Aussie- Indian couple aspire to make ‘ growing your own food’ norm in homes across country
FOUNDED ON THE PILLARS OF DESIGN AND ETHICS OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING, PERMACULTURE IS CHANGING THE WAY WE LIVE
Australian- Indian couple Rosie Harding and Peter Fernandes, who run a verdant homestead in what is emerging as Goa’s hippest village, Assagao, aspire to make ‘ growing your own food’ the norm in homes across the country. The bucolic charm of their humble stead is similar to the quotidian, self- reliant goenkar home that traditionally grows its own food and poultry. Rosie and Peter’s garden of abundance produces a thicket of 250 different species and varieties of fruits, vegetables, perennial crops, calorie crops and herbs under the impartial Goan sun. This 700- square meter food forest, once a barren strip of land assessed unfit for vegetation, was transformed into a buoyant wonderland of lush greens by drawing primarily on the design principles and ethics of Permaculture.
Rosie plainly describes the ethos of permaculture as “the design and implementation of regenerative, self- sustaining and resilient natural systems that fulfill all of our human needs ( food, shelter, health, social and cultural), whilst caring for the earth and all things that reside on it.” The term Permaculture is a contraction of two words — Permanent and Agriculture or Permanent and Culture, which is simply an alternative way of living or a lifestyle that is permanently mindful of its surroundings. Permaculture is also a way of
Rosie Harding and Peter Fernandes Permaculture is the design and implementation of regenerative, selfsustaining and resilient natural systems that fulfill all of our human needs, whilst caring for the earth — ROSIE HARDING
creating systems and designs that emulate nature and is tightly spun around its 12 design principles, which can be applied to everyday living. The underpinnings of this design are firmly hinged on the non- negotiable rules: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.
Rosie and Peter got started a little over five years ago, when their search for locally grown organic produce, left them hardpressed to find anything that would fit their needs. “We figured we might as well just get started and decided to grow our own food,” shares Rosie. These pursuits lead them to learn about permaculture, which was a much larger domain, covering many aspects of living apart from just food. Their learning had a great impact on the duo, gradually shifting their perspective from ‘ how do we get good quality food’ to ‘ how do we get quality food that is also good for our environment.’
Permaculture was first introduced to the world by an Australian biologist Bill Mollison and his co- developer David Holmgren in the 1970s. Its principles were primarily designed to mitigate the damage caused by modern agricultural methods that were draining both the land and its resources. As Bill tersely writes in one of his books, “Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” Permaculture truly proposes embarrassingly intuitive solutions, in areas where man continues to be perversely counterintuitive. Mollison died in 2016, but the roots of his movement have spread across 140 countries world over, and is on the upswing in India.
Among the first few permaculture pioneers in the country, Andhra Pradesh- based Narsanna Koppula took his first ever
Per ma culture Design Course under the tutelage of Bill Mollison and Robyn Francis in the 1980s, without ever realising it would be his life’s greatest lesson. At the time, Narsanna was mentored by Dr. Venkat, who invited Bill and Robyn to India to work with the farmers and further permaculture in the country. Narsanna believes the forest is the future and he spread his message through his nonprofit organisation “Aranya Agricultural Alternatives” presently operating in the rural and tribal areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He initially started working with small and marginal farmers in the 1980s, especially with women farmers from Andhra Pradesh with the sole aim to replace chemical- intensive farming with a more sustainable and natural approach. Above all, he wanted to break free from the exploitative relationship with nature that man has conveniently remained oblivious to, He says, “nature is not exploitative, it’s cooperative. I think that kind of ethical investment, ethical thinking is what we need to overcome the challenges of social, political, economic and environmental pollution that plagues us today.”
His wife Padmavathi Koppula has been instrumental in translating his Utopian vision of achieving ecological, ethical and sustainable farming methods in India through the pathways of perma culture. The couple’s body of work and achievements are as vast as the farmlands they work on. For the past 30 years, they have been actively working with the principles of per maculture, but it has taken its own time to come into the mainstream. Says Padmavathi, “Permaculture, what I believe, is to work with nature and not against it. On Planet Earth, every living being has the right to live. It has to be a winwin situation for all.” While permaculture does not romanticise living at the roots,
Permaculture, means to work with nature and not against it. Every living being has the right to live. It has to be a win- win situation for all — PADMAVATHI KOPPULA
Narsanna Koppula during a winter Permaculture Design Course ( PDC) held last year at the Aranya Agriculture Alternatives Academy
Padma believes, there is one- generation of knowledge gap and practice gap. “What we suggest is the younger generation connect with the older generation and practice traditional farming methods and you don’t have to throw away technology,” she quips.
A lot of people might discount Permaculture as just gardening or farming or term it a neo- hippie trend with a cult following. But that is far from true. Permaculture is an applied science and it’s ability to describe the practical problems it seeks to solve has time and again dismissed these misgivings. The reason for this cites Rosie, “is because every permacultural system is anchored in the natural world and you can’t dissociate it from it.” While organic farming is one part of a whole, permaculture also entails social, economic and cultural aspects of living. “Outside of the farm, the future of permaculture is definitely in the socio- economic space,” explains Simrit, who runs the Roundstone Farms in Kodaikanal which is built around the principles of permaculture.
An example of applying permaculture in the socio- economic space would be to actively embrace diversity. As Simrit describes, “A healthy community would be one with a diversity of genders, races and beliefs that would almost definitely result in a more creative community. To ‘ creatively use and respond to change’ – pertaining to permaculture principle No 12 — all communities should have the flexibility to respond effectively to change because change reaches us all,” she shares.
A WAY OF LIFE Nature is not exploitative, it’s cooperative. I think that kind of ethical thinking is what we need to overcome the challenges of social, political, economic and environmental pollution that plagues us today — NARSANNA KOPPULA