SEED
(Skills and Environmental Education) Trust
Objectives: SEED Trust was set up to promote
sustainable rural development, and to provide training in crafts, organic
farming and other environment-friendly technologies to young adults and children
from underprivileged backgrounds. It is a non-governmental, non-political,
non-religious body.
Registration: The Trust was registered as a Public
Charitable and Educational Trust in Coimbatore in February 1999
(C.No.1419(161)98-99/CBE, dated 17/2/99) and donations to it are tax deductible
under section 80-G of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961.
Trustees: Founder trustees are Ms. Padma Rajagopal,
Mrs. Sharada Rajagopal and Mr. Mathew Pani Paodumai. Other trustees are Ms.
Dipti Kotian(journalist), Dr.P.G.Nair (ex-director - NDRI, Bangalore),
Prof.R.V.G.Menon (Director - Integrated Rural Technology Centre, Palakkad dt.).
Mathew and Padma stay at the Mysore Project office and
function as Project Manager and Programme Coordinator respectively. Padma is an
Industrial designer trained at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and
has 15 years of experience as a design and technical consultant for village
industries. Mathew has a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and has
worked as a farmer and craftsman, and in marketing of village produce, both
wholesale and retail.
Activities (March 1999 to November 2000)
Garbage management and composting of organic wastes: In
Coimbatore, where the Trust has its registered office, it was involved with
conceptualisation and initiation of a garbage management programme for about 60
residential households in East and West Club roads in March 1999. In May 1999,
ST organized a workshop attended by about 75 persons in Coimbatore on the
entrepreneurial aspects of composting the organic parts of town garbage using
earthworms (Vermicomposting), technical and financial management included, with
presentations by several other local organizations involved with such work,
NABARD, etc.
The Centre for Environmental Education, Tirupur field
office, sponsored publication of 100 copies of a 30 page booklet written and
produced by SEED Trust on this subject for distribution to participants at the
workshop. Since then ST has sold another 100 copies of this booklet, titled
"Wealth from Waste".
SEED Trust has brought out a 10 page booklet on the
problems created by non bio-degradable plastics used to package food items, and
attempts being made to solve them, in July 2000, and is looking for sponsorship
to print this booklet.
Trustee Padma is a visiting faculty member at an ICSE
school, Acharya Vidya Kula, near Yelwal, where she teaches waste recycling
skills to children from class V to VIII.
Mysore Project Office: The Mysore Project office of
SEED Trust is located at a 4 acre farm at Yelwal near Mysore city, owned by
founder trustees Mathew and Padma. Here organic farming techniques (without the
use of chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers) are used to grow fruits,
herbs and vegetables, and buffaloes are kept to provide milk and dung.
Free-range chickens are also kept. Animal dung is fermented in a bio-gas plant
to produce methane gas which is piped into the farm kitchen for cooking, and
slurry from this gas plant composted with all the waste bio-mass of the farm,
using earthworms, to make a rich and natural fertilizer. Solar energy is used
for some of the requirements of cooking and lighting (along with electricity
from the State power grid), and fuel-wood grown on the farm is used to heat bath
water, and to cook for the animals. This wood is also used to bake terracotta
(once fired, natural unglazed earthenware) pottery made here by students.
Accomodation is available at the farm for paying guests who
may like to come for a holiday, or to study various crafts and organic farming
techniques. Charges are Rs.300/-(about US$7) per day per person, inclusive of
board and lodging, in dormitory accomodation, with an additional charge for
learning various skills and crafts. Camping space is also available, and
facilities for visitors who wish to do their own cooking. Bicycles are available
for rent on a daily basis, and there are plenty of scenic and historically
significant places of interest within a 50 km. radius of the farm. The Project
office is situated in the countryside, surrounded by farmlands and close to the
Cauvery river. This is special bird-watching country.
Vocational training and other classes for
under-privileged groups: The Trust is involved with providing vocational
training inputs to the children staying at a foster-home run by a Mysore NGO,
Odanadi, which works with street sex workers. This foster home at Hootagalli,
about 7 km. from the Trust’s project office at Yelwal, houses about 50
children of sex workers, several of whom are orphans whose mothers have died of
AIDS. Since these children attend the local government school, the Trust’s
training inputs are provided during school vacations only. In April and May
2000, the Trust’s craft trainers (trustees Mathew and Padma) spent two
mornings each week teaching the children drawing, pottery skills, making
hand-made paper from waste paper, introducing weaving techniques and preparing a
simple back-strap loom, with the help of weavers from the Poumai Naga tribe of
Manipur state (trustee Mathew’s tribe). These inputs will be continued during
the next long vacations.
Dissemination of information on environmental issues:
SEED Trust has been commissioned by the Bangalore based Environment and Health
Foundation to prepare a 30 page illustrated booklet on Rainwater Harvesting –
A Farmer’s Guide, and sponsored by SRISTI, an Ahmedabad – based NGO, to
prepare a mobile exhibition on Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource
Utilisation. These are currently ongoing projects.
Marketing of eco-friendly crafts and organically grown
farm produce: The Trust was involved with initiation of the "Green
Bazaar", a direct marketing opportunity for organic farmers and
craftspeople working with natural materials and non-polluting technologies, in
December 1997. This began as a monthly market, and is now held regularly at the
Green Hotel in Mysore city on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. The market
is now administered and funded by an association of the regular participants, of
which trustees Mathew and Padma are founder members. SEED Trust sells
environmental literature, farm produce and processed foods from the trustees’
Yelwal farm at this market, and sometimes craft-work made by students. Trustee
Padma is a correspondent for this market.
Funding: Funds for the Trust’s work comes from
donations from friends, earnings from sales of craft-work produced at the Yelwal
project office, and consultancy, teaching and writing work done by trustees
Mathew and Padma. Paying guests are also a source of income to run the farm and
project office.
Friends of SEED Trust: If you would like to be on
SEED Trust’s mailing list and/or volunteer your services for its programmes,
please get in touch with:
Padma Rajagopal, SEED Trust Project Office, 35-
Maidanahalli, Yelwala,
Mysore-571130. (India). Telephone: (0821)402392.
E-mail: seedtrust@yahoo.com
[Symptoms
of Pesticide Poisoning] * [Children
and Toxic Chemicals]