Permaculture design course concluded in Angangba village

A demonstration session underway at the Farmers' Innovation Centre. (Photo Courtesy: BLF)

Tuensang, March 15 (MExN): Better Life Foundation (BLF), an NGO that addresses social and environmental issue in the North-Eastern 'on the map, off the mind' region of India, hosted a Permaculture Design Course in collaboration with ‘Teaching Where It Matters’ - a Permaculture education outreach from February 27 to March 13.

The sessions were conducted at the Farmers’ Innovation Centre in Angangba village under Tuensang district.

According to a press release from BLF, the workshop touched on the process, ethics, and principles of Permaculture design while diving into climate-specific design elements using sector analysis, patterns to details, zonation, disaster mitigation measures, social permaculture, etc through a hands-on approach. 

The course culminated with a final design assignment and presentations which were shared with a larger invited audience. Experiential learning comprising of theory, practicals, presentations, hands-on experiments, and design assignments in small groups were some of the methodologies used to facilitate this course, the release stated. 
The participants included a diverse team from Land Resources Department (LRD), members from ECS, four participants from South India and participants from the BLF team.

The Farmers' Innovation Centre is an attempt in gathering and disseminating generations of collective local wisdom and innovations in the crafts of habitation and rooting them in a physical architectural space in Nagaland. The centre serves myriads of functions: as the headquarter of the BLF; as a museum of grassroots innovation; as a platform for rural marketing and as an educational institution offering opportunities at internships to training in Permaculture. 

Permaculture Design

Mostly rooted in mimicking nature in horticulture and agriculture systems for cultivated ecologies, Permaculture design integrates regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, technology, architecture, community integration, international development and self development. It is a practical and creative approach to the challenges of depleting resources and threatened life support systems in the modern era.