Stories of Change
Lessons in scaling up
System of Rice Intensification is a knowledge intensive method, which is evolving continuously. To be able to spread widely and sustainably, a different approach is required altogether. Knowledge empowerment, participatory processes, continous hand holding,...
International Encounters on Family Farming and Research: Some reflections
In the context of the International Year of Family Farming, the research institutions of Montpellier’s Agropolis International took the initiative to organize a conference, 'International encounters on Family Farming and Research' in Montepellier, France during 1-3...
Urban home gardens – healthy use of urban spaces
Urban areas are fast becoming monotonous concrete jungles. The entire focus is on modernization with disregard for preserving traditional and culturally unique landscapes. Bangalore is caught in this frenzy too. In fact, the city is growing more rapidly than many...
Nutrition gardens: Women lead the way
Women in rainfed areas in Dharmapuri are switching over to kitchen gardens, which provide nutrition to the family as well as money. By recycling the limited water available, these women have shown that it is possible to grow vegetables all round the year. Pennagaram...
Making dry farming the second front of agriculture development
Farming is no more a simple “way of life.” It is now a key economic segment, under development. The first goal of development is poverty alleviation. But, this development has not found the right track. For, there is no development without change. There is no farming...
Upscaling an innovative practice in rainfed paddy cultivation
Farm practices, even with inherent merits, are often difficult to spread over a large area. It is much more challenging for a practice like SRI to be tried and scaled up under rainfed conditions. In such situations, a well planned strategy is all that is required to...
Small farmers move towards diversification
Adding various components on to a farm and integrating them has helped small farmers in Tamil Nadu reap rich harvests. The bio intensive farm models promoted by the Department of Science and Technology and based on agro-ecosystem principles, have resulted in a...
Women organize for seeds – an experience from Tamil Nadu
Karatampatti is a village, located not very far from the township of Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu. Around 1000 families belonging to various sections live in this village. The livelihoods in Karatampatti predominantly depend upon dryland agriculture with some farmers having...
Transition is a matter of watching and observing
In 1989-90 the Agriculture. Man and Ecology (AME) Programme. Pondicherry, studied the transition experiences of 12 ecological farmers in South India. Erik van der Werf reveals the difficulties these farmers faced and how. drawing upon their own inventiveness and...
Practices, Platforms and Policies -AME’s experience
Background Sustainable Agriculture (SA) became a dominant global concern based on the understanding of negative effects of Green revolution technologies. Born out of this concern for livelihood improvements and environmental stability is AME. AME started as an...