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Employment for Women in Community Farms
Suneal Patel

Green Livelihoods Mission

Objective: Job Creation Through Urban Farms

To provide green livelihood opportunities for women and young people from low-income neighbourhoods through targeted skill development and training programs focused on gardening, food processing and marketing.

Motives

  • Most people who already grow vegetables, greens, fruits and herbs in their homes are not able to access the right help / support to expand their efforts. A green livelihood program can create a strong and well trained garden support task force to meet the demand for such support in maintaining urban gardens.

  • Interest in home grown and organic fresh food has spiked post Covid-19. A Community Farm-based livelihood program can increase access to locally grown organic produce while creating green jobs for low income communities.

  • In a survey conducted at a Resettlement Colony (Perumbakkam), residents expressed willingness to learn about urban farming/ marketing / food processing. A green livelihood program can provide women, young people and others with sustainable, dependable and flexible jobs that can improve their standards of living and bring them into the formal workforce.

How You Can Help

Sponsor a ‘Makkal Thottam‘ (Community Farm)

Makkal Thottams will vary in size depending on locality and space available. Intensive, organic farming techniques and high value crops like medicinal herbs, and food crops with high processing potential like Banana and Moringa will ensure that vulnerable communities benefit through opportunities created along the entire value chain from setup to maintenance, post harvesting and marketing.

COST OF SETTING UP & MAINTAINING A 10,000 SQFT FARM FOR ONE YEAR:
INR 9 Lakhs

How You Can Help

Sponsor / Conduct an Urban Farming Training Program

Training programs will range from Organic Farming Techniques, Crop Care & Garden Maintenance, Farm Inputs Production (Organic Fertilizers & Pesticides) to Post-Harvest Trades (Cottage Industries, Food Processing – Health Supplement Production, Conserves (Pickles, Jams, Dehydrated Foods), Packaging, Branding and Marketing.

COST OF TRAINING / CAPACITY BUILDING:
Dependent on program – Contact Us for opportunities

How You Can Help

Host A PatchaiMadi / Makkal Thottam

If you have unused open space either on the roof or at ground level in your commercial or industrial property, you can lease this space, with a rent-free period till the farm becomes profitable, to a deserving community.

Alternatively, if you are aware of space, either publicly or privately owned that would be ideal to set up a community farm, please get in touch.

LEASE YOUR SPACE FOR URBAN FARMING:
Contact us for opportunities

FAQs

Yes! Since Community farms will vary in size depending on land available, based on your budget you can sponsor a larger or smaller farm.

Yes, sponsorship activities towards the Green Livelihoods Mission will be considered as activities relating to the following categories listed by Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013:

  • eradicating extreme hunger and poverty;
  • promotion of education; including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects.
  •  promoting gender equality & empowering women
  • ensuring environmental sustainability;

Care Earth Trust (CET), a registered NGO, and an empanelled organization of the State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu will receive donations and oversee implementation of all sponsored activities. CET has 18 years experience in the field of scientific services, strategic consulting and implementing training and capacity building initiatives in the area of biodiversity conservation and human impact on the environment. CET is a recipient of the prestigious Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar, awarded by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. CET has FCRA and 80G clearance, and can accept contributions in foreign and Indian currency.

Yes, but to a limited extent only.

Certainly. If you support a Makkal Thottam, you can arrange to visit the farm when ever you like.

Support Green Livelihoods through Corporate Social Responsibility or Private Contributions

Contact Us for more details on how you can further the Green Livelihoods Mission.