Food Sovereignty in India
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Kitchen Gardens Help Feed Entire Communities
August 2008
In India, government and agribusinesses continue to push an agriculture approach that relies heavily on expensive chemical pesticides and fertilizers; costs that small-scale farmers can little afford. By promoting food grown locally and without the use of chemicals, USC’s partner – the GREEN Foundation (Genetic Resource Energy Ecology and Nutrition Foundation) – is helping farmers become self-sufficient in terms of their food needs.
One way they do this is through the concept of community kitchen gardens. GREEN Foundation encourages communities to grow vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs right in their yards. “Kitchen gardens are easy to set up and to maintain,” says Dr. Nadagouda of the GREEN Foundation. “They provide a ready source of food – nutrition for a whole community throughout the year, especially if a little thought is given to planting varieties that grow progressively.”
Success Story
The Community Kitchen Project in Dasayanadoddi village provides a prime example. There, 13 women farmers – members of a self-help group – established their own community garden, both as a source of food and as a means to help protect, conserve, promote, and revive genetic and cultural diversity. On a small parcel of land donated by the head of the village, the women established their garden. Two women from within the group were then elected to head the project, delegating labour and monitoring progress.
With technical advice from GREEN foundation staff, these farmers have learned how to set up and maintain the garden. The women work in the garden every day and share equally in the responsibilities, from sowing until harvest. All the group members are marginal farmers, and a few of them are landless! Together, they grow different varieties of beans, okra, tomato, carrot, radish, gourds, red gram, pigeon pea, cowpea, sweet potato, corn, and several greens.
The harvest of vegetables is shared among the 13 women and their families. One of the farmers, Nagrathnamma, says, “I have stopped buying vegetables, and my family is thrilled that we have vegetables along with our food every day. All I have to do is walk to the garden in the morning to decide what to cook for the day.”
Conserving Diversity
But the impact goes beyond the vegetables they harvest on a daily basis. The group members realize the importance of conserving diversity and members now have a keen interest in bringing back indigenous crop varieties; varieties that fell out of use as non-native seed varieties became more popular.
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Watch the short documentary Seeds in Internal Exile to learn more about the GREEN Foundation’s work to promote indigenous farmers seed varieties. |
The native seed varieties are well adapted to local growing conditions, growing well without the use of expensive chemicals. Conserving those traditional varieties has helped ensure farmers don’t need to turn to chemicals to improve yields.
In fact, they’ve been so successful in multiplying the traditional seed types that they are now able to share them, marketing them to farmers in various parts of India. The women sell the indigenous varieties to promote diversity and bring about seed self-sufficiency among farmers in different regions.
Their hard work and dedication has helped provide them not only with food and livelihood security, but also with independence from a more chemically intensive method of farming. They earn Rs.4000 (about $100) a year through the sale of seeds. The women’s dedication has brought about a significant change in the welfare of their community.
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was founded by
Dr Lotta Hitschmanova in 1945. Our award-winning Seeds of Survival program promotes vibrant family farms, strong rural communities, and healthy ecosystems around the world.
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