The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Mobile organic food centres to be operated by women in Hyderabad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Mobile organic food centres to be operated by women in Hyderabad

Staff Reporter

Plan to finance and station 500 such shops in several residential areas

They will sell jowar, sajja, taida, whole and crushed millets, and even jaggery
Vans will carry artisan products like pots, baskets, woollen blankets, ropes and door mats

— Photo: Mohd. Arif

Health watch: Medak district Collector B.Venkatesham surveys Deccan Development Society organic mobile van at Collector’s office in Sangareddy on Monday.

Sangareddy: Medak district Collector B.Venkatesam has said that the district administration would seek the help of the municipal authorities in Hyderabad to open mobile organic food centres which would be run by the women of Zaheerabad-based Deccan Development Society.

He said this after launching a van carrying organically grown rare millets today here at the Collector’s office.

The Collector expressed willingness to finance at least 500 such mobile shops which would be stationed in different residential areas in the twin cities and also in all major towns in Medak district.

Cultivation

The collector suggested the DDS members to take up cultivation of sweet sorghum and baby corn which have lot of demand in urban areas.

The mobile centre, which would be stationed at the Collector’s office every Monday, offers a variety of flours of jowar, sajja, taida, whole and crushed millets like fox tail millet, little millet, red gram, Bengal gram, green gram, horse gram and even jaggery.

The tastefully decorated van sell snacks like ‘taida laddu’, ‘korra laddu’, ‘murukulu’, ‘korra’ and ‘sama khichdi’, all of which were made by the chefs of Cafe Ethnic of Zaheerabad.

The van also carries a number of artisan products like pots, baskets, desi woollen blankets, ropes and door mats.

Speaking to The Hindu director of DDS, Periapatnam Satish, said that the women members of the DDS would prefer to concentrate on millets rather than diversifying to commercial crops.

He said that initially the organic mobile would be stationed at the Collector’s office and Hyderabad on rotation and try other towns in Medak district. Satish said that the women members who have been operating from a shop near Zaheerabad bus stand have earned good dividends against the investment of Rs. 100 per head.

He said that in seven years the dividend rose to Rs. 500 and this year alone the dividend was almost Rs. 300 per every Rs. 100 invested.

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