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Padma Koppula is the cofounder of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, a 17 year old permaculture nonprofit organization in India. Aranya is the host of the next International Permaculture Convergence in November 2017. India has a large government watershed program, in which Aranya has been responsible for facilitating the implementation of rain water harvesting and vegetative plantings on 37 500 acres of land. She works with small farmers in her state who grow GMO cotton monocrops, teaching them the benefits of diversified cropping systems, and supports them in changing over to these permaculture practices. She works with tribal communities who are displaced from the forest,and,helps them to develop food forests and do rain water harvesting on the farm land the government has allocated them. Padma gives trainings in and uses participatory rural development techniques to work with villagers. She engages capacity building activities and education for rural people in water resource management, farm management, diversified annual crops and tree based farming systems. She teaches seed preservation of local and native seeds and helps establish seed banks in many villages. Padma is engaged in many other incredible works including helping the landless poor access land, creating women’s cooperative groups and does trainings for government employees.
2016 Convergence Workshop: Organizing Indian Women in Permaculture Food Self Sufficiency Systems
