Aranya Agricultural Alternatives is the hosting organization, which is an NGO that has been empowering farming communities across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since 1999 with permaculture practices that create sustainable agricultural livelihoods. The vision of Aranya is achieving ecological and sustainable agricultural livelihoods through permaculture farming practices for a better world.
Mr. Narsanna Koppula, Gen. Secretary of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, is Permaculture Design Certificate Holder, and participated in National and International Permaculture Conferences, Workshops as Designer, Practitioner and Promoter. Permaculture practitioners from all over the World organized themselves into an International Permaculture Group. This group has decided to meet once in every two years in a selected host organization and a different country to share permaculture experiences, updating themselves and for promotion. So far 12 such International Permaculture conferences have been organized in 12 countries. During IPC11 Cuba conference, Aranya Agricultural Alternatives voted to host for 13th International Permaculture Convergence in 2017 in India, the prerequisite to host, Aranya organized National permaculture convergence on 5th to 7th February 2016 at Hyderabad, Telangana and in South East Asian Countries with 1200 participants.
Despite the fact that Aranya is strongly on promoting permaculture at local levels, Aranya has hosted an international event and has limited staff trained to handle such large scale events. As this is a challenging task with professional experience in dealing with national and international delegates. Aranya is planning to engage some volunteers, locally and internationally, and it also needs infrastructural and financial support in order to meet necessary requirements for organizing IPC which are as follows. The functions of the IPC Secretariat (administrative office) are to:
In order to carry out the above tasks the organizing team which is presently being assembled and which should be practically complete by the beginning of September 2015 will invest the new office which should at that time be fully operational. The team will be composed as follows for the work to be done before the event:
1. Finance Team to show all use of finances
2. Publicity, Advertising and communications team
3. Registrations and Visa coordination team
4. Fundraising and Event Sponsorship Team
5. Scholarship Support Team
6. Speaker solicitation and review group
7. Information Management and Dissemination Team
The team will be composed as follows for the nearby pre-event stage as well as during the running and post-event phases:
1. PDC Coordination Team
2. Conference Coordination Team
3. Convergence Coordination Team
4. Tours Coordination Team
5. Language Support Team
6. Family Support Team
7. Welcome and Well-being Team
Capacity building activities Aranya Agricultural Alternatives will be organizing capacity building activities.
Developing Model Farms In order for Aranya to be able to hold IPC related PDC classes, convergence and tours, it needs to develop several more "model farms" than currently exist in the nearby surroundings. This work can be implemented by PDC holding volunteers and would thus require the following elements:
1. New volunteers and related needs
2. Nursery raising for fencing
3. Fencing
4. Compost making & mulching
5. Planting of saplings
6. Digging of swales and related water-management systems
7. Seed collection
8. Budget and financial requirements
For this purpose we have created excel sheets presenting the different would-be expenses in detail and as follows: D1. General view of expenses estimated expenses by category
| Establishment of IPC Secretariat | Unit cost | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office establishment (one time ) | 455000 | - | - | - | 455000 |
| Operational costs | - | 970000 | 1302000 | 1613600 | 3885600 |
| Human Resources | - | 1880000 | 2538000 | 3897600 | 8315600 |
| Total | INR | 3,305,000 | 3,840,000 | 5,511,200 | 12656200 |
| Total | USD | 55,083 | 64,000 | 91,853 | 210,937 |
Note: You may consult our developed estimated expenses sheet as attachment. This is an approximate list of costs and it does not include extra expenses such as:
1. Down-payments for conference structures
2. Pre-booking of hotels and dormitories
3. Down-payments for event organizers and third parties
Having thus briefly presented the history of Aranya and IPC as well as the goals and objectives of the international convergence India in order for it to be a success, we have then listed in more detail the needs and costs of preparing and hosting it. Aranya would thus need to fundraise or be sponsored to the approximate extent of 96000. We thus request all Permaculture friends and well-wishers to aid Aranya on its endeavour to promote permaculture in India through the great opportunity the IPC represents.
All forms of help are required and appreciated, but the main prerequisite remains as always the financial aspect. In order to donate or sponsor the event, please do not hesitate to contact Aranya's Team for whatever information or clarification is required (find details below).
Aranya Agricultural Alternatives Adress:
203, Sony Sai Kuteer, Tyagarayanagar,
Kothapet, Hyderabad 500053,
India Phone: 0091 9949062295
Email: donation@permacultureindia.org
Website: www.permacultureindia.org / www.ipcindia2017.org
Iinternational Permaculture Convergences happen every two years in a different country.
Registration will become available after the IPC UK convergence.
Aranya Agricultural Alternatives