Project to ANNADATHA for Zero Budget Natural Farming

Traditional agriculture:

Traditional agriculture, stemming from local cultures, has been feeding the world for millennia. Small farmers have nurtured, conserved and brought us the thousands of cultivated species that have enabled humans to adapt to a wide range of environments. At present, 3 billion peasants (including their families) depend on these traditional and ecological forms of agriculture, pastoralism and fisheries for their livelihoods. Yet, both the agricultural systems and the peasants themselves often have been marginalized and ignored.
Today the threat of climate change and collapsing ecosystems has led to the realization that the very existence of these traditional systems, a treasure of humankind, is at stake. Yet these systems hold the seeds that have the potential to protect the environment and feed the planet’s increasing population – their intrinsic resilience is too precious a quality to be lost.

Ecological agriculture:

➢ Ecological agriculture is based on methods, techniques and strategies that preserve and improve the environment; can show higher yields per unit of agricultural land
➢ Ecological agriculture strengthens farmers’ positions in relation to market and society, thereby reducing poverty among small-scale farmers who comprise half of the global population;
➢ Ecological agriculture is better suited to feeding the world’s hungry, 50 percent of whom are themselves small-scale farmers;
➢ Ecological agriculture has the potential to increase food production towards a level which can feed future generations.

It has now been demonstrated that double digit increases in yields can be obtained while reducing synthetic fertilizers and that pest control can be substantially improved while drastically cutting the use of chemical inputs. Beyond yields per se and the amount of food that can be produced, these different forms of production touch upon a whole range of environmental and social benefits with both tangible and intangible benefits for local communities and ecosystems.

Work Plan:

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