The strategy focuses on re-localizing production through mixed cropping and poly-cultural farming to enhance food and nutrition security. It revives inter-generational learning and promotes community food sovereignty, engaging over 20,000 farmers in 800 villages. Research on forest foods highlights their rich nutritional value and supports policy advocacy. Women are empowered to address under-nutrition through informed crop choices. The PLA-LANN approach builds community skills and reorients food systems toward safe, diverse diets. Elders also play a key role by sharing traditional knowledge with the youth, preserving the Kondh way of life.
Research and Documentation
Reviving International Learning
Re-localizing the production and consumption
Robust Value Ecosystem
Empjhasizing on adult in the community
Participartory Learning and Action
Strengthening Rural Women
Re-localize the production
Re-localize the production and consumption, reviving and promoting poly-cultural farming; encouraging mixed cropping as necessary to improve household food and nutrition security.
Reviving Inter-generational
Reviving Inter-generational learning process to ensure location specific knowledge transfer, it facilitates peer networking among and between them, enhancing collective wisdom and actualizing community food sovereignty. More than 20,000 women and men farmers in 800 villages are now involved in mixed cropping agriculture.
Research and Documentation
There has been an assessment of Nutritional Value of Forest Foods by Rresearch Institutions. The nutraceutical analyses of wild foods collected from the forest indicate forest foods offer a rich supply of carbohydrates, vitamins and anti-oxidants. The studies also highlight how similar forest patches yield different quantities of food with community management compared to statutory forest management. These documents have been well referred by the policy makers. There are documentary films ‘I can’t give my forest to you’ and ‘Dokri’ citing the worldview of kondhs and their struggle to live through this, made by Living Farms.
Strengthening Rural women
Strengthening rural women by critical reflection on the causes of under-nutrition is a continual engagement of Living Farms. Initiatives of Kondh mothers to find locally appropriate solutions led to their self-empowerment like what are the crops to be grown in the village and which are not referring to the nutritional need of the family etc.
Participatory Learning
Participatory Learning and Action – Linking Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Nutrition (PLA- LANN) is used as a methodology for community mobilization; strengthening analytical skills, the youth are also introduced to problem solving, negotiating and networking skills to address the issue of under-nutrition. The processitself contributes to reorient the local food system to produce safe, diverse adequate and nutritious foods, promote improved dietary diversity and consumption of balanced diets. Additionally the process extends to make agriculture fields safe for pregnant and lactating mothers, positively transform the social attitudes and practices detrimental to nutrition of women and children, and recognize peoples’ rights over food producing habitats etc.
Emphasizing on adults
Emphasizing on adults in the community to play crucial role of resource persons share their wisdom with their children and youth, to facilitate them to learn Kondh way of life through direct experience with them.
