India - AME Foundation

AME Foundation (AMEF) has been supporting ecological agriculture in India for more than 25 years. Like all AgriCultures Network members, it promotes knowledge exchange through the publication of a Magazine: LEISA India magazine, which is published in English and other five Indian languages. Besides the magazine AMEF is also involved in different projects and initiatives.

What is AMEF’s purpose?

A bulk of the farming population makes a living out of dryland farming who did not benefit from advances in agriculture. Also, the high external input use coupled with the neglect of natural resource management has resulted in degraded environment. AME Foundation, with its deep interest in improving farm livelihoods, addresses these concerns through better Natural Resource Management and changed land use practices.

AMEF has chosen to work with small and marginal farmers caught up in fragile eco systems like drylands who are struggling to make a living. Along with farmer groups AMEF evolves suitable alternative land use practices which are need based, affordable and acceptable through farmer centric participatory learning processes.

AMEF assists farmers in the drylands in stabilising and improving yields, reducing costs, reducing chemical inputs in farming, building resilience in dealing with drought conditions, moving from monocropping to mixed cropping, combining food and cash crops, better recycling of resources based on eco principles. It also builds awareness among the urban citizens in growing healthy and safe food on the roof tops.

When and why did you decide to become an AgriCultures Network partner?

AMEF is one of the oldest members of the erstwhile LEISA Network, since 1997. In fact, AMEF and ILEIA have started their journey more or less around the same time, some 27 years back, promoting Sustainable Agriculture based on Low External Inputs. During the late 90s there was a growing recognition of the importance of ecological agriculture.

However, there was hardly any source of information for people interested in ecological agriculture. For this reason, ILEIA had started producing the global LEISA magazine with practical field experiences. AME and ILEIA’s collaborations started with research collaborations. Beginning with distribution of the global magazine to Indian readers, later producing a Indian supplement, AME launched an Indian edition in 1999. This was based on the felt need for enhanced coverage of local experiences in addition to global experiences.

What have you found to be the benefits of being an Agricultures Network partner?

Field visit – Exchange of information

What is the number one challenge facing small-scale sustainable agriculture in your region?

There are vast tracts of drylands, neglected and progressively becoming increasingly degraded. Moreover, the impacts of climate change are looming large, rendering large tracts unproductive. Majority of the farming population are dryland farmers, they are resource poor, struggling to make a living. Such situations are threatening the nation’s food and nutrition as well as ecological security.

There is an increased recognition nationally and worldwide, that there is a need to give adequate attention to dryland areas for two reasons. The first is livelihood improvements; food and income security, new sources of growth and ecological stability are interlinked and second, there is no further scope for improving food production in irrigated areas as they have already reached saturation.

What is your organisation doing to fight against this situation?

The way we produce our food plays an important role in how we deal with the changing climate conditions. Ecological farming systems are based on a diversity of regional crops and livestock breeds and avoidance of external inputs such as synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. They rely instead on nutrient recycling and biological pest management. Three are the ways in which AMEF addresses the issue:

AMEF evolves suitable alternative land use practices which are need based, affordable and acceptable through farmer centric participatory learning processes.

1. Management of natural resources (This includes promoting water conservation measures, adequate environmental stability and biodiversity);
2. Making appropriate choices of crops and inputs (reducing dependence on external inputs and supporting ecological agriculture which relies on recycling of resources, self reliance and lesser dependence on external inputs);
3. Building local human resources with the purpose of organizing local communities, enhancing their knowledge levels so that they become competent enough to build and manage strong community level institutions. I would like also to point out that AMEF activities give special attention to rural youth; that is, to future farmers.

Could you say a little more about the significance of educating young generations of farmers?

Rural youth have not only the potential to make agriculture sustainable but are also assets in the rural communities. With proper guidance, they can lead communities towards achieving local food security. Towards achieving this, AME Foundation has been training and guiding rural youth in the villages to serve as Sustainable Agriculture Promoters in promoting eco-friendly practices.

AMEF has pioneered empowering farmer education processes. Farmers are guided through experiential learning processes which enable ‘Learning by Doing’. Also, farmer groups are guided to understand ‘why’ while putting into practice the ‘how’ aspects of farming through season long events organised on the farmers own fields termed, Farmer Field Schools. The rural youth trained through season long FFS not only become better farmers but also better farm guides enabling sustainability of the change processes

Find out more about AME Foundation (AgriCultures India)

- AME Foundation member group page
- AME Foundation website
- Read LEISA India magazine