Annadana's Vision

'Solution Providers in Regenerative Agriculture'

Annadana's Mission

'Re-Seeding our Lives by Sowing Seeds of Sustainable Thinking'

Our Holistic approach entails:

• Saving Indigenous & Heirloom Seeds (non hybrids/non GMO’s)
• Transforming conventional farms to chemical free ecological farms.
• Forest Restoration by reviving & conserving native forest species
• Training in cost saving methods to create sustainable food forests
• Empowering rural youth to be the catalyst for change

Annadana was founded in 2001 at Auroville (Pondicherry) to safeguard heirloom & indigenous seeds that secure the livelihoods of farmers, urban farmers & gardeners. Registered as a non-profit trust (BYP-4-00027-2007-08) in 2007, the name ‘Annadana’ stems from our vedic roots to mean ‘A gift of Seed or Gift of Food’.

Annadana’s flagship Agro-ecology food forest farm is a knowedge hub in 2 acres. It is IMO certified with over 8000 species co-existing. This 56 year old self-sufficient farm is located in Bangalore city. Natural farming methods are followed that are low cost & sustainable by applying permaculture & organic principles.

Annadanaʼs innovative Seed Bank conserves 1000’s of heirloom varieties ranging from vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, spices, cereals, oilseeds & grains. It revives the dying skills in seed saving, an enterprise that supports the livelihoods of farmers, urban gardeners & farm enthusiasts across India. Farmers are re-skilled to become researchers, seed savers and farm educators.

The above success has led to the creation of Annadana, Western Ghats in 24 acres in 2016, located in Siragodi, KB Circle in the Sharavathi wildlife belt and in Kodachadri hills, a Natural Heritage Site. A ‘Center for Experiential Learning in Sustainable Agriculture’ (CELSA) a scalable model with the motive ‘farmers help farmers’ was founded to address the agrarian challenges of farmers migration to cities, rural youth disorientation, land abandonment & social evils.

We have recently diversified into restoration of forests, given the grave threat to the loss of biodiversity faced in this spectacular biodiversity hotspot. Mapping and conserving climate-resilient native tree species and increasing biodiversity is underway.

Work is under progress to revive reforestation, restoration of ecological diversity, saving native forest fruit species especially recharging existing springs, creation of biological & natural ponds, constructing the state-of-the-art seed bank to support farmers 10,000+farmers. This feat is being achieved without any help of private donors or govt grants.

Steered by a former corporate affairs specialist, Sangita Sharma who is recognised as a Seed Guardian of India. She is an exuberant natural farmer who ‘walks the talk’ of living life sustainably. She is an inspirational International sought after speaker supported by her enterprising partner Ashok Kamat, a technical farm strategist, a trouble shooter, a nutritionist and a gifted healer.

Co-creating an innovative shift in agriculture by designing self-sufficient ‘food forests’ are demonstrated in both farm centers & projects that ‘growing your own food from your own propagated seeds in chemical-free soils is the key to good health’.