Food Sovereignty based on Traditional Knowledge and Participatory Methods

Project begin: 01/04/2017

In India, the Food Sovereignty based on Traditional Knowledge and Participatory Methods project provides a forum to Adivasi Youth to find solutions within.

Leading organisation: Living Farms

The country where the team is based: India

Covered Countries: India

Theme: Biodiversity, Education for Sustainable Development, Local and Indigenous Knowledge

Sub-themes: Agriculture, Climate change, Cultural diversity, Food and food security, Gender equality and women's empowerment, Knowledge sharing, Poverty and inequality reduction, Sustainable lifestyles

Tag: #Women #Youth

Selection: 2022

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A woman teaches a girl a traditional threshing method

A harvest of dry beans

A woman picks red beans to dry them

Finger millet ready to harvest

The Adivasi Kondhs, the indigenous communities of Odisha, are living examples of a sustained communitarian and ecologically conscious way of life. They include nature as a part of their existence. Their worldviews, culture and agro-forestry practises have helped conserve a large portion of the thick dense vegetation of Odisha. Their knowledge of the native biodiversity has been scientific and orally passed down through generations. But the existence of these tribal communities is threatened.

Supported by Living Farms, the Food Sovereignty based on Traditional Knowledge and Participatory Methods project provides a forum for Adivasi youth to find solutions on their own, to engage in problem solving.

The project aims to connect youth with a sense of responsibility to their community, their culture and the larger world. It connects the youth with the elderly and knowledgable persons within community. The challenges are around agriculture and seed preserving practices, youth’s changing relation with dongar-forest, alienation in education.

The project is based on discussions and collective activities around the “inside”, the “Adivasi”, the “Kondha”. Dialogues around global phenomena such as climate change, its various impacts on the Kondha lifestyle and society are also initiated. Groups identify key changes taking place in their society, work on their immediate effects on their culture, and on a longitudinal plan of action for larger global issues such as climate crises.

The process of dissemination is taking place in over 300 villages in Rayagada and Koraput districts. The demographic range of the dissemination is multiaxial (of sex, age, class, caste, occupation) and is reaching at least 30,000 people. Over 3000 rural Adivasis have been mobilized to disseminate their knowledge.

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Livingfarms.co.in/