Agroecological event trip
Bobbili Jyothi and Arika Narasamma, two young women farmers from Andhra Pradesh in southern India, are traveling with us through Europe in February and March to report on their almost unbelievable success story and to exchange ideas with innovative colleagues. After a visit to Andhra Pradesh, the international coordination of the Global Fields of the Foundation on Future Farming invites them on a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Switzerland. Come along and be inspired!
On half an acre each (around 2000 m²), the two women grow enough to feed the whole family in good health. This is achieved with a few principles of natural farming in the field and in their “anytime money” garden, where there is always something fresh to harvest for the table and the market. Both the sheer amount of biomass and the incredible diversity of the plants grown massively increase the build-up of humus and the fertility of the soil. With preparations to stimulate the soil microbiome and a third growing season with their own seed mixture, by additionally extracting and storing water in the soil, which is always covered in green and as undisturbed as possible, they have enormously increased the resilience and productivity of their land. They do without artificial fertilizers and pesticides and yet are almost always ahead of chemical agriculture. In 2015, over one million farmers in Andhra Pradesh switched to community managed natural farming (APCNF) in Andhra Pradesh in 2015.
Bobbili Jyothi and Arika Narasamma represent a new generation of women farmers who have begun to transform India’s agriculture. It is the women’s assemblies in the community that are also driving the transition forward economically. They grant microloans and represent the households to the bank, which values them as reliable partners. They ensure cooperation, exchange and information and sometimes also look after domestic peace. In the UN Year of Women Farmers, they stand for a silent but effective agroecological revolution. Swati Reduchintala and Sudhakar Yerrakonda, who accompany the two and work at Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), an advisory organization for the empowerment of farmers, on building international relationships and designing training concepts, report on this.
RySS is the state-supported organizer of the APCNF. It has also established an Indo-German Global Academy for Agroecology Research & Learning which trains female farmers such as Bobbili and Arika in an innovative bachelor’s degree program, mostly on their own fields, and promotes the research and development of new cultivation models and joint data collection. The academy seeks international exchange with agroecological practitioners and scientists.
Now the success of the women farmers is bringing them to Europe: we invite you to learn and be inspired together – much of what we see in India can serve as a model for us!
The exact event details and locations will be published on our website very soon. So that you can keep the days free or plan your journey, here is a brief overview of when we will be where:
The tour starts on 10.02.2026 in Nuremberg and Bamberg, where you can also expect public events. With a stopover in Freising, we will reach Switzerland on February 15, where you can meet us in Bern on February 17. We will then travel via Warsaw and other stops in Poland to Berlin: we will be in the region between Saturday 21st and the following Tuesday. An evening event awaits you in Bonn on Thursday. After the upcoming Global Field Conference, our guests will then travel to the new Global Field in Groningen, where we will meet a Brazilian delegation in Wageningen on the fifth of March. The tour ends after just under a month on March 7, 2026 in Brussels.
We look forward to seeing many of you! All events will be held in English.