Working closely with farmers, weavers, fisherfolk, foragers, local entrepreneurs, and community cooks in Meghalaya and Nagaland, NESFAS is conserving Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems and its diversity.
Established in 2012, NESFAS or North East Society for Agroecology Support—formerly known as North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society—is a grassroots organisation dedicated to revitalising, safeguarding, and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems (IPFS). They work closely with indigenous communities like Khasi-Jaintia, Garo, Karbi, and Biate in Meghalaya and Nagaland, emphasising their role as guardians of biodiversity, food, land, people, and nutrition.
Currently, NESFAS partners with around 590 communities in the region to continue working across four major themes: biodiversity, nutrition, livelihoods, and climate change. Under each of these themes, NESFAS has piloted highly participatory projects led by the community that place indigenous knowledge at the centre of development processes. These projects involve mapping of nutrient-rich and climate-resilient species; setting up community seed banks; linking schools to agrobiodiversity for improved nutrition; promoting locally sourced, seasonal foods prepared using traditional knowledge and practices; building climate-resilient villages; and conserving native biodiversity for livelihoods security.
Key Areas of Work
Why We Love NESFAS
- Creating nature-based livelihoods for women and youth: To amplify sustainable tourism in Meghalaya, NESFAS organised a specialised training programme at Ladmawphlang and Laitsohpliah in East Khasi Hills in 2025 where they trained 100 rural youth between the ages of 18 to 29 years, with the skills to serve as Nature Guides. They focused on building local capacity to promote community-led, eco-friendly tourism and offered sessions so the youth can pursue careers as professional tour guides. NESFAS equips women with technical knowledge so they can take up green livelihoods. For instance, NESFAS trains women in sustainable piggery management where they learn how to turn smallholder pig-keeping into a profitable enterprise.
- Participatory approach to safeguarding food systems: NESFAS works with its partner communities through a participatory, community-led approach that places indigenous knowledge and institutions at the centre of development processes. Rather than implementing top-down interventions, they focus on strengthening Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems (IPFS) in close collaboration with community members by co-designing natural resource management plans. For instance, in the Mawbri village in East Khasi Hills, the locals found that the fish population and the quality of water were diminishing because of pollution from mining and explosives used for sand quarrying. NESFAS mobilised around ten local communities to form a joint action committee, protecting parts of the river stretch by converting them into fish sanctuaries.
- Mitigating the effects of the climate crisis: Across villages in Meghalaya, NESFAS is addressing the climate crisis through biocentric restoration where indigenous communities like Dewlieh, Nongwah, Umsawwar, Ladmawphlang, and Nongtraw are leading initiatives to restore land in Indigenous Peoples’ territories through the recovery of their ancestral knowledge and territorial management. They aim to revive ecosystems and replenish degraded landscapes by planting native trees. Along with this, NESFAS also provided solar electrification to two villages, viz Mynriah (Mawkynrew Block) and Nongpriang (Shella Bholaganj Block). The aim is to provide access to clean energy through solar power and cookstoves, thereby improving livelihoods.
How They Work
NESFAS’ work in numbers
- Number of villages/partner communities: 640
- Number of Agroecology Learning Circles: 2,000
- Agrobiodiversity documented: 1,800
- Total landscapes mapped: 210
- School meal programmes: 26
Agroecology Learning Circles
In 2018, NESFAS introduced Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs)—community-governed grassroots platforms in Meghalaya and Nagaland—to preserve and promote traditional farming practices. Here, farmers discuss and plan farming activities together as well as learn new skills that aid agroecology practices and ensure food sovereignty. Since its establishment, the ALC model has scaled up—with support from the Meghalaya Basin Development Agency (MBMA) and the World Bank—to more than 100 villages and over 2,000 farmers, of which around 83 percent are women and youth.
Custodian farmers share and exchange their knowledge and conduct regular experiments using locally available resources to revive traditional methods of pest management, soil management, and seed management. Together, they help identify best solutions to address pest infestation and degrading soil health. Most of these practices were found to be diminishing in their usage, with no written records or documentation. For instance, indigenous communities once relied on plants such as wild ferns to control crop pests and insects. Today, indigenous farmers blend these practices with modern agroecological techniques by undertaking participatory soil and pest monitoring and using their collective knowledge to standardise the preparation of bio-inputs for more effective and consistent application in sustainable farming systems.
ALCs, thus, have become a space for inter-generational knowledge sharing. This, in turn, helps indigenous communities recognise, revive, practise, and further develop traditional farming practices.
Linking schools to agrobiodiversity for improved nutrition
In 2022, NESFAS piloted a community-led school meals programme across 11 schools in seven villages in Meghalaya to tackle chronic malnutrition. Since then, the programme has expanded to 26 schools, reaching over 1,500 students. The aim is to make healthy, nutritious, and diverse balanced diets accessible through school meals by procuring at least one-third of the ingredients locally. These meals—part of India’s Mid Day Meal (now PM-POSHAN) programme—are cooked on-site and are free for everyone.
Prior to the intervention, the meals consisted of rice, lentils, and potato, which fell under only two food groups—pulses and starchy staples. By linking biodiversity to school meals, NESFAS has diversified the menu, which now also features fresh, locally sourced millets, fruits, and wild greens such as jatira (water celery), khliang syiar (Indian Pennywort), jabuit (Creeping Smartweed), and jasim (Lined Elatostema), either supplied by farmers who are part of ALCs or sourced from adjacent school gardens. Along with creating income opportunities for local farmers, this initiative is improving children’s diets and reviving indigenous food traditions.
In 2024, NESFAS partnered with the state education department to train 7,159 cooks in nutrition and local sourcing. The menus are co-created by these cooks along with parents and teachers. “Since the introduction of these meals, we have seen children becoming healthier, more active, and more open to eating vegetables they once avoided,” says Alvarine Kharnaior, Head Teacher at Holy Family RCLP School in Pyrda. “Beyond physical growth, they are also beginning to understand the importance of nutritious food and caring for their health through what they eat.”
Promoting locally sourced, seasonal foods
NESFAS follows the guiding principle of ‘Mei-Ramew’—which means ‘Mother Earth’ in Khasi. Through this, they promote locally sourced, seasonal, and culturally significant foods prepared using traditional knowledge and practices via cafes, farmers’ markets, and value-added products. Today, NESFAS has set up seven Mei-Ramew cafés across Meghalaya, and trained local communities in the business of hospitality. For example, in Ri Bhoi district’s Khweng village, about an hour from Shillong, Dial Muktieh serves traditional Bhoi recipes made from seasonal, regional produce at her Mei-Ramew Café.
By prioritising ingredients procured directly from community producers, these cafes ensure fair value for farmers. NESFAS also organises farmers’ markets and food festivals to connect indigenous food producers directly with consumers, promote food sovereignty, and teach the public about locally harvested wild edibles. The local communities also prepare Mei-Ramew products like black sticky rice, perilla seeds, pineapple jam, and prickly ash which NESFAS then helps to brand and market.
Collaborations with The Locavore
How You Can Help
If you’re looking for ways to support NESFAS, reach out to them at infonesfas@gmail.com.
This story is part of our Organisation Partnership Program. At The Locavore, we strive to keep the practices of an organisation transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.
