegetables, indigenous rice varieties, pulses, seeds, food items, handicrafts etc., various cultural programmes was organized in the evening.

Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) has organized Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) Phase 2 Event titled "Creating Business Opportunities for Nutritious Crops" on 4th of November 2022 at Hotel Regenta Orkos, Kolkata with 65 nos. of Stakeholders. The event was supported by SWISSAID, India and technical guidance from Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland. The stakeholders came from different segments like Producer farmers, consumers, retailers, FPC members, Policy makers & Govt. personnelrecipe experts, Clinical Nutritionist, representatives from Super Market, other NGO etc. Mr. Jayanta Aikat, Joint Director of Horticulture and Food Processing, Government of West Bengal, Mr. Atanu Kr. Gupta, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Mr. Dipak Sarkar, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Ms. Sharmila Basu Thakur, Columnist &Recipe expert, Dr. Ananya Bhowmik, Clinical Nutritionist & Columnist etc. attended the workshop.

Mr. Simon Degelo, Policy Advisor of SWISSAID, Switzerland along with Ms. Avani Rawal, Programme Officer of SWISSAID, India and Dr. K.S. Varaprasad and Mr. Uday Nagubandi from WASSAN, Hyderabad visited CROPS4HD project area at Hingalganj on 25th Sep'22. Initial presentation was done on DRCSC's interventions in Sunderban region and context of working in these areas and update of CROPS4HD project activities. After that visit has been done in Lablab bean mother trial plots, baby trial plots, meeting with MCG members on trial observations & participatory variety selection, meeting with community seed ban committee members etc. On 26th Sep'22 a day long discussion was done on WASSAN's activities on policy issues and sharing of best practices citing some examples from Odisha. Further discussion was done on planning of activities regarding policy level interventions in context to West Bengal and DRCSC's project area.

Ms. Kavita Gandhi, Country Director of SWISSAID, India visited DRCSC project area under CROPS4HD project on 6,7 Sept'22 in both Hingalganj and Patharpratima clusters respectively. Visits have been done in lablab bean mother trial, baby trial plots and school nutrition gardens at Hingalganj

School nutrition garden-ABS Madanmohan Vidyapith, 13 No. Sandeler Bill-Hingalganj

Lablab Bean baby trial plot visit at Ramganga, Patharpratima

Meeting with FPC members at Hingalganj

Dr. Prabir Kr. Bhattacharyya, Associate Prof, BCKV visited Lablab bean mother trial plot at Hingalganj cluster

Quality seed production trg by Dr. Prabir Kr. Bhattacharyya at Hingalganj-1

Group work to identify quality parameters & crop selection for seed production

Capacity Building Training of staffs on Farmer Producer Organization (FPO): Capacity Building Training of project staffs on Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) has been organized from 8th to 10th September 2022 at DRCSC Kolkata office. Mr. Kaustuv Mukhopadhyay & Mr. Nirmallya Mandal from Ecociate Consultant Pvt. Ltd. facilitated the training. Discussion was done on the concept of FPO, prerequisites of forming a FPO, difference between FPO & FPC, registration details, functioning & role of general members, shareholders, board members etc.

From 10-11 July 2022, Mr. Etienne Basset, Project Leader, SWISSAID, Switzerland and Dr. Amrit Bir Riar, Research Coordinator from Institute of Organic Agriculture, FiBL, Switzerland has visited DRCSC Kolkata office and project area at Patharpratima cluster under CROPS4HD project. Along with them, SWISSAID & FiBL representatives also visited Paushtik Life retail outlet, mother and baby trial plots, biodiversity blocks, community seed banks, done meeting with Mutual Cooperation Groups, Ganjer Bazar market committee etc.

Project orientation at Hingalganj

PUSH Survey (farmers survey) enumerator training at Kolkata

Enumerator Training for Consumer survey at Hingalganj

Enumerator Training for consumer survey at Patharpratima

Monitoring visit of SwissAid, at Hingalganj project area

Monitoring visit of Swissaid, India at Hingalganj project area

Monitoring visit of SwissAid, at Patharpratima project area

Meeting with Govt. Personnel for Policy level discussion along with WASSAN representatives

Monthly review meeting at Kolkata project office

FGD on Seed sourcing at Dakshin Gobindapur, Pathar Pritima