Historically many exotic vegetables eventually became an integral part of local cuisines & got popularized more than the local varieties. In India, currently, vegetables that are referred to as exotic have been introduced in the last few decades. Some of these exotic vegetables in India are not yet household names, while some of them are slowly gaining popularity. With an increasing number of Indians exploring international cuisines, the business of exotic vegetables is also growing.
To keep pace with the growing demand and increase the income of farmers, Mukti is trying to motivate the farmers of the Sundarbans region to cultivate exotic vegetables. In order to achieve this goal, Mukti on 11th November 2021, Thursday has distributed some exotic vegetable seeds to 9 farmers of Nagendrapur and Kankandighi GP as a pilot project. Depending on their success Mukti will distribute these seeds to more farmers at a later stage.
20 varieties of exotic vegetable seeds like Broccoli, Cherry Tomato, Capsicum, Lettuce, Sweet Corn, Artichoke, Zucchini, Pak-Choy, Kakdi etc have been distributed. Along with the distribution of seeds, the farmers have also been provided training on how to cultivate them by the SAM trainers. If required, Mukti will organize some more training programs for them in the future.
Mukti will be in regular contact with all those farmers through field visits, virtual meet and phone calls. Apart from this, farmers can also contact the SAM office at any time in case they face any problems.
Since these tasty & nutritious exotic veggies have very high market value in cities and have less demand in rural areas; Mukti will sell them in Kolkata through Mukti Fresh.