Food Forests
Diverse planting of food plants, herbs & trees to emulate real forest for good food with sustainable income and environment
Diverse planting of food plants, herbs & trees to emulate real forest for good food with sustainable income and environment
Creates employment and entrepreneurship opportunities improving farmers income and rural economy
Plants are grown in symbiotic relation without using harmful chemicals resulting in nutritious Good Food for the producers and consumers
High density tree plantation produces more Oxygen & helps Carbon sequestration, reducing global warming and improves ground water.
Sponsor a fruit tree along with supporting plants. This will consist of
Support Food Forest for improving Rural Economy and Environment in 324 sq.ft in Tamilnadu. The 324 sq.ft Mini Food Forest will consist of
For developing Custom Food Forests of your choice, please write to us. The rural family who maintains the food forests by regularly nourishing the soil, watering etc will start earning income from 60th day. Food forests over 9000 sq.ft provides an average annual income of Rs.60000 to a rural family continuously after 3 years.
Food forest through natural farming - an ecologically sustainable agriculture method can correct the climate imbalances, improve groundwater, sustain millions of livelihoods and helps reduce global warming with sustainable income
Sustainable and Scalable model of food & agricultural system for improving health of the consumers, producers, rural economy and environment .
As We all know, trees are needed to capture carbon (Soil carbon sequestration), to improve oxygen, to reduce the effects of climate change. So we need to plant trees and “we need good nutritional food“ to boost our immunity for leading a healthy active life. Hope you are also aware that small farmers are at loss leading a very poor standard of life.
The pandemic and frequent natural calamities has created more awareness about good nutritious food and the importance of planting more trees for protecting the environment by reducing global warming.
But What is the solution for healthy food? How to improve the water table and quality of water? Who will plant the trees and protect them? How to improve soil carbon sequestration which helps reduce global warming for a better climate?
Creating “Food Forests “, diverse planting of food plants, herbs & trees to emulate real forest, is a solution to these problems of healthy food, planting trees, improving water table, improving soil carbon sequestration, biodiversity and sustainable income for farmers.
Food forests through natural farming methods - an ecologically sustainable agriculture model combining tradition and modern technologies -- growing trees together with crop diversity without harmful practices, creates a stable micro-climate for crops, ensuring nutritional food & food security, reducing poverty & environmental degradation with minimal use of resources. This can correct the climate imbalances, sustain millions of livelihoods, help reduce global warming, improve ground water level and recharge aquifers.
We are working on a sustainable Good Agricultural Practises, empowering farmers by changing cropping patterns through community supported “food forests” for producing “Good Food @ Fair price” making positive social and environmental impact.
Your support or involvement makes farmers' lives better and fuels our journey towards making “sustainableGood Food System a reality”.
A “food forest'' is a diverse planting of food plants, herbs and trees, considering symbiotic relation between the plants to emulate a real forest -- the ecosystems and patterns, found in nature. Food forests help make the soils live, produces more Oxygen and need minimum intervention. They self-maintain — eliminates the need for harmful chemicals, improve yield and profitability. They are resilient to pest & diseases, natural disasters, improve water table level and helps recharge aquifers.
We are developing a model “Food forest community“ in Villupuram District and working with 500+ neighbourhood farmers to practise Good Agricultural Practices and change their cropping patterns for sustainable income with food security and better health through an efficient supply chain. This can be scaled and replicated in any regions.
We are building technology for a new food supply chain that allows new experiences for consumers with traceability, accountability and various engagement programs. The system provides stable income to farmers by changing cropping patterns of conventional cultivation , harvest, storage and logistic process while bringing entrepreneurship opportunities improving the rural economy.
Conventional farming practices make soil infertile and made agriculture both a victim of and a contributor to climate change, a contributor for almost 18% of greenhouse gas emission. Farming, being more vulnerable to climate change threats, is also one of largest contributors for climate change.
Farmers neither have access to financial support from institutions like banks nor have sufficient backup with them. They are forced to borrow from money lenders, pay huge interest, and get into debt. It requires a lot of effort and external support to change this scenario for better health of the people and planet. The solution is building a community based sustainable, transparent, resilient food and agricultural system.
More than 80% of the farming community comprises small and marginal farmers. They lack funds for even survival and cannot think beyond conventional farming. Consumers also lost their trust on conventionally grown produce due to its quality and high contamination. Thus, there is huge demand for healthy produce with traceability. But the farmers are forced to accept whatever is available in the fertilizer shop or nearby farmers. The seeding materials they use are more prone to pest and disease hence more use of harmful chemicals. Even if some small farmers produce healthy food they don’t have access to the market. They are forced to sell the produce at very low cost.
Creating food forests, changing cropping patterns through FPOs, SHGs, Farmer Cooperatives, etc, with direct market linkages to bring down the production costs, wastage can bring more return on investment for both farm economy and environment. Sustainable income from farming ensures a better and safe future for the agriculture sector - farmers, consumers and the environment.
In India small farmers are the high risk taking entrepreneurs due to lack of investment, the absence of market linked production, less income, their inability to overcome natural calamities such as heavy rainfall, cyclone, or drought. Majority of farmers are not aware of changing market demand or consumer needs.
It’s a big challenge making small holdings economically viable and environmentally sustainable but also a huge opportunity for better growth and development. Many innovations have come, and it is continuing. But situations have not improved much. Our agriculture GDP contribution is still around 18%, and more than 30% of the population is under poverty. Productivity is nowhere compared to developed and neighbouring developing countries. The problem is the poverty and inability of the farmers to deal with the increasing challenges.
Why Poverty exist among the farmers?
Because of the inability of the poor to command over the resources and depend on third party without a market link for the sale of their produce at fair price
The Challenges in converting the farmers from being loss making producers to successful entrepreneurs improving rural economy and environment
● Avoid dependency of third party inputs and link with market for “ On demand production
● Change the cropping patterns - Reduced tillage, crop rotation, cover crops, multi crop plantation for better income, disease and pest management, better use of technology and innovation
● Make Value Added Products through cottage industries and community kitchen avoiding wastage as a community through FPOs , SHGs etc
● Changing mindset of farmers on sustainable agriculture and Good Agricultural Practises. They think it gives less yield and is uneconomical. Natural farming can earn more than conventional farmers with increase in the yield and improves soil fertility
● More than 15 % percent of produce is wasted between harvest and retail.
● Creating awareness with consumers about the healthy products through Good Agricultural practises and big impact it makes while buying the produce at fair price
Block chain can enable the consumer to know where the produce is coming from, thus building trust among the farmers and consumers.
We have a huge investment potential in the agriculture sector and it can contribute to above 25% of GDP. So the reversal of Climate change mitigation, poverty eradication, food and nutrition security, reducing global warming lie in the hands of farmers. Dramatic changes are happening across the globe due to globalisation, liberalisation, and rapid urbanisation. The farmers are ready to accept and adapt to the changes once they are supported with sustainable income. We have to use this opportunity to scale the business to raise the living standards of the poor and vulnerable farmers through good food system.
The health of the soil lies in the humus, where microbes are present in the soil. In conventional farming the microbes get eroded and run off through water with soil when there is heavy rains. This makes conventional agriculture highly unsustainable.
Agriculture being the most vulnerable sector to climate change impacts, the sector can take this as challenge and convert this into opportunity by adapting to sustainable agriculture practices by which it can solve the various other long lasting problems along with mitigating climate change. And the consumers gets healthy and nutritious products at fair price making win-win situation to consumers producers and the environment
We love our work and are happy to answer your queries, so feel free to contact us
Copyright © 2020 Food Forests - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder