Working closely with smallholder farmers in Maharashtra, Earth4ever Conservation Foundation blends regenerative farming practices and indigenous knowledge to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, ensure food security, and aid income generation.
Founded in 2019 by artist and designer Aparna Bangia—and later joined by Komal Thakur, a permaculture designer and author—Earth4ever Conversation Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation working with smallholder farmers in Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar to restore native biodiversity and build sustainable livelihoods by helping them design kitchen gardens and food forests. They collaborate with indigenous communities—including the Warlis, Katkaris, Koknis, and Thakurs—combining their knowledge with regenerative farming principles like permaculture and agroforestry.
By adopting regenerative practices of focusing on soil health and increasing biodiversity, farmers cultivate multiple native crops, like takla (wild senna) and kurdu (silver cockscomb), which, in turn, helps them provide nutritious meals for their families as well as sell surplus produce at local markets.The regenerative approach mimics the forest’s multi-layered ecosystem, emphasising the symbiotic relationship between local communities and their environment.
Key Areas of Work
Why We Love Earth4ever Conservation Foundation
- Improving nutrition through kitchen gardens: In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, many farmers in the Tansa Valley in Maharashtra’s Palghar district faced an acute shortage of food. To combat this, Earth4ever, along with Sukhbhumi India Trust, an NGO working with tribal communities in Maharashtra, facilitated a kitchen garden project where they helped 15 women farmers across five villages design kitchen gardens in their backyards. These gardens feature native produce such as adulsa (malabar nut), ambadi (roselle), khurasani (black henbane), tulsi (holy basil), different types of haldi—including yellow tumeric, mango tumeric, blue wild tumeric—kantola (wild spiny gourd), tuar (cow pea), and sweet potato. After discussing the farmers’ needs and challenges, Earth4ever organised workshops to train them to design kitchen gardens tailored to their own requirements and backyard. They also provided the farmers with seeds, saplings, and soil inputs, and conducted regular site visits. Today, 65 women farmers are part of the kitchen garden initiative.
- Embracing natural forest systems: During the summers, extreme hot and dry weather in deciduous regions results in cracked mud. This clayey soil, called ‘chikkat matti’ in Marathi, is packed tight and has little aeration, making it difficult to grow crops. Earth4ever encourages farmers to mimic a natural forest floor—with bio diverse leaf litter, dry wild grass, crop waste like rice husks, and animal manure—which provides food and shelter for microbial life and, in turn, nutrition to the plants. To mimic the different layers of the forest, they guide farmers to plant a biodiverse selection of plants in different zones: rataalu (purple yam) in the root zone with its leaves covering the ground, maath (green amaranth) in the middle shrub zone, and corn as the emergent (tallest) plant in the bed. With a relay planting strategy, where there is a continuous rotation of crops being circulated between the nursery and the plant beds, the farmers receive a continuous harvest.
- Capacity building and livelihood creation for women: Typically, in farming families, the decisions around the farm land are made by men, with women having little say in the matter. By helping women design kitchen gardens and food forests, the women are able to sell the excess produce at local markets and become financially independent. Earth4ever also encourages the farmers to sell produce in the second week after the harvest, to ensure that they first have enough food to consume at home. They train women via workshops and forest walks, and also organise regular peer-to-peer learning sessions where women discuss their challenges, share knowledge about indigenous produce, and exchange family recipes. Earth4ever also launched the Market Garden Incubator, a programme in partnership with Sukhbhumi India Trust, to help farmers maximise yield, increase the diversity in daily nutrition, and earn a supplementary income with surplus produce. At present, the programme also helps women farmers develop value-add products like haldi pickle and roselle jam.
How They Work
Earth4ever Conservation Foundation’s work in numbers
- Number of farmers: 68
- Number of villages: 15
- Number of trainers: 4
- Number of children and youth: 50
- Permaculture kitchen gardens: 43
- Food forests: 10
- Permaculture orchards: 3
Teaching permaculture techniques on a demonstration farm
Instead of focusing on individual aspects that make a food system, permaculture offers an alternative design system where, with certain adjustments, a landscape is able to sustain the soil, water, and biodiversity of a region. Permaculture farms behave like—and work with—natural ecosystems rather than replace them. Earth4ever drew on these principles, along with indigenous communities’ traditional knowledge of the forest to design the Vad Permaculture Demonstration Farm in the Tansa Valley, in Palghar, in 2019.
This one-acre-large farm was co-created with the owners, Purnima and Vinayak Vad in Dodhadepada in the Thane district. Today, they grow a variety of crops like beans, gourds, vangi (aubergine), suran (elephant foot yam), and rice. The diversity in crops also attracts different types of fauna like butterflies, bees, caterpillars, frogs, toads, and tailor birds.
Earth4ever regularly conducts walks and workshops at the farm to familiarise farmers with permaculture techniques, including soil rejuvenation, crop planting strategies, and regenerative farming practices.
“After learning about permaculture with Earth4ever, we now incorporate the principles across all our new projects. In the last two years alone, we’ve established five permaculture orchards, a school garden, and several other sites. In a region where soil is cracked and dry, and you can only see brown, these sites are one of the few thriving green spots throughout the year, providing a variety of nutritious food for the community.”
—Sapna Patil, Trustee, Sukhbhumi India Trust
Setting up food forests
As part of Aamhi Pan Nisarg Aahot—which means ‘we are nature too’ in Marathi—Earth4ever, together with Vanarai Trust and mentored by Regenerosity, who work with communities in threatened landscapes, set up 10 food forests in Aarey Colony in Mumbai, and Wada in the Palghar district. A food forest is an agricultural system composed of perennial edible plants that mimics the structure and ecological processes of a natural forest. In order to build this system in deciduous regions of Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar, Earth4ever partnered with 10 local women farmers, relying on their traditional knowledge of the forests, to understand the ecosystem. The farmers decided on grains, vegetables, and trees that would complement each other. For instance, tree beds of moringa, tur, haldi, and ginger are alternated with vegetable beds featuring radish, fenugreek, cauliflower, okra, marigold, and tulsi. The different colours and smells of plants (like marigold and tulsi) act as a natural deterrent to pests. The taller trees (bananas, for instance) provide semi-shaded and protective spaces for young saplings such as kokum.
Since establishing food forests in 2021, local communities saw an increase in food and nutrition security. The project also helped women earn an additional income for themselves as they would sell excess harvests of abai sheng (sword bean), ghosali (sponge gourd), alu paan (taro leaves), bhindi, brinjal, lemongrass, and gavar at the local market. The women took ownership of their food forests. For example, in Chandrapada and Ketan, when heavy rains damaged young vegetable saplings, women immediately substituted them with suran (elephant foot yam) and karande (air potato) that thrived in the environment.
Restoring and regenerating landscapes
The Tansa Valley comprises many forest hamlets that are now in very ecologically sensitive zones due to illegal felling of trees and selling off of rich topsoil to brick kilns for the further development of the cities. To restore the soil at the Vad Demonstration Farm, Earth4ever focused on building up the rhizosphere, the area of soil directly influenced by root secretions.
Earth4ever conducts various outreach programmes encouraging people to get more involved in the restoration of forests. They spread awareness through activities led by local tribal communities. These include tree appreciation walks, planting native trees, and clean-up drives for those living in Mumbai and Wada. For instance, in order to restorate the degraded parts of the Aarey forest, they collaborated with Youth for Aarey, a volunteer-led community protecting Mumbai’s green spaces, and mobilised citizens to plant around 600 native trees, shrubs and climbers such as pangara (tigers claw), karanj (Indian beech), ran aboli (wild firecracker flower), karvanda (carandas plum), and palash (flame of the forest). During these outreach programmes, they ensure that people understand the native forest ecosystems and their ecological heritage.
How You Can Help
Earth4ever Conservation Foundation seeks donations to help continue their work with smallholder farmers across Maharashtra. If you are interested in volunteering or collaborating with them, write to them at aparna@earth4ever.in and komal@earth4ever.in.
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.
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