Scaling Up Agroecology Through Public Policy, Youth, and Farmers Movements

Lead Organization: Arulagam

Partner Organizations: La Via Campesina South Asia and Zero Budget Natural Farming Movement.

Location(s): India and youth trainings in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan

Award: $85,000 over 24 months

Amrita Bhoomi is a peasant agroecology school launched by the Karnataka State Farmers Movement (KRRS for its initials in Kannada language) in 2013. It serves as La Via Campesina’s agroecology school in South Asia and is a member of the Zero Budget Natural Farming movement – an agroecology method practiced by millions of farmers in South Asia which aims to drastically cut production costs and stop farmer suicides that are often motivated by high debt. This collaborative has a two-pronged strategy. On one hand, they will initiate a campaign for supportive public policies in Karnataka to support agroecology. The government of the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh has recently launched a multi-million-dollar program on Zero Budget Natural Farming to convert production practices of 500,000 farmers in that state. Amrita Bhoomi and KRRS will educate policy makers, government officials, politicians, and social movement representatives from their state about such effective public policies and programs, by taking them on field visits to Andhra and facilitating interactions with government officials and farmers there. At the same time, they will scale up agroecology practices by training rural peasant youth, Dalit youth, and women at their training center.