ABOUT
About the Fellowship
As a part of the fellowship, we selected a cohort of three writer-researchers and three audio-visual storytellers from three distinct geographies in India—the hilly terrain of Meghalaya, the coastline of Tamil Nadu, and the drylands of Madhya Pradesh.
THE LOCAVORE TEAM | 7 SEPTEMBER 2026
Women employed at a nursery in Amravati district, Maharashtra, sharing lunch. Photo courtesy of Priyanka Tupe/Behanbox.
About
At the heart of the Woman Farmer Project was a four-month-long immersive storytelling fellowship (May-August 2026) for young Indian women journalists, filmmakers, writers, researchers, and storytellers with a demonstrated interest in covering women in agriculture and related themes such as climate, food systems, policy, and culture.
Through embedded fieldwork and storytelling, our fellows spent extended time with communities and partner organisations in their focus regions, allowing stories to emerge through trust, observation, and everyday interaction.
The fellowship is rooted in principles of consent, transparency, care, independence, and accountability.
The fellowship generated a body of stories and documentation across multiple formats. Each regional team consisting of one writer-researcher fellow and one audio-visual fellow worked closely together during their field immersion to produce:
- Longform reported features (2,000-2,500 words each) exploring the realities of women farmers and food workers.
- Short documentaries (8-15 minutes each) documenting women’s labour, knowledge, and everyday experiences within local food systems.
- Everyday Locavore stories highlighting women who enrich and sustain food systems in various ways.
- Research on regional food practices, including documented recipes and oral food histories for the Longing for Home series.
- Field notes and reflections documenting the fellows’ observations, interactions, and learning from time spent on field.
- Photo-essays capturing the lives of women farmers across the project’s regions.
And watch this space for more stories over the coming month
The Woman Farmer Project, a multimedia storytelling initiative led by The Locavore in partnership with the Doc Society Climate Story Kitchen. It aims to build a roadmap for successful collaborations between institutions and innovative grassroots networks who are committed to amplifying climate stories.
The Doc Society supports climate action across the globe by championing independent filmmakers, audio producers, journalists, and artists working alongside impact producers and movement builders to bring more communities into climate conversations to advance climate just and biodiverse futures.