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The Mother Who Plants Trees

We are inspiring farmers to plant trees and convert to organic for restoring the water table..PlanetShifter.com Magazine is a partner.

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The Mother Who Plants Trees

The Mother Who Plants Trees

The Mother Who Plants Trees

The Mother Who Plants Trees

The Mother Who Plants Trees

We are inspiring farmers to plant trees and convert to organic for restoring the water table..PlanetShifter.com Magazine is a partner.

We are inspiring farmers to plant trees and convert to organic for restoring the water table..PlanetShifter.com Magazine is a partner.

We are inspiring farmers to plant trees and convert to organic for restoring the water table..PlanetShifter.com Magazine is a partner.

We are inspiring farmers to plant trees and convert to organic for restoring the water table..PlanetShifter.com Magazine is a partner.

Charlotte Anthony
Charlotte Anthony
Charlotte Anthony
Charlotte Anthony
2 Campaigns |
Uthamapalayam, India
$211 USD 11 backers
2% of $10,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects

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...

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Choose your Perk

Teaching Fishing

$25 USD
Give a man a fish and you will feed him once. Teach him to fish and you will feed him continually. For our $25.00 donors you will know that you have given a family the seeds and paid for our expenses to impart the knowledge to grow food to feed themselves for the rest of their lives. These are the kind of seeds they can save for their future.
1 claimed

Your name on a pond

$100 USD
For out $ 100 donors, you will know that you have supplied the means to build a wadi (6 x 6 pond) that holds a portion of the monsoon water on one family's land for their foreseeable future. Before the next monsoon they can remove the silt from this pond to nourish their crops
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Your name on a swale

$200 USD
For our $ 200 donors you will know that you have supplied the means to build a swale across the high part of one family's property. These swales will then release the water during the dry season to allow the trees and interplants growing there to thrive. These plantings would not otherwise survive the dry season without irrigation and because of desertification, there is no water coming from these family's wells.
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Out reach

$1,000 USD
For our $1,000.00 donors you will know that you have paid for our expenses to reach out to 100 families and include them in our program. (We have to talk to the villages and neighbors to find out who needs us and then visit every family).
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