This workshop will talk about the permaculture work Living Ecology and Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, hosts of the next International Permaculture Convergence are doing in Telangana, India. They work with the state’s poorest farmers to bring a drought resilient alternative to the GMO crops the villagers are growing. The work they do combats farmer suicides, nutritional deficiencies, monoculture systems and severe water insecurity. It will describe how to integrate and work successfully with rural people in another country.

Presented By: Raya Cole 

Sunday, September 18th | 2:20 – 2:40 PM | Solar Panel: El Sol

Narsanna Koppula is a permaculture pioneer in India. Bill Mollison visited him in 1987 and created a village permaculture project. He is cofounder of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, host to the next International Permaculture Convergence in November 2017. He is a permaculture social activist whose focus for 25 years has been empowering poor rural communities. He educates and assists villagers in transforming their lands that grow GMO monocrops into food self sufficient permaculture farms. He facilitates a large government watershed project that implements rain water harvesting and vegetative plantings on 37 500 acres of land. He has been responsible for planting millions of trees on government and private land. He is a strong advocate of tree based farming systems and rain water harvesting. His work brings much hope and knowledge to his drought affected state, as permaculture earthworks quickly make dry wells abundant. Their farm is a beautiful example of self sufficiency.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Seed Preservation: Making Clay & Manure Sealed Baskets