The mission and vision of AME are empowering small scale and marginal dryland farmers in degraded ecological situations in the Deccan Plateau zone by improving their livelihoods, addressing gender and social equity concerns and promoting ecological farming alternatives.
The majority of the farming population own less than one hectare of land and live and work in fragile environments, with little capital for investment and few off-farm employment opportunities. The major economic activity in these areas is agriculture, with around 40% of families dependent on income through agriculture and allied activities.
The dominant farming system artificial fertilizerbased cropping, which is harmful for the soil and reduces resilience.
The initiative is supported by AME, which has successfully promoted Low External Inputs and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) methods of farming and Participatory Technology Development (PTD). The organisation helps farmers to adapt and sustain their livelihoods despite challenging climatic conditions through better management of natural resources by making better choices of crops, cropping systems and
farming systems and enable them to adopt the ecological agriculture practices. The initiative strives to foster local-level farmer institutions and develop their capacities to sustain the adoption of ecological agriculture.
The systematic combination of in-situ rainwater management, soil fertility improvement and crop and cropping practices is supported by activities like generating and recycling manurial biomass and resource conserving methods like the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and have been adopted by farmers in irrigated paddy, rain fed paddy, finger millet and red gram production. Farm families have integrated supplementary income generating activities into their livelihood strategies, achieving greater sustainability.
The approach and methods that have underpinned the transformation of the production systems include guiding farmers through season-long Farmer Field Schools (FFS), building the capacities of rural youth in sustainable agriculture, enhancing the capacities of other NGOs in Sustainable Agriculture and FFS to enable scaling up of agroecological approaches over a broader area, and wider dissemination of field experiences on ecological agriculture.
