On the occasion of this year’s World Environment Day, Garden City Farmers are organising their 38th event of ‘Oota from Your Thota’ (OFYT) on Sunday June 6 from 4 to 6 pm.
Speaking to News Karnataka, Rajendra Hegde, Trustee of Garden City Farmers, said, “The event ‘Oota from Your Thota’ was started 25 years back on August 2011 by Dr B. N. Vishwanath who is known as the pioneer of terrace gardening.” “Even after his death in August 2020 due to covid, we have continued his legacy and followed our initial plan of conducting four events per year for OFYT,” he added.
Since the pandemic is still on the rage, the event will be conducted virtually. The theme of the event will be ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ and working with small spaces which still contributes a lot to the biodiversity around us. Malathi K.N. will conduct a tour through her beautiful garden and talk on Gardening and Beyond. Dr. Sheetal Patil and Maitreyi Koduganti will discuss on ‘How to Integrate Urban Farming into a City’s Development Agenda?’ and how everyone can contribute to building the plans further.
Garden City Farmers is a non-profit organisation from Bengaluru which spreads awareness on the many ways to grow crops in small places which will provide organic food to the people. “Instead of organic plants, through these food plants they can enjoy home-grown crops in their home itself,” said Rajendra.
Over the years the team has conducted 34 events offline till February 2020 and 3 events online due to the rise in pandemic. Rajendra describes OFYT as an exhibition which can be divided into three spaces. “On one side we have demonstrations on how to build an urban food garden, the other side consists of workshops, consultations and so on which are free of cost for interested participants and this platform also provides an opportunity to buy garden supplies like seeds, compost materials, tools and so on,” he said.
Rajendra added that there are almost 100 organic suppliers who participated in their last exhibition which took place in February 2020. It is a big number considering they only had 11 suppliers when the OFYT platform started in August 2011.
“After the death of Dr. Vishwanath, we had a 25-week webinar on the topic’ Nurturing Urban Food Scape ‘, which gave us a wide reach and more people came to know about this initiative,” said Rajendra.
“Our brand focuses on green lifestyle promotion and organic farming in Urban areas and process of Oota from your Thota has a lot to add to the urban biodiversity,” said Rajendra.
“We have been associated with Garden City Farmers for more than 9 years now,” said Dr. Tejaswini AnanthKumar, Managing Trustee/Chairperson of Adamya Chetana non-profit organisation in a conversation with News Karnataka. “In our kitchen we practice zero waste policy where the food waste is turned into compost and through Garden City Farmers, we were able to spread this concept across the city,” she said. She also added that this has helped the organisation to be closer to nature.
Dr. Tejaswini said that while working with Garden City Farmers, Adamya Chetana used to provide food for the large number of people that used to come for ‘Oota from Your Thota’. “We provide food in reusable plates and glasses which are eco-friendly so that zero-garbage concept is maintained,” she added.
“Before the pandemic, both the organisations used to come together to conduct a mega fest on green sustenance at the National High School ground in Bengaluru,” Dr. Tejaswini explained. They would also participate in our green Sunday program, she said.
Dr. Tejaswini added that the products from Garden City Farmers which are chemical free and earth-friendly like soaps and detergents are also used in the Mega Kitchen of Adamya Chetana. “I even practice terrace gardening in my home for the benefit of nature which is again done inspired by this organisation,” she added.
The event will be live on YouTube by 4 pm on Garden City Farmers’ YouTube channel Organic Terrace Gardening. Click below to access the link.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfjiljZWNz-tNC5YRxALkSQ
