AME FOUNDATION Key Issues and
Operational Areas, Major Activiities & Achivements
Operational Districts: Mahbubnagar,Dharwad, Kolar,Dharmapuri
Operational States: ANDHRA PRADESH, KARNATAKA, TAMIL NADU
AchieveMents: Rain fed areas are vast, neglected and progressively getting degraded. In India, in fact, they constitute the largest potential farming area too. Majority of the farming population are dry land farmers and resource poor, pursuing farming for a living. Neglect of these farming majority as well as the farm lands would result in increased erosion of livelihoods as well as ecological instability.
Agriculture Man Ecology (AME) was born in 1982 in the Netherlands, as an innovative international training programme on ecological agriculture. After getting relocated in 1986 in India, operated as a project (1986-96), and later as a bilateral project (1996-2001) between Govt. of India and Govt. of Netherlands. Recommended by the steering committee, headed by Ms Rita Sharma, then Joint Secretary, GOI, AME became an Indian Foundation, in the year 2002. All along, AME has been promoting ecological agriculture for more than 30 years in rain fed areas. AME Foundation is a registered Trust with FCRA and 80G sanction and is guided by an eminent Board of Trustees, including those who are recipients of national and international honors. The Trust is chaired by Shri Chiranjiv Singh, former Ambassador of India to UNESCO in Paris and includes Dr. Vithal Rajan, Dr M Mahadevappa, Dr. Venkatesh Tagat, Dr. Narayana Hegde and few others.
AMEF, as a premier organization promoting Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) has worked in association with several Government agencies and international organisations. These include, NABARD, KSTA, DST, DBT, as resource organisation in DFID supported KAWAD watershed project, and a large AMEF-FAO 4 year collaborative programme. The other donors with whom it has partnered include WWF, GEF, IDRC, RNE, DGIS, SIDA, and Misereor, besides few private philanthropic groups. (www.amefound.org).
Currently, AMEF has field operations in three southern states of India on the Deccan Plateau ââ¬â Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, focusing on rain fed farmers practising LEISA approaches. Besides dry land agriculture programmes, promotes SRI methods for better management of resources and ecologies and peri urban agriculture to a limited extent. AMEF is pioneering knowledge sharing on practical agroecological field experiences through a platform - LEISA India in English and seven local language versions.
AMEF has guided more than one lakh rain fed small holder farmers to adopt simple, alternative, acceptable and easily adoptable farming alternatives. AME has been focusing on promoting optimal and sustainable use of natural resources like water and soils; diversified and integrated farming systems for food, income, fodder and nutritional security; fostering resilient farm practices to deal with climate change challenges.
The farming alternatives are promoted through organised group learning and farmer-centric learning processes like season long Farmer Field Schools. This type of empowered learning has resulted in enhanced knowledge and self confidence of the farming communities. They have realised improved yields and reduced cost of cultivation for better net incomes. Special efforts are being made to focus on farm youth and women to create social capital.
