Living soils and well-managed, clean water are essential for bringing hope to a part of the world that didn’t benefit from colonialism, capitalism, or globalization and is already experiencing intense climate impacts. The Maati-Paani-Asha Center at Gopikabai Sitaram Gawande College (MPA) aims to address the challenges in and around Umarkhed, India by modeling and supporting a transition to agroecological farming practices that regenerate soil, water and hope, increase food access and provisioning, improve food marketing practices, coordinate community infrastructure improvements, and disseminate novel psychosocial supports.
MPA’s projects include:
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a Farmer Study Group Fproject which provides training and support to help farmers adopt diversified, agro-ecological farming methods that favor traditional seeds and on-farm inputs and connect them with buyers seeking sustainably sourced ingredients;
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a Model Farm illustrating and testing agroecological methods for both dryland and irrigated farms;
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the Nutrition Garden project establishing model kitchen gardens at village schools and forming women’s empowerment groups centered on providing training and support to establish kitchen gardens;
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an Indigenous Technical Knowledge project documenting indigenous technical knowledge of farming practices in 5 villages;
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an APDM5 Mental Health project assessing depression, anxiety, and suicide risk among farmer households in 5 villages; and
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A Water Management research project studying the use and allocation of irrigation water in Yavatmal District.
The director of the Maati-Paani-Asha Center, Betsy Briju, PhD, worked closely with EcoGather Learning Network Associate, Mackenzie Faber, to build a course in Growing Food for Health and Security. The class brought together some of GSG College’s instructors and researchers to try their hand at cultivating crops like taro, spinach, and bananas on roofs, along driveways, and along walls, to devise their own composting systems, and to share what they’ve done with pride in a concluding ceremony on September 29th. The participants offered a glimpse into the sort of world we hope to usher in through EcoGather – one where anyone can garden with whatever they have in abundance and accomplish through the spirit of collectivism that which remains out of reach when we insist on individualism. They showed us that out of some simple online modules can come something extraordinary, something transformative, something that made us smile so much our faces hurt. We can’t wait to do it all over again when we offer the course in Hindi in the coming weeks.
