Fieldwork that feeds the classroom.
Maahi Permaculture Farm, Shamirpet
Six acres of eroded, chemically-farmed land, rebuilt into a working model of regenerative agriculture
The Starting Point:
Maahi Farm is a six-acre family property in Shamirpet, Telangana. When we began, it held little beyond a small teak plantation the surrounding land degraded by years of erosion and chemical farming, with soil too depleted to hold water or support diverse plant life.
Water, First:
Maahi Farm is a six-acre family property in Shamirpet, Telangana. When we began, it held little beyond a small teak plantation the surrounding land degraded by years of erosion and chemical farming, with soil too depleted to hold water or support diverse plant life
Rebuilding the Soil:
With water secured, we planted over 2,500 trees across 36 native and fruit-bearing varieties including sapota, moringa, guava, custard apple, fig, and jackfruit to establish two food forests and windbreak zones. Mulching at each tree base retained moisture and fed the soil naturally.
In the crop and vegetable zones, decomposed millet husk and groundnut shells added carbon back into the soil, and green manure crops built fertility further. Together, these interventions restored the soil's capacity to hold water and sustain plant life without chemical inputs.
What the Farm Produces Today:
Maahi Farm now grows more than 20 varieties of vegetables, enough to supply ten families alongside 10-plus seasonal crops and a wide range of fruit. It also operates as a live demonstration site for the System of Millet Intensification (SMI), a low-cost, water-efficient farming method, and has hosted visiting researchers from the International Conference on the System of Crop Intensification (ICSCI).
The farm continues to draw researchers, practitioners and volunteers studying regenerative land practices in the field a working reference point for what depleted land can become.
Aksharavanam Landscape Restoration
Sector analysis, swale construction, rainwater harvesting, and 1,400-tree plantation across 26 species on 5 acres of semi-degraded land. Five acres of eroded, hot-arid farmland turned into a working classroom for regenerative agriculture
The Starting Point:
Aksharavanam is an alternative school run by the Vandemataram Foundation in Kalwakurthy, Telangana. The school set aside a semi-degraded, five-acre plot with a clear goal: turn it into a living classroom where students could learn regenerative agriculture and permaculture by doing the work themselves, not reading about it.
Reading the Land:
The site's sandy-loamy soil sits in a hot, arid zone with severe erosion and just 600mm of rainfall a year conditions that leave little margin for error. We began with a sector analysis, mapping land orientation, water resources, soil condition and movement patterns across the plot. This became the basis for a set of permaculture zones designed around what the land could realistically support.
Water and Soil, Together:
We used water levels to trace the land's natural contours and built swales with bunds to slow and capture rainwater. Grasses planted within the swales did double duty reducing erosion while enriching the soil and supporting biodiversity, turning water management into a living system rather than a one-time fix.
Building the Food Forest:
In the vegetation and plantation zones, we worked toward a balanced ecosystem: a food forest, a wild zone, and windbreaks. Students and volunteers helped plant 1,400 trees across 26 species, sourced from local and forest nurseries. Mulching at the base of each tree reduced evaporation and fed the soil in place, cutting down on maintenance while improving fertility.
In the crop and vegetable zones, we added decomposed millet husk and groundnut shells to build up carbon and water-holding capacity, and broadcast green manure crops across the fields to enrich the soil naturally.
What Students Learn Here:
Aksharavanam is now a functioning example of land regeneration that students help build and maintain, not observe from a distance. They see, season by season, how degraded land recovers — and carry that understanding into how they think about soil, water and food systems more broadly.
Community-Owned Farm, Lalgadi Malakpet
The Starting Point:
Rebuilding severely degraded soil into a year-round vegetable garden for a community-owned farm
This community farm needed a reliable, diverse vegetable supply through every season, but its soil was too depleted to support consistent growth. Over the course of a year, we focused on rebuilding the soil itself using natural amendments to restore structure, fertility and water retention — and introduced native vegetable varieties suited to the local climate.
The result is a self-sustaining garden that now produces a diverse range of vegetables year-round, on land that a year earlier could barely sustain a single crop.
Praana Farm, Shamirpet
One acre, rebuilt from bare subsoil into an intensive kitchen-scale farm
This plot presented an unusual challenge: the topsoil had been removed entirely before we began, leaving only degraded subsurface soil with nothing to build on. Our first task wasn't improving the soil it was creating it from scratch.
We introduced composting systems, targeted tree plantation, and erosion control measures alongside water harvesting, working the land intensively to make the most of a small footprint. Within a year, the plot was transformed into a vibrant, productive farm, now growing over 30 vegetable varieties, 10-plus leafy greens, and 25 fruit trees on a single acre.
It stands as proof that scale isn't a precondition for regeneration even the most stripped-back soil can be rebuilt into a thriving food system with the right sequence of interventions.
Elephant in You Farm, Meedikonda Village, Warangal
Ten acres of hardpan soil, converted from commercial chemical farming into a self-sufficient, visitor-ready model farm
The Starting Point:
This family-owned farm had grown paddy, tobacco and cotton as commercial cash crops for close to two decades, relying on chemical inputs and regular tractor use throughout. Years of this combination had compacted the soil into a hardpan, dense, lifeless, and resistant to water and root penetration. About a year and a half ago, the family decided to move away from chemical farming entirely and transition the land toward sustainable, nature-friendly practices.
Understanding the Brief:
The family's goals went beyond restoring the soil. They wanted the farm to sustain their own yearly needs cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables while also supporting cattle, chicken and goats. Alongside this, they wanted the farm to double as an experiential space where visitors interested in natural farming, natural building and sustainable living could come and learn. We worked closely with the family to understand these requirements and design all ten acres around them.
Designing the Whole Farm
Our interventions covered the full system, not just the fields. We laid out pathways and zoned the land for its different functions, then built a water harvesting pond to collect and retain runoff and tanker water, and dug a shallow well to secure an independent drinking water source. Greywater from the house was routed back into the farm rather than wasted.
For livestock, we built a mud house and attached-roof natural structures to shelter the cattle and chicken, integrating feed storage into the same footprint. Every element water, soil, structures, livestock was designed to work as one connected system rather than a set of separate additions.
Building the Forest Cover
Alongside the farm's built structures, we planted over 2,000 trees in the first year alone, with a further 1,500-plus planned for year two, establishing the tree cover needed for the farm to function as a self-sustaining ecosystem rather than just a production plot. Windbreaks are next on the plan, alongside composting systems already underway: a mix of localised composting across the farm and a centralised composting unit to process waste at scale.
Where the Farm Stands Today:
Elephant In You Farm now meets the family's own food needs and has become a working demonstration site, hosting two workshops for visitors interested in sustainable and natural farming methods since the transition began. The farm also sells its produce, with paddy as its primary crop.
Building With the Earth.
International Conference on the System of Crop Intensification
Field Demonstration & Knowledge Exchange
FIEK collaborated in organising the International Conference on the System of Crop Intensification (ICSCI), bringing together farmers, researchers and scientists from across India and beyond.
The gathering brought together perspectives from Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, creating a diverse space for exchange around sustainable agricultural practices.
As part of the conference, FIEK developed a demonstration plot at our farm, where participants took part in hands-on training and field visits. The sessions demonstrated methods being explored and practised on the farm, including:
- System of Millet Intensification (SMI) for Ragi
- System of Wheat Intensification (SWI) for Wheat
- SMI for Mustard
The field demonstrations provided an opportunity to examine these approaches directly in practice, with sessions conducted under the guidance of Jacob Nellithanam.
The collaboration brought together field practice, farmer experience and technical knowledge, creating a space where agricultural methods could be observed, discussed and learned through direct engagement with the field.
Gummi Kathalu
National Permaculture Convergence, 2023
At the National Permaculture Convergence 2023, FIEK presented Gummi Kathalu, a visual documentation of the traditional Gummi seed granaries of Nagarjuna Sagar, Telangana.
The exhibition traced how Gummis are made, the materials and knowledge involved, and the close relationship between farmers and the Yerukala artisans who make them. The Gummi is not simply a storage structure; its design reflects generations of knowledge about local materials, seed preservation, agriculture and the landscape.
The documentation featured a photo story of the craft alongside miniature Gummis made by Venkataiah, a Yerukala artisan from Nagarjuna Sagar. Seeing the structures up close created an opportunity for participants to engage with the craft beyond photographs and understand how traditional knowledge can inform contemporary thinking about sustainable agriculture and resource use.
Through Gummi Kathalu, FIEK brought a living knowledge tradition from the field into a wider learning space connecting the artisan, the farmer, the material and the practice.
Art installation at Earth Festival
2024 and 2025
At Earth Festival 2024 in Hyderabad, we had an opportunity to share our work through an art installation that captured the essence of what we do, from collaborating with artisans and promoting sustainable farming to exploring natural building and celebrating culture. The festival was all about raising awareness of ecologically mindful practices, and NGOs from across the region came together to inspire students and visitors.
Our installation featured photo stories that visually narrated our work, with each image carrying a written story about the artisans, ecology, farming, and natural building practices we’re passionate about. Many visitors, especially students, expressed how inspired they felt and were eager to learn more or even join our future experiences. Being part of this event was a meaningful way for us to connect with young minds and share the importance of sustainable, mindful living.
Building With the Earth
Dr. Abraham's HutK
Railway Kodur, Telangana
Dr. Abraham Thomas runs a clinic in a valley where the forest is thick, and the mining companies are getting closer. He wanted a space where the community could gather for plays, for festivals, for weddings under the open sky. Not a concrete hall. Something that belonged to the valley.
We built it where the old electricity board building once stood. The Yanadi community, who live in the Sheshadri forests, brought bamboo and bark fibre. The Medara community wove bamboo mats for the roof. Kanniah, a master thatcher from nearby, taught us how to make a roof that holds against the light rains here. Local women plastered the walls with earth from the site; some mixed it, some threw it, some smoothed it with their hands until the wall looked like it had always been there.
At the centre is a Chuttillu, a round house, like the ones the older people remember. The rest radiates out from it like sunbeams. When it was done, Dr Abraham didn't make a speech. He just sat on the earthen platform and watched the first performance. A folk theatre group used it that evening. The light from the fire pit hit the bamboo mats and made shadows on the earth walls. Someone said it looked like the forest had come inside.
It is not perfect. The plaster cracked in the first dry season. Kanniah said that is normal, that earth breathes and shifts. We patched it. It is a building that will need care, like a garden. That is the point.
Aranya Hall
Zaheerabad, Telangana
Narsanna and Padmamma have been farming this land for twenty five years. What started as a permaculture experiment is now a food forest: mango, tamarind, pigeon pea, and plants I cannot name growing between and under each other. They needed a hall for teaching, for gatherings, for people to rest after walking the farm.
Narsanna both grew up in Adilabad, in houses with earthen courtyards. They wanted that feeling here, cool in summer, warm in the way that only thick earth walls can be.
We found masons from nearby villages who still knew how to work stone with axe-hammers. They shaped laterite and Tandur stone for weeks. The sand came from a dry stream bed on the farm we dug where the water had already left it. The timber came from trees that had finished their life here: teak, eucalyptus, neem. One teak was cleared by a farmer who called us because he didn't want it to go to a sawmill. We paid him. He helped load it.
The walls have pot-tiled jalis not for decoration, but so the wind moves through. The plaster is earth and lime, finished by hand. There is a mural on one wall, done by a local artist who mixed the pigments into the final plaster coat. It will fade. Narsanna said that is fine. "Everything here fades and returns. That is what we teach."
The hall is full now during workshops. Farmers sleep on the floor after long days. Children run between the columns. The stone is already darkening where hands touch it most.
Avani Farms
Chevella, Telangana
Suni Garu's farm sits where dry grassland meets a small river. The land gives you two things: drought and sudden green. He wanted shelters that used both roofs from the dry hills and roofs from the wet banks.
Venkataswamy Anna came from Nayudpeta with his team. They had thatched with wetland grasses their whole lives, soft, thick bundles from river edges. We took them to the dry hills and showed them Kaasha Gaddi and Kaamancha. Coarser. Sharper. They touched it, twisted it, made a small test patch. By afternoon they were cutting it by the armful. They said it was good thatch. Just different. The dryland roofs came out tighter, more golden in colour. The wetland roofs came out thicker, darker. Both keep the rain out.
The walls are earth, finished with lime. The foundations are local granite, the same stone that surfaces in the fields here, that farmers curse when ploughing. We raised the floors slightly above ground because the river floods sometimes. Not much. Just enough.
A nearby farmer sold us his mature teak. He was clearing the plot for something else. We used every piece: beams, posts, the odd lengths for door frames. Nothing matched perfectly. That is visible if you look. Suni Garu says he likes that you can see where each piece came from.
The family lives in them now. In the morning, the dryland thatch glows. In the monsoon, the wetland thatch darkens and smells like hay. The earth walls are already marked: a handprint near the door, a scratch from a dog, a child's drawing in chalk that nobody washed off because it looked right.
Transformations on Campus
From farm plots to composting systems to earthen seating areas, our school projects demonstrate that experiential learning leaves physical as well as educational infrastructure behind.