I am Charlotte Anthony. I have created 7
food forests and 650 gardens for community
I am Charlotte
Anthony. I have created 7 food forests and 650 gardens for community
members in Eugene, Oregon over only a 5 year period. While traveling in
India farmers I met told me about severe water problems. They have to
either do dry land farming or dig new bore wells every 2 years. The
rainfall is continuing to decrease. In some areas dry land farming is no
longer working. To alleviate the water crisis the Indian government is
paying farmers for the labor, the manure and for the seedlings to entice them
to plant trees. The farmers do not feel that they can afford to plant
trees because they take a long time to yield. I believe to be really
sustainable our practices need to pay the farmers a living wage so they can
grow food. To this end I have developed practices of interplanting crops
with the trees which will yield money in the first year and will, along with
the fruits of the trees, produce a significantly increased income for the
farmers once the trees start bearing. The farmers I am talking to in our
target area love the idea. They want to see it to believe it.
We are helping farmers
who do not have water to grow food. Many
of the farmers in India have learned that they can grow hybrid vegetables,
hybrid trees, with chemicals and export these for what they consider reasonable
sums of money. With desertification they
no longer have the water resources to do this.
The methods the farmers have been told will give them more yield take
3-4 times the amount of water. We are
showing them how to get slightly less yields on the main crop by using
permaculture and natural farming methods, but get more money overall by doing
intercropping. Another part of our
program is to create awareness and demonstrate the benefits of reservoirs,
swales, key lines, to restore ground water and rainfall. There are many steps to this process so see
our web site if you want to know more.
Our goal is to have
100 farmers participating in our program before the monsoon starts in June,
2014. We are offering them seeds which
they pay it forward when their own seeds come in. We are offering to buy their crops for a
premium above what they can get from the local markets because they are organic. We have found a report by an NGO stating that
6 x 6 meter ponds have worked for restoring ground water in 2 acre plots. It seems that there is a history of these
methods working in the past, so the farmers seem eager to start these water
conservation practices.
1)
To do this we need to outreach to the local
farmers who have water problems. We need to work with governmental agencies, NGO’s and local community organizations to
find out who these farmers are.
2)
We will set up a marketing arm which will
contact potential organic suppliers, meaning the farmers who are too poor to
use chemical fertilizers, and see if they need our help to increase their
economic base.
3)
We have found several
animated videos regarding ground water recharge which we will show to the
farmers.
4)
We also will hire
artists to make posters for our campaign.
a.
One set of posters would show what trees they
can plant which will recharge the groundwater and yield with dry land farming
and cultivation needs.
b.
Another set of posters
for the economic benefits of growing each particular tree.
c.
A third set of poster
for the additional economic benefits of intecropping with that tree and
diversity from planting with other trees.
d.
A fourth set
of posters for how to increase water levels.
The monies we need
are:
Labor for creating 60
posters………………………….. . . . . . .1,000
Materials for 60
posters………………………………………….. 500
Salaries for coworkers…………………
…………… ……..4,500
Setting up a tree
nursery including rent for 3 months. . . . . . .4,000
Total
expenses…………………………… ………
…10,000
http/www.handsonpermaculture1.org
In India there have
already thousands of suicides due to farmers losing their land. Without
our work, there will be many millions of starving people as well as more farmer
suicides. This desertification is worldwide, involving more than 90% of
the earth's surface. One advantage to working in India is that the
farmers here are desperate and once they see the model will work not only for
the water, but will give them a living wage, they will incorporate it
immediately. Our organization which is only months away from forming an
NGO has many local people involved who will carry on the work and spread it
throughout India and we hope the world. We are working with ways that are
inexpensive to install, increasing the likelihood of them going viral. So
contributing to this project you will significantly impact desertification as
well as contribute to the sovereignty of Indian farmers, the Indian population
in general and support a model of that will work for watering a world that is
desperate for it.
Isn’t it amazing that
trees which are in themselves one of the most beautiful offerings of nature are
also integral to the water cycle. What a magnificent example of stacking
functions to tree the deserts and at the same time bring back the water
to the earth now experiencing desertification. You helping this
project is the beginning.
If you forward this indiegogo offering to your friends and acquaintances you will know that you have contributed to the awareness of the relationship between desertification and starvation, and the awareness of a solution, one farmer at a time...