Adivasi Women Train Youth on Forest Foods in India

Project updates and progress

Work in the nursery for wild food plants are on-going. Wild food plants have been raised or cultivated in the nursery from seed and are housed at the Adukkam Resource Centre. These include the very little known plants Olax scandens and Cansjhera rheedii, as well as some bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus). Some of these food plants are ready to be planted in other forest sites with the help of indigenous communities. 

These months the effort has been to introduce lesser known plants that can be harvested from the wild. These include: Caralluma (stems), Costus (rhizomes), Eryngium/ Celastrus/ Bauhinia/ Solanum/ Amaranthus (leaves), as well as bulbils of Dioscorea. Some of these photos are available and attached in this report. 

Some effort was also made to leave behind some food sources for birds, especially the vulnerable Common Grey Hornbill, and the Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa). These foods sources are essentially species of Ficus, Syzigium and Grewia. 

Due to the Covid-19 situation the students were limited. The Covid-19 situation along with incessant rains in the areas have prevented further workshops with the adivasi people. The team plans to conduct workshops within the next months. 

We invite you to watch this video about the Adukkam Resource Centre and the impact of the wild food gardens, nursery work and training that have been conducted thus far. Such exchanges among women, youth and adivasi people on lesser-known food plants strengthen knowledge, systems, and practices and have rejuvenated forest food traditions among adivasi communities. 

Support our work with adivasi women

We continue to solicit support to further our work on nurseries and support adivasi women's activities on inter-generational learning. To date, we have raised $2,020 for the project. Donations are most welcome to help in our work with adivasi women training youth on forest foods. Your contribution will help us cover training materials and costs for work in the nursery and the planned workshops.

Please visit our page to learn more and to find out how you can be part of this on-going initiative on forest foods in India.

Links:

• Adukkam Resource Centre and Wild Food Nursery Garden Impact

Project updates and progress (as of 12 May 2021)

In our latest report, we share about a workshop on inter-generational knowledge transfer on wild foods that happened from March 21-22, 2021 at the Palliyar settlement at Kudhraiyar, Tamil Nadu, India. There were about 35 participants in the workshop, ranging from about 2-75 years in age, with a predominance of women - the true masters of wild forest foods!

Discussions were facilitated and a field visit to the forest was initiated, with older people leading the youth and children during the latter part of the workshop.

It became quite clear that there was a gap in knowledge between generations within the Palliyar community but also that both generations were eager to learn from each other and work towards bridging the gap.

The wild food workshop held also opened graver issues that need to be addressed alongside the transfer of indigenous knowledge (in this case about wild foods). This will require more discussions with the people and mediating or facilitating between these communities and the local authorities. Another workshop is planned in the coming months to take into account the present outcomes. We plan to hold smaller discussions in the short-term to consolidate inputs and ideas towards the further development of the forest food field school program.

Read more about the report in the attached document.

Your donations are most welcome!

To date, we have raised $1,833 of our $10,000 goal for the project “Adivasi Women Train Youth on Forest Foods in India”. Although we have not yet reached our fundraising goal, we are pleased to report progress so far in terms of social preparatory activities and learning exchanges, including the initial workshops that have been started

Our vision is to facilitate inter-generational knowledge transfer and conversations on the subject of wild foods and forest foods in India. We are aiming to establish a Forest Food Field School program to address the knowledge gap of youth and locals on important food sources from the forest.

We continue to seek your support to help Adivasi women train youth on identifying, documenting and harvesting nutritious food from the forest and grow their own food gardens for food resilience. You may visit our page to find out how you can contribute to the establishment of the Forest Food Field School in Addukam, India.

• GlobalGiving_NTFP_Report_12May21.pdf (PDF)