As part of the Bioregional CoE’s Natural Farming Project, Jagriti Enterprise Centre – Purvanchal (JECP) is building a cadre of local youth who can take natural farming knowledge into their own communities and sustain the work over time.
Today’s cohort includes two Fellows from Deoria and two from Kushinagar . Each Fellow will work directly with farmers across two villages , reaching 12 villages in total six in each district .
But they won’t be doing this alone.
JECP has a three-year partnership with RySS , bringing deep, field-tested expertise in Natural Farming through their Community Resource Persons (CRPs). As our Knowledge Partner, RySS will provide technical guidance and hands-on field support, working alongside the Fellows until the knowledge and skills are firmly transferred.
And that transfer is the heart of the model.
Too often, development programmes depend on external experts: experts arrive, demonstrate practices, provide support, and eventually leave. Adoption may increase while they are present, but sustaining that change becomes difficult when the external support ends.
Our approach is different. We are investing in people who belong to the place.
The Natural Farming Fellows are being developed as a local cadre so that knowledge does not simply reach the community it settles within the community .
The design principle is simple:
Technical depth from RySS. Local ownership through NFFs. Long-term change through communities.
This is not about delivering a programme to villages. It is about building the capacity inside villages.
And the stakes go far beyond one farming season. Natural Farming has the potential to reduce input costs, improve soil health, support biodiversity, strengthen farmer livelihoods, and contribute to healthier food systems across the region.
None of this can be sustained by a project timeline alone.
It scales through people who stay.
And perhaps the most beautiful part of today was hearing the CRPs from Andhra Pradesh sing a passionate song in Hindi alongside our newly onboarded Fellows. Different places, different languages, but a shared commitment to learning, farming, and building something that lasts.
