Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Organic Market Plan

Last Sunday, we held a joint inspection with Curator Parto Ghosh, GM(E) Suman Neogi, Neil Law and S Ahmed at the Entry Plaza near Gate 4 of Eco Park. We planned for a Sunday organic market where temporary stalls would sell organic vegetable, fruits, tea,honey and the like. I have seen such weekend Sunday-morning markets in many European cities. EcoPark would be a great place to have a synegy for such a market. We now need to talk to few producers of organic producers. We have planned to start in May this year although the monsoons thereafter may be a dampener.

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Few clippings:

Times of India dt 13 April 2015
Times of India dt 13 April 2015
ToI dt 13 April2015

4 comments:

  1. There is an initiative going on in Mumbai to remove concrete enclosures around tree bases (http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/bmc-extends-deadline-to-remove-concrete-enclosures-around-trees/).
    I saw that HIDCO has similar enclosures on the sidewalk next to Sankalpa comnplex. This prevents the growth of the trees. Too much concrete is also a heat trap for a sparse green area like NewTown.
    request your attention please.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Sir,

    With reference to the plans of setting an Organic Market at Eco Park and the Nurseries being given plots at New Town, I have certain specific request/ suggestion, which I believe can be a model that can be later on followed elsewhere as well. These are:

    1. For the organic fruits and vegetables, a steady supply chain can be ensured by adopting urban farming in the existing ares of the neighbouring wetlands where it is practised. Care should however be taken that no newer areas in the wetlands are converted to farmlands.This ensures sustainability pratices of the township on many levels: a) Producer - consumer chain,
    b) providing economic solution and security to inhabitants in the wetlands who practice farming and do not let off their lands for illegal reclamation of lands.
    c) Creating a Organic and in house Urban Farming example for a city.

    2. The Organic Market can include horticulture section as well and thus extend procurement of supplies from the nurseries planned.

    3. Care should be taken that all these stalls and kiosks are aesthetically and functionally sound w.r.t to Indian conditions. (As for aesthetics, please refer the European examples you have mentioned)

    4. Later on the market, if logistics provided suffice, it can be extended to serve with fresh fish supply from the wetlands and small products like pickles, papads, bakeries and confectioneries, etc that are made from these organic products.

    5. To avoid traffic congestion, people may be encouraged actively to use cycles to access the place.

    6. Above all, the authority can make all the stalls certified on food/ product quality to ensure high grades. This can be extended to all street vending food & beverage stalls in the township as well later on.

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  4. Most of the markets in European cities are located in urban residential neighborhoods. This ensures larger footfall and most people in the neighborhood can walk to the market. I would strongly urge you to consider having this sunday organic farmer's market near established residential areas of New town.. eg. action area-I : at the clock tower plaza or under the flyover. Another area might be the hawker rehabilitation stalls that were constructed near Eden shops but never put to use. This area already sees a large number of shoppers on Sunday morning who shop on the roadside stalls between Reliance and Eden shop - so I am certain at least a portion of them will walk into the organic farmer's market area. And since this market thrives rain or shine, the monsoon season should not be a dampener for the organic produce market !

    An unrelated question is who would be certifying the produce as organic ? This would be important to customers who would be paying a premium for fresh organic produce.

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