Dear Friends and well wishers of Fair Trade Alliance Kerala,

With the conclusion of SeedFest 2019, we thought it important to give you a brief up date about the progress on our Rebuilding Sugandhagiri programme, to which you have all contributed in significant ways. So here is the story in brief:

Post Flood immediate relief:

– Cash solacium to families in relief camps
– Clearing of accumulated debris from houses – FTAK members from all the four districts converged on to Sugandhagiri and undertook clearing work.
– Supply of pipelines for drinking water. 10 km long pipelines were bought and supplied – all the FTAK members in Sugandhagiri now have clean drinking water reaching their homes.

Resource mobilisation:

Our appeal for contributions to our rebuilding efforts received overwhelming response from our customers, well wishers and friends. The following organisations made significant contributions. Coupled with individual donations and own contributions from FTAK you have helped mop up INR 10 million to our rebuilding efforts. Not all this money is in. We have some campaigns that are still being mopped up and some part of the money still being transferred, But we believe when all is done, we should be able to account for receipts worth INR 1 crore, i.e 10 million. In USD terms this works out to: 140000/- Thank you every one.

How will your money be spend?

Reality is, we have been shifting goal posts, and not infrequently. This has had to do with calibrating our rebuilding efforts to the flood relief measures, both medium term and short term by the government. Thus, allocation for rebuilding houses has been restricted to just a handful of cases whom the government bypassed for legal or technical reasons. Similarly, against the initial spurt in flood relief material, we shifted focus almost entirely to rebuilding farms and restoring livelihoods. The final list of allocations announced at the seed festival looks something like this:

What has happened so far?

The seed festival saw the formal launch of the post flood rebuilding efforts. As you might recall, the Seed Festival 2019 was themed Seeds of Survival. Member of the Local Self Government and Member of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Shadevan and IC Balakrishnan MLA, respectively, formally launched the rebuilding programme at the Seed Festival. FTAK General Secretary, Thomas Kalappura presented the account of the receipts from the appeal for Rebuilding Sugandhagiri and the plans and budget for utilisation of the amount generated.

Seven workshops and an agriclinic were held on the sidelines of the Seed Festival, focused on climate resilient agriculture, flood mitigation measures and ancillary income generation. Climate resilient pepper and coffee growing practices, Seeds that withstand climate change and on farm bio diversity to mitigate the impact of climate change were the subjects for the workshops related to on farm practices. The use of geo textiles (made of coir) to arrest soil erosion and rebuild top soil was a workshop that had immediate practical import for the rebuilding efforts.

On farm fruit processing for preservation and value addition with on hand training received enthusiastic response. The training that received maximum response was on speciality bee keeping – the bee keeping and honey extraction methods of the medicinal bee variety, “cheruthen” was explained in detail. And the end of the workshop the participants left with the first set of live beehives to their homes.

Agriclinic:

The seed festival this year saw a dedicated stall where farmers could gather information on all the different schemes, facilities, loans, subsidies, incentives that were on offer to farmers under various governmental and semi governmental agencies. The department of Agriculture deputed their personnel to the stall to explain the various schemes and clarify doubts of the farmers.

Gift Counter / Seedling distribution:

A highlight of the Seed Festival this year was the decision of FTAK districts committees in Kannur, Kasargode and Kozhikode to donate 10 per cent of all the seeds that they bring to the SeedFestival to Wayanad farmers, the worst affected due to the floods. Annadana Seed Savers from Bangalore who could not attend the SeedFestival ensured that they send large quantity of seeds through friends from Banglaore attending the event. These and the first instalment of seedlings were distributed to the farmers at the conclusion of the seed festival. But the majority of the saplings will be distributed only just ahead of the monsoons, the planting time in Kerala.

Further on:

The identification of farmers entitled to relief assistance is complete, save another round of fine tuning. The release of assistance will take place in the coming months and is expected to be completed by June 2019. There are some activities that will conitinue in to the year – soil restoration, assistance for initiatives in value added products, group farming initiatives, etc.

We thank you all for the efforts made to reach out to us during and in the aftermath of the floods. We will provide you periodic reports about how your solidarity gesture is bearing results in the fields.

Warmest regards,

Tomy Mathew

Promoter – Fair Trade Alliance Kerala