social entrepreneurship on health- the holistic way - poster

8/13/2019 Social Entrepreneurship on Health- The Holistic Way - Poster

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Social Entrepreneurship

on Health- the holistic wayAuthor: K.Mohan alias Mohan Sanjeevan

Science and Science Fiction Writer, Poet

, Researcher, Resource person, National

facilitator, XovianA real life venture model

The idea for this Health based entrepreneurship

stems from witnessing a venture which worked out

very well and still doing well in real life. A successful

venture is better than a mere concept

Focus on health

Focus on health is essential for any progressive

society . It also attains divinity if it incorporates a

holistic approach. Though the term holistic refers toalternative traditional methods of health, it may also

be extended to emerging fields like organic farming

providing healthy nutritious food ensuring good

health. This method also ensures a good


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environment by protecting it by the harmless

practices of agriculture.

Health gets affected when the bodysimmunity gets affected

It is a known fact our health gets affected when our

bodys ability to counter the illness causing factors ,

germs etc., is affected. The bodys ability to fight

disease is called immunity and the lack of immunityleads to disease. When we analyse the reasons for

the affected immunity the practice of agriculture

using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is largely

responsible for toxic food thereby affecting our

health when consumed. Use of these synthetic

fertilizers and pesticides also affect soil health killingbeneficial earth worms and affect the water bodies

when they run off into them.

The need for the health oriented socialhealth entrepreneurship

As we have seen the use of synthetic fertilizers and

pesticides lead to poor health there is need for the

suitable agricultural practice. That is where the


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organic farming using natural fertilizers and

pesticides comes in

Setting up the health/good environmentbased Venture

Having decided to set up the health oriented

environment protecting venture we go about setting

it up keeping the objectives in mind. The social

entrepreneurship in this field may be taken up byacquiring agricultural lands and using them for

organic farming as a collective efforts of youth. A

group of enthusiastic youth interested in the well

being of the people in the society and may take up

this route to ensure good health by avoiding ill

effects of synthetic pesticide and fertilizer fed routeof agriculture. The practice of use of natural

fertilizers and pesticides may be followed in the

lands acquired and healthwise nutritious produced.

This venture ensures physical and financial health to

the organic farming entrepreneurs and the citizens

Setting up self-owned outlets for selling

the produce of organic farming lands


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The produce of such organic farming may be sold by

self-owned organic food outlets, where traditional

nutritious varieties of rice, wheat ,other grains,

vegetables, greens may be sold. Though this

appears to be a commercial venture, the welfare and

development of people is its basic objective making

it a noble social entrepreneurship.

Organic food eateries may be run to

cater to the citizens

Apart from sales, organic food eateries may be set

up by the farms to serve as another farm of captive

use for the farms ensuring at the same time good

healthy hygienic nutritious food to the citizens

Well run farms to act as model farms

A well run farm may serve as a model farm for other

aspirant youth to emulate and set up farms of their

own. Necessary training may be had from the model

farm.

Model farms may form co operatives

amongst themselves


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As more and more model farms come up leading to

proliferation of these farms further the model farms

and other farms can form co-operatives among

themselves for better synergy and efficient

distribution of their produce and creation of

awareness on such farms

Workshop on Organic farming, home and

terrace gardens, traditional variety

nutritious food varieties of cooked foods

preparation

Aside from the on field training imparted in the fields,

workshops may be conducted in towns and cities too

creating awareness on the organic farming and

training the aspirants in this field among thepopulace. At the time of workshop training on home

gardens, terrace gardens may be imparted and

display of food grains and vegetables grown in the

farms may be done. The nutritional values of the

traditional food varieties grown by organic farming

may be illustrated by posters and pamphlets during

the training. . The long forgotten traditional nutritious

cooked food varieties may be prepared and

displayed to create awareness on the nutritious


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traditional food which have been forgotten by the

present modern day society.

Display of Organic farming produce forsales during workshops

As the workshops are strong points for interaction

with the citizens of the cities, towns etc., they may

appeal as a buying point for their needs. Once they

come to know the availability of such producethrough the outlets they may visit the outlets

regularly for their requirements.

The Workshops breed more organic

farms, home and terrace gardens

The workshops conducted motivate many to take uporganic farms in their available lands. Home

gardening and terrace gardening will also be taken

up by many leading to consumption from their own

farms and gardens

More Organic farms, home and terracegardens lead to consumption of healthy

leading to good health and sound

environment


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Creation of more organic farms, home and terrace

gardens make way for production of healthy non

toxic food stuff. The healthy agricultural and home

and terrace gardens lead to healthy environment

and increased consumption of healthy food. All

auguring well for the sound health of the citizens.

The integrated model farm achieves its

objective of noble social

entrepreneurship

The integrated approach of acquiring agricultural

lands by collective youth, organic farming in them,

setting up of organic food outlets either by just

selling organic food varieties or by combining both

organic food variety sales and eateries using the

organic food varieties. This will make the venture a

fully integrated one comprising farming, a training

hub for other aspirants, retail outlets for the produce

of the farms, organic food eateries ,conducting

workshops on nutritional value of the traditional

varieties grown organically

Make the produce available to the poor

and downtrodden


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It is agreed that any social entrepreneurship should

also be profitable to make it sustainable. At the

same time the produce and benefits of this venture

should reach the poor and downtrodden as their

health and well being have also to be taken care of.

There should be a balancing act to sustain the

venture as well as to cater to the lower strata of the

society. We must bear in mind Swami

Vivekanandas famous saying So long as themillions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every

person a traitor who, having been educated at their

expense , pays not the least to heed them!

Therefore it is our duty to make the fruits of our

venture to reach the poor and downtrodden

Only theory? Here is the actual model farm

which meets most of the objectives

While visiting a traditional food festival came across

a name Nalla Keerai(meaning good greens) . This is

an organic farm a venture floated by a group of

young unlikely agriculturistsR.Jagannathan, abusiness manager in a city firm, Gowtham Balaji, a

former financial analyst with an MNC, Venkatraman,

a software architect splitting his time between


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software and agriculture, Viswanathan an engineer

with a car firm, Punitha a professor at Pondicherry

University; Shyam,a management consultant,

Dr.Salome Yesudas, who worked with Sustainable

food and agriculture systems, agricultural consultant

of Radhakrishnan,Rajamurugan, researcher of south

Indian traditional foods, Thirumalai who studied at

IIT Chennai, Arivarasan, who is also a programme

director,swabhiman bharat giving science educationto children in villages and Raghuvaran ,a gold

medallist in Economics- all quit their jobs to form this

nalla keerai organic farm spread in 5.5 acres

acquired on lease situated about 40km from

Chennai.

As I have heard its interesting story. I made a

specific visit to it as a model farm discussed in this


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presentation.

- Sadhana kudil the office cum stay in place for the

inmates and trainees

Visited this farm which is the brainchild of

Jagannathan. He once saw a farmer sleep with a

damp towel over his stomach to overcome hunger.

Moved by this and to do something for the welfare of

the farmers. He conducted survey of 210 agricultural

families in the village Melappedu and shocked to

know the farmers spent about 1.6 fertilisers,


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pesticides, medicines and alcohol and wanted to

find a way out for this atrocious state of affairs.

Jagan travelled farms across Tamil Nadu. He met

pioneering organic farmers like G.Nammalvar saw

first hand magic of luscious coconuts and radiant

bananas. He saw how farmers could raise more

than what they did if they went organic. They could

save the mammoth expenses, be healthy and lead a

comfortable life. The solution was simple but theproblem and reluctance to switch to organic lay in

the fact it took two years to turn the land fertile and

cultivable for organic farming. They had to forego

income for this period. Organic keerai or the organic

greens are ideal to cultivate during this period.

Realising this He floated this farm first for organicgreens.


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- The greens grown within rectangular bars

After a lot of trial and error they now raise 30

varieties of greens which are sold in baskets , bikes

and cars of the volunteers in the team from various

fields including couples from the IT sector.

The venturists learned as they grew. Jagandiscovered the green was standing over three feet

tall in a spot where they dumped cow dung. Taking

cue from the nature they learnt to spread cow dung


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on the plant beds and harvested three bundles from

one square feet. They also found organic greens

had a huge market with Chennai alone consuming

10 lakh bundles per day. A customer base had to be

created and their team just that by using facebook to

good effect to promote the Organic greens.

Volunteers are gathered online to pick the greens

from certain points and sell in their localities. The

organic green is a tool to sell other promote and sellother products like fruits, vegetables, poultry and

milk. They are launching Nalla sandhai meaning

Good market a producer company. Through this

farmers will be able to raise and sell reaping

maximum benefits.

They also conduct workshops during week ends to

aspirant farmers, students and others to impart

training in organic greens and other farming.

Students and other aspirants from all over the state

come and stay there for training staying at the


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cottage aptly called sadhana kudil

- Students from IIT Chennai who visited the farm at

the same time the presenter visited as part of field

visit of farmers symposium at IIT Chennai during

class


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- Jagannathan the founder explaining to students

of IIT Chennai in the fields about organic greenscultivation

They are also assisting a community of irula farmers

to raise in their farms

One of the team members has started Nalla soru

meaning good food to promote millet-based food

and conducts cooking workshops across the state to

teach traditional south Indian recipies. I could see


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that after cultivating greens only now they are

starting to cultivate bananas and paddy .

- After successful turn around of soil for organic

farming by transit organic greens now paddy is

being grown using a strong traditional variety.

Greens can be continued to be grown

Most surprising aspect is that the soil at the farmis clay like not ideally supposed to suit

agriculture and the greens and other crops are

growing without any hitch.


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Inspired by them now almost 12 groups of young

people have started farming in the surrounding

areas and more groups are likely to form in the near

future leading to a possible co operatives among

themselves

social entrepreneurship on health- the holistic way - poster

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