Empowering indigenous communities through Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs) for resilient, integrated and innovative natural resource management 2022- 2023
Indigenous People’s Food systems are not only unique but are also resilient to have stood the test of time. Indigenous farming practice continues to be major economic contributors in rural Meghalaya despite it being the era of conventional agricultural methods. To further strengthen and empower the farmers in their endeavours to preserve and promote traditional farming practices and protect their food systems, NESFAS introduced the Agroecology Learning Circle (ALC) project, which was supported by MBMA and funded by the World Bank. It was also part of the innovation component within the CommunityLed Landscape Management Project (CLLMP) led by MBMA, and included 100 active participating villages from Meghalaya. With the coming of this project, custodian farmers were given a common platform to share and exchange their knowledge, unique to their communities. It also saw the revival of many traditional practices and methods pertaining to pest management, soil management, and seed management. Most of these practices were found to be diminishing in their usage, with no written records or documentation. Experiments were conducted by ALC groups of each community under this project, using locally available resources mentioned in the methods. This also contributed to the inter-generational transfer of knowledge as people of all ages men, women, youth and children took part in its activities such as Agrobiodiversity Walks, Cluster Sharing Workshop, Leadership training, Community-Led Participatory Research.