BLOG BY : ABHISHEK KUMAR
Has your relationship with food changed over the years? Do you now consider more carefully what you consume? While some people choose food based on taste or attractive packaging, only a few look at the nutrients or read labels to understand what they eat.
On World Food Safety Day, we invite you to pause and think – where is our food coming from? How was it sourced? Was it grown with ethical practices in harmony with nature? Or did it leave a long-lasting scar on our agricultural lands?
Bhoomi Ka (literally meaning ‘Of the Earth’), supported by Food and Nutrition Champion WHH – Welthungerhilfe, is a movement to transform our food-systems towards clean and green consumption for which smallholder farmers receive fair prices. In today’s world, making sure the food we eat is safe goes hand in hand with protecting our planet. This balance is championed by Bhoomi Ka and Welthungerhilfe (WHH), through sustainable food systems that prioritise both our health and the environment.
With an ambition to strengthen ecosystems for ecological food value chains in India, Bhoomi Ka works with different actors in the value chain- to build their capacities, foster linkages and create more inclusive and equitable environment for smallholder farmers to thrive. At present Bhoomi Ka and WHH are supporting smallholder farmers through 92 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and 44 ecopreneurs within its network.
Bhoomi Ka works with smallholder farmers and supports them in improving their production and productivity through Agro-ecological practices, improves their access to larger and higher markets by collectivizing them in FPO and supports certification of their produce through participatory Guarantee System (PGS), a cost -efficient participatory approach for certification. Bhoomi Ka has trained over 8000 smallholder farmers in sustainable integrated farming systems and supported over 5000 of them access PGS certification. By minimizing chemical application, improving soil health, employing soil and water conservation techniques, waste recycling and fostering biodiversity, Bhoomi Ka ensures food safety while mitigating environmental impacts. Through the support to ecopreneurs and FPOs and consumer awareness events these products are made available to rural and urban consumers.
Furthermore, Bhoomi Ka upholds ethical practices throughout the food production chain. We ensure compliance with statutory regulations for food processing, while also promoting ethical branding and packaging that aligns with consumer demand for transparency.
One of Bhoomi Ka’s notable interventions was the promotion of the indigenous crop millets with 500 farmers in otherwise rice-wheat farming states of Punjab and Haryana. The states have lost their huge crop diversity since the green revolution and have been practicing inorganic farming which is not sustainable and negatively impacts the environment and local communities. Since 2019, Bhoomi Ka has promoted millets as an alternative solution to environmental stresses, overuse of chemical sprays that destroy soil and crop health, the depletion of water levels for agriculture, and adverse impacts on human health due to chemical toxicity in air, water and soil. Today, Bhoomi Ka continues to promote millet consumption in cities and supports farmers in Punjab and Haryana in growing and selling them. As a result, local shops have seen a 10 percent rise in millet sales in Bhoomi Ka’s project areas, with both farmers and consumers recognizing the benefits of millets for health and the environment.
Bhoomi Ka’s is committed to a clean, green, and fair future by empowering farming communities and informing consumers about healthy and safe consumption, fostering a culture of conscious consumerism.
This Food Safety Day, we invite you to join Bhoomi Ka’s network and discover the journey of food from farm to table. By understanding the true value chain, we can collectively work towards protecting our planet and ensuring the well-being of its people. Join us in making a difference!