Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dr. Dhanya Praveen

Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
India

It is to share a project which has strong women empowerment component at the grass root level

Bringing back the traditional crop cultivation is carried out as a part of enhancing the coping capacity of the women farmers of the highly vulnerable tribal women farmers of Attappadi region of Kerala, South India, with the help of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). This initiatives rae done through the Neighbourhood Groups (NHG) of the Kudumbashree, a poverty eradication mission of the state of Kerala. Under this initiatives, native seed varieties of vegetables, millets and pulses sourced from the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) and the Desi Seeds Collective are distributed only to the women farmers. These activities are carried out under the Mahila Kisan Shashakthikarna Pariyojana (MKSP) of NRLM. It is proposed that the productivity under this cultivation will be used merely for the self-consumption of families which will take care of their nutritional demands and to prepare seeds for the next season.