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WWOOF[edit | edit source]
WWOOF started 50 years ago and has grown to a worldwide community of hundreds of thousands of people today. From the beginning, national WWOOF organisations grew individually in countries but with a shared mission to educate people through hands-on and inspiring cultural exchanges, and support local farmers who are feeding their communities and training the next generation of farmers.
In 2012, the Federation of WWOOF Organisations (FoWO) was created to act as a democratic organisation for national WWOOF groups to work together worldwide. FoWO’s mission is to unite, promote, protect and support the WWOOF movement around the world.
WWOOF INDIA[edit | edit source]
is gradually involving more and more organic farmers from India into WWOOF India network. It provides valuable guidance to new organic farmers due to its vast experience in organic farming and knowledge of Indian organic certification system. Difficulties we have
Language problem Confusion regarding VISA to wwoofers, majority of Embassies still advice WWOOFers to apply for work visa Local Police ask our hosts to do verification of WWOOFers staying in their farms Plan/hope for near future WWOOF INDIA has plans up in its sleeves to expand the scope and reach of its activities in the days ahead. Even as it plans to expand the scope of its current initiatives, we are proposing to set up WWOOF GLOBAL VILLAGES (WGVs).
WWOOF INDIA plans to set up 4 such WGV s across the country that would serve as meeting point for WWOOFERS in India. The main objective of WGV is that the Indian WOOFERS could meet each other here and share their WWOOFING experience in India.
At WVG the WWOOFERs could also take relax from their hectic WWOOFING farm schedule and expected only to work just 3-4 hours daily and are free for lot of sightseeing and travel to places of tourist interest so that they become close to experience the Indian historical and cultural background which they can take back home.
The project work for first such WGV has started recently and WWOOF INDIA has donated 4.5 Acres of land for this project at Village Surajpura near World famous Khajuraho temple town in MP adjacent to the Ken River and Panna Tiger Reserve.
The proposed WGV in long run would function, evolving into a model of sustainability using traditional knowledge and cultural practices. This would closely work with the farmers in various clusters of villages in development of organic agriculture, education for children, local handicrafts and other village developmental activities.
People will stay in the traditional family homes with the family and eat delicious traditional food. The Ultimate goal of the WGV would be to regenerate soil, conserve water, raise the water table, work along "Natural Farming" methods towards a model of self-sufficiency on all fronts.
Organic movement in our country In India chemical farming methods have dominated for so long that there is a little useful information available on non-chemical or organic farming methods and few qualified specialists capable of providing the needed know how.
India has a rich heritage of agricultural traditions that are suitable for designing organic production systems. Sophisticated crop rotation or mixed cropping patterns facilitate the management of pests, diseases and nutrient recycling. It is strong in high quality production of certain crops like off season vegetables, tea, some spices, rice & ayurvedic herbs Compared to input costs, labor is relatively cheap in this region, thus favoring the conversion to less input-dependent, but more labor-intensive production systems, provided they achieve sufficient yields.
Farmers consider crop production as major activity and live stock production as a subsidiary enterprise. The farmers have very limited assets, income and production flows. They work in an agricultural context of extreme marginality. Agricultural approaches emphasizing technology packages have generally required resources to which most of them have no access.
Conventional technology development is expensive which they could not afford. The declining soil fertility has been a great concern for farmers of India due to inherent soil chemical properties, soil erosion, over grazing, continuous cropping with out fallow and inappropriate crop rotation systems. Continuous mono cropping and inappropriate crop rotations have resulted in weed infestation and increased the diseases in crops Organic agriculture is in many ways an eminently preferable model for the development of agriculture in India.
Membership fee (WWOOFer /Host) 25USD/ 12 USD free for farmers less than 2 Hac Other fees Nil
Biography WWOOF INDIA is run by WWOOF INDIA ORGANICS private limited company, owned by International organic agriculture expert Mr Harish Tewari, Mr K.R Pandey employees and Organic Farmers member of WWOOF India network. It is registered in India with the registration number: U01403UR 2010 PTC 033280 Mr Harish Tewari is an Agricultural Micro-Biologist who have a vast experience of working in more than 10 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia at various projects related to Organic Agriculture, Water Management and Livelihood improvement etc. These projects in were funded by SIDA, World Bank, IFAD, Department of Bio-Technology (Govt of India) etc and Mr K.R Pandey has worked as Establishment Officer of G.B.Pant Agriculture University, Uttarakhand a leading Agriculture University in Asia
The other part time consultants associated within WWOOF India Organics Pvt Ltd have a wide range of disciplines and experience with the ability to provide farmer, growers, processors, packers and retailers with quality and cost effective advice and technical support right across the food chain on a national and international basis.
Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms India (WWOOF INDIA) facilitates an exchange of culture and education to domestic and international wwoofers (usually students from gap year) with about 150 Organic or sustainability-minded hosts spread throughout the India in about 16 states and its territories. All the hosts on our network are associated with organic gardening, orchards, spices, tea and other sustainability projects.
contacts[edit | edit source]
Name WWOOF INDIA
Name of Chief Coordinator HARISH CHANDER TEWARI E-mail address sewak1@rediffmail.com Name of the representative person HARISH CHANDER TEWARI Website www.wwoofindia.org Postal address A 46 judge farms, Haldwani, Nainital, Uttrakhand, India TEL / FAX 0091-9837240600 Number of staff 5 (2 part time) Founding date 15.08.2007
Number of WWOOF hosts 137 Number of WWOOFers 1 Sept 2010-1 Sept 2011
Country Number of Volunteers France 87 USA 42 Canada 53 Germany 90 U.K 27 Japan 11 New Zea Land 5 Australia 7 Sweden 7
Denmark 8 Others 23
WWOOFers - We get majority of WWOOFers from France, US and Canada
- 70 % of WWOOFers are single women
- 65 % WWOOFers are student from Gap year
Other business WWOOF INDIA is also involved in various consultancies projects ie:
- Setting up Demonstration farms
- Meetings, Seminars, Courses
- Development projects
- Development of Certification and Standards for organic agriculture
- Organic (or ecological) production
- Market support for organic products
- Policy development
