Farming Community

In Tamil Nadu a massive 56% of the population lives within rural areas and 70% are dependant on agriculture for a living. Farmers and farming communities therefore play an enormously important part in ensuring the success of any ecological project. The changes that have taken place in farming practices over the last 30 years have deeply affected rural communities and the environment. As a consequence the farmers have become the first victims of the land degradation.

For that reason, teams of PGH volunteers settle in villages and spend an enormous amount of time meeting the farmers, facilitating group discussion, visiting their land, organizing showcase field trips and playing awareness documentaries. To speed up the process the PGH Team actively targets the farmers associations that are already helping farmers to cope with agriculture crisis.

Existing Partnerships

LEISA – Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture, a worldwide organization working for the promotion of organic farming in southern hemisphere. Through their self help group in one of our plantation zone (Pudukottai district) they have developed 400,000 saplings under PGH guidance.

NAAM – National Agriculturist Awareness Movement, a national organization working to revive the farming community and discuss new farming methodologies; 20,000 trees have been planted through their members in 2007.

The Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers Movement (Tamilaga Iyarkai Uzavar Iyakkam) founded by Dr Nammazvaar, an agricultural scientist and expert in agro-forestry, has also been actively involved in promoting the Project with Dr Nammazvaar himself relentlessly conducting an awareness campaign from village to village.