PermaNaga - Thinking Regenerative

The Better Life Foundation is proud to conduct Nagaland's first Permacultural Training Course.

As part of the Education goals, BLF is happy to host a Permaculture Design Certi
icate Course in collaboration with ‘Teaching Where It Matters ’ - a Perma education outreach.

What is Permaculture Design?

It is a whole systems thinking approach and applications that creates regenerative
systems, and is based on the core ethics of Permaculture - Earth Care, People Care, Future
Care and Fair Share. “Permaculture (permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the
conscious design and maintenance of productive ecosystems which have the diversity,
stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of
landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and
non-material needs in a sustainable way.”

It is a multidisciplinary outlook that is ethically based, whole-systems design approach to
create sustainable human settlements and institutions. Mostly rooted in mimicking nature
in horticulture and agriculture systems, Permaculture design also integrates regional
planning, ecology, animal husbandry, technology, architecture, community integration &
international development. It is a practical and creative approach to the challenges of
depleting resources and threatened life support systems in the modern era.
Course overview
Scope
● To facilitate a minimum 72-hour Permaculture Design course and initiate a Nagaland
Permaculture Collective
● In sync with the curriculum prescribed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren customized
to local geography
● Certifications by certified & experienced Educators and valid internationally

The key focus of the course will be whole-system thinking and design & landscape
planning that can be applied to anything, from a home garden or farm to a township or
entire village or at your workplace or your lifestyle choices. This hands-on experiential
course uses design principles from nature itself and takes into account such things as how
indigenous people used the land; how water, fire and wind flow through the land; and
how soil, water, vegetation, buildings, and habitats can be managed in a stable and
enduring way. The course is intended to use the existing skills one has and enhance it with
new insights and outlook of systems of the living and nonliving world, hence any skills you
have are welcome and there aren’t any prerequisites for doing this course other than
having a curious mind to participate.

Curriculum:

The course will be broadly classiied into:

1. Beginning Permaculture
Deep Ecology, Ethics, Principles, Methods of Design, etc.
2. The cultivated Ecology-Ecological Themes
Life’s Networks, Water, Climates, Microclimates, Soils, Plants, etc.
3. Designing productive Ecosystems & landscapes
Patterns, Homes, Food gardens, Food Forests, Animal Integration, Restoration, etc
4. Increasing Resilience, sustainability, and productivity
Analysis, Problem Solving, Income generation, Disaster Mitigation, Pest Mgmt. etc.
5. Social Permaculture and autonomy
Communities, Alternate economies, livelihoods, governance, Urban Permaculture, etc.
Methodology:
A combination of theory, practicals, presentations, hands-on experiments, videos and
real-time project designs in small groups.
Course Outcomes & Takeaways
● Process, Ethics and Principles, Strategies & Techniques of Permaculture “Design”
● Deep dive into climate-speci

ic design elements using sector analysis, patterns to details,
Flows, Guilds, Zonation, Disaster Mitigation measures, social permaculture, Permanomics,
Emotional Permaculture and many more through a hands-on approach.
● Real-time design assignments that are ready for implementation.
● Globally Valid Certi
ication *
● Mentorship post PDC.
● A lifetime experience and be part of a global community with a common purpose

Faculty Landscape

‘Teaching Where it Matters’ is a Permaculture Education outreach with a philosophy on
making Permaculture education accessible to remote communities who are in need to
build resilient systems to reduce environmental challenges using a ‘fair share’, gift
economy & pro-bono approach. The Faculty comprises of a guild of individuals with
diverse skills and expertise. They have numerous years of varied experiences on a global
landscape. They have taught numerous Permaculture courses from 1-day intro to 14 days
PDCs with diverse communities and ecosystems plus many focused advance permaculture
courses.

Faculty of Perma-Naga

Kuttss- Systems Thinker, Permaculture Designer & Educator, Optimist & Global Citizen

He is Kuttss a.k.a Rakshith Kuttappa. He was raised in a Natural Farming ecosystem with
all aspects of Permaculture in place for the first 21 years of his existence. Then spent the
next 21 (still ongoing) exploring the world in search of himself. During his explorations,
he pursued Technology research, Organization Development, Leadership coaching, Large
scale change interventions in communities, Systems design thinking, Journalism, Outdoor
Education, Wilderness adventures in remote corners of the world etc. To complete the
loop of his search, he got back to his roots of Permaculture and became a certified design
practitioner and educator under the mentor-ship and pioneers of Permaculture.

Narsanna Koppula, Rosemary Morrow and other on-ground practitioners. 

He is currently involved in many design assignments in the south, southeast & East Asia. He also teaches certain key topics at Permaculture design courses in Aranya and also has facilitated
workshops in different geographies. His key interest areas in Permaculture are
Restoration & Regenerative systems, System modeling, Biomimicry, Social Permaculture &
Design for Disaster Mitigation.

Madhu Reddy - Permaculture Practitioner, Designer & Educator, Soil Nerd & Visual Artist

She has been redesigning her monoculture peri-urban family farm near Hyderabad
according to Permaculture principles to make it not only sustainable ecologically but
economically. This involves production to marketing the produce directly to urban
consumers. Among her teachers are Narsanna, Rosemary Morrow and Rico Zook. Ever
educating herself she’s done an advanced soil course with Clea Chandmal. She has
collaborated to conduct beginner permaculture workshops and is a guest faculty at
Permaculture Design Courses. Madhu also brings to the table her management skills from
her past corporate experience. An avid traveler and photographer she uses the medium to
share her work and bring a visual perspective to conversations for the urban consumer
about the good food movement. An earnest sharer of information, she moderates an
online forum Seed to Soil - back to basics which discusses all things permaculture.

Teaching Assistants

Phulmani Baro- Permaculturist, Social Entrepreneur .

Phulmani is a permaculturist from Kokrajhar. She also has a Masters Degree in climate
change and sustainability from TISS Mumbai . She has worked with communities related to
livelihood and wildlife conservation in Assam when she was with WWF India. After that,
she was working on waste management with the Kokrajhar Municipal Department. Her
avid interest in farming then took her to do a 3 months Permaculture Design Course and
Internship with Aamodh Bawa at Anantgram Farms, Andhra Pradesh. She completed a
Permaculture short course with Greg Knibbs, and also a comprehensive soil course with
Clea Chandmal. She continued working with Anantgram Farms for more than a year using
Permaculture Design for food production - tree based vegetable system and integrated
pest management. She also worked on seeds saving and vegetable nursery while at the
farm. She is currently working with Better Life Foundation to support 700 farmers on
regenerative farming using Permaculture Design and aggregating and marketing their
agricultural produce by organising them into a Farmer Producer Organisation.

Vishak- Permaculturist, Social Entrepreneur .

Vishak is a permaculturist from Kolkata. He worked with the Kota Municipality as a
volunteer and subsequently headed the civil society group Kota Environment Sanitation
Society. He was doing training and capacity building for waste management professionals.
After which he worked with a biogas company - SP Renewable Energy Sources (Anand,
Gujarat). His interest in farming led him to explore permaculture and he completed his
PDC with Narsanna Koppula and a comprehensive soil course with Clea Chandmal.
Subsequently he worked in a chemical free farm “Aranyani” in Andhra Pradesh where he
explored dryland agriculture and livestock systems. He is currently working with Better
Life Foundation to support 700 farmers on regenerative farming using Permaculture
Design and aggregating and marketing their agricultural produce by organising them into
a Farmer Producer Organisation.

Participant demography:

❖ Able to read/write Basic English, since the course is conducted in English. If there is a
need for translation in local vernacular, we would utilize peer participants to help
translate for those who are in need. It will be an all-inclusive community of learners
and faculty WITHOUT any bias towards religion, race, color, gender, orientation,
subscriptions or mindsets.

Participant Group Size:

20 Maximum*
(* The reason for having 20 as the maximum participants is considering the venue’s carrying
capacity and the need to create a comfortable interactive learning space between faculty and
participants to fulfill individual & course goals and provide quality mentoring throughout)

Dates:

27 Feb to 13 Mar 2020
Where:
Angangba Village, Longkhim block, Tuensang district, Nagaland, Pincode - 798616
Google Map Location:
Distance from Dimapur: ~ 300 km /(13 hours drive)
Distance from Kohima: ~ 200 km/ (9 hours drive)
Distance from Jorhat: ~ 150 km/ (8 hours drive)

How To Reach:

The first thing for all out of state participants is to get the Inner Line Permit. The online
link for the same is given below.
https://ilp.nagaland.gov.in/
Nearest airports are Dimapur, Jorhat and Guwahati.
Nearest train stations are at Dimapur and Jorhat.
The location is on the Tuensang route. Shared taxi and bus services to Tuensang are
available from Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung.
Participants have to get down two kms after crossing Angangba Village at the NABARD
rural haat.
The location is: http://g.page/blf-fic

Two weeks prior to the workshop we shall be creating a travel sheet where all the
participants and put in their travel plans and coordinate among themselves for carpooling,
travelling together etc.

Stay:

● Farm stay with shared accommodation.
● Separate accommodation for males & females.

Food:

● Basic Naga Cuisine. Healthy, simple, locally sourced.