Swayam Shikshan Prayog, an award-winning NGO, promotes women-led climate-resilient farming and works with local women in a farm produce start-up called Keravriksha (coconut palm) and smaller ventures in Wayanad, Kerala.
Kartyanaiyamma in her 70s prepares and sells vaduku, small friable balls made of rice flour, turkey berry, garlic and other medicinal herbs from her farm. P.K. Radha, another village elder, distributes vegetable seeds treated with ash, smoke and cow dung that keep pests away, a technique taught by her ancestors. Her friends say she will be called Vitthamma (Mother Seed) soon. Sreejisha, a young Kurichiya adivasi woman, rotates vegetable crops in her rice paddy after harvest in “a very small first step, a beginning”, technically called the one-acre model. “The challenge, however, is to keep wild boars, pythons, monkeys and leopards away,” Kartyanaiyamma said.
https://india.mongabay.com/…/thirunellys-seed-festival…/
Swayam Shikshan Prayog
March 21, 2023