| 3rd Annual Konkan Fruit Fest, Goa - May 6-8, 2005 |
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| Today's Events include Fruit Quiz - Papaya / Banana eating |
| Competition. Check out http://konkanfruit.swiki.net | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
A potato success story unfolds in Agra (FEATURE)
By Brij Khandelwal, Indo-Asian News Service
Agra, May 7 (IANS) The humble potato is changing the lives of many poor women all around this Taj Mahal city.
When Tamanna Begum, 36, declared in March that the vegetable would be her instrument of economic empowerment for a vast majority of women in the rural areas of Agra, no one took her seriously. But the woman, who is president of a women's self-help group of Kachchypura, an area only a kilometre from the Taj, had her way.
She, along with a host of women activists, has successfully organised a unique Potato Mahotsava (potato festival), with a scintillating display of new potato based delicacies.
These include aloo petha, aloo gulab jamun and aloo bomb.
"If you can have a wine festival, a mango festival, why not an aloo (potato) festival?" asked Tamanna Begum, speaking to IANS. "That too in an area which has the highest yield of potatoes in the country?"
The potato festival was held at Hotel Goverdhan this week. This was followed by an extensive contact programme with women from various areas around the Taj Mahal to mobilise support and explore new markets for potato-based products.
The festival ignited a lot of curiosity and amusement among the visitors, who were welcomed with potato garlands.
The district governor of Lions Club, Shashi Gupta, the first woman to hold thePost here, wondered why potatoes were often wasted in a country where there was so much poverty.
Sudha Saxena, president of the All India Women's Conference, said potatoes had opened a new avenue for women's empowerment.
She said: "Women's groups in (poor neighbourhoods) will now be organised and provided raw potatoes which would be processed into finished products like chips and papads and other forms with a longer shelf life."
This would provide additional income to thewomen and also help the potato producer, said another organiser, Surendra Singh Chandel.
Manish Agarwal, who owns a 100-acre farm, said he would provide a new variety of potatoes at subsidised cost to woman activists to enable them to produce chips that would rival the best in the market.
Potato was first cultivated by Inca Indians in Peru in 200 BC and Spanish colonists took it to Europe in 1536. Very soon Sir Walter Releigh began growing it over 40,000 acres in Ireland.
The vegetable led to the now famous French Fries in the US during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson in early 19th century.
The Portuguese introduced potato to India in the 17th century. It was grown in Kolkata and spread elsewhere during the governorship of Warren Hastings in 1772-85 and remains a staple food in large areas, particularly among the poor.
Indo-Asian News Service
