International Certified PDC - South India - December 2014

Next Christmas celebration is with Magic of Permaculture!
Dates: 12 to 29 December 2014 – 17 Days

With
Rico Zook & Narsanna Koppula
Head Teachers & Facilitators

Martin and Roman
Co Teachers & Facilitators:

Guest Speakers and Lectures from and around Auroville including visits to inspiring projects and farms.

Curriculum
This workshop will present Permaculture with all of these applications in mind. We will focus on land systems with as much hands on work and examples as possible. In addition, many discussions and examples will be explored of possible applications in what are called the 'Invisible Structures', the social, cultural, political, and economic structures that shape much of our world today.

Subjects will include:

        Permaculture Ethics and Principles

        Pattern Literacy and Application (physical and                 invisible)

        Energy and Flows          

        Sector Analysis and Zonation

        Water; Harvesting, Holding, and Recycling

        Soil, Plants, and Environments

        Agriculture; From Your Doorstep to the World

        Buildings

        The Design Process

        Urban Permaculture

        Permaculture in the Developing Countries

        Permaculture and Organizations

This workshop will culminate with several groups doing a real life design projects that will be relevant to the site of the workshop. Not only will the teaching be about Permaculture, but it will also model it by its structure and the environment we create together in the course.

This workshop will contribute to the enrichment of its site and each of its participants. With the goal of having mix of international students and local students this workshop will not only be an opportunity to learn about Permaculture, it will also offer an opportunity to understand we can create a regenerative, sustainable world together.

The person attending the Permaculture Design Course will not only gain theoretical and practical knowledge on Permaculture at the end of the workshop but will be handed a Permaculture Design Course Certificate. This certificate will enable the participant to be a certified Permaculture Practitioner.

Course Fees: 630 regular fee including accommodation and meals
Early bird: 540 (Book before August 31st)



Venue information
Heal the Soil CSA
Sapney Farm, Kottakarai Village,
Near Auroville, Tamil Nadu, South India
Google Map Location

Accommodation
Participants will be hosted in structures build with local and natural materials, they will be sharing the dorm style spaces with others, we also provide independent rooms for couples on special request. Please note that the farm is in just half an acre of land with all the basic infrastructure and amenities, the experience of sharing this space will be similar to camping with close community living with basic needs. If you prefer to have more private and independent space, please inform us in advance and we will help you find an accommodation nearby with additional per day rental cost.

Food
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner will be cooked and served with fresh and healthy ingredients, it will be vegetarian food with some milk or eggs with clear indications. Any specific dietary needs should be informed to us before booking your spot, we will try our best to cater your request but participants with such needs should be prepared to bring your needful things, there are local shops which sell almost all such grocery. There will be a day off once a week and the kitchen will be closed for cleaning and inventory management. You can find many options to have your food at a walking distance from the farm during these days.


Below is some more information about Permaculture, Heal The Soil project, Teachers and our team.

Permaculture
Permaculture uses ecological principles to design sustainable human communities that are harmoniously woven into the environment and that aim to have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It offers a framework for critical decision-making and right livelihood. It is a design approach for realizing a new paradigm, meeting human needs while preserving and increasing ecosystem health. 

Permaculture is a multi-faceted, in depth design system that will help us create appropriate, site-specific designs that are both sustainable and regenerative.

It is important to understand that Permaculture is not so much about giving you new and improved ideas, techniques, and strategies, though there is some of that. What Permaculture does is allow for a deeper understanding of the situation at hand and, with its principles and strategies, a more holistic, effective way to interact with or design a system.  What Permaculture offers are skills and principles by which we build our awareness of why or why not something was successful. Through this insight we can build on what is successful and modify others to become more successful.

Heal The Soil CSA
"Heal the soil" is one simple solution to tackle our social and environmental challenges. We take care of our soil, our natural resourses and manage our water use, we will get back our green planet. At HTS (Heal the soil) we do not wait for governments, policy makers, huge organizations or big companies to initiate such projects.

We do it 'One seed at a time, One house at a time'.

Rico Zook
Permaculture Designer, Consultant and Teacher
www.i-permaculture.org

Richard Rico Zook is a Permaculture designer, consultant and instructor.  He works with private individuals, farmers, villagers and local organizations to create cultural and environmentally appropriate life systems in northern New Mexico, India, Cambodia, and places in between.  Mr. Zook's work focuses on assisting local and indigenous cultures to preserve traditional knowledge and technologies while adapting to and becoming active members of our rapidly globalizing world.  Currently (2011) his year is divided into 6 months in India, 2 months in Cambodia, 3 months in the states, and 1 month in a different place each year.

In India, many of the projects he is involved in are based out of Darjeeling, West Bengal, which is his home for part of the year.  These include a bio-conservation project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Protection Fund (CEPF).  Utilizing a participatory model, DLR Prerna (a local NGO) and Mr. Zook are training five forest villages in permaculture and working with them to internalize and cycle their resource needs, thus minimizing their impacts on the critical bio-corridor in which the villages are located. A team headed by Anugyalaya (another local NGO), and including Prerna, the Catholic Diocese and Mr. Zook, have initiated the design process on a 16 acre Permaculture demonstration and education site.  This process and the design implementation will be a hands-on experience for several local, long-term students of Mr. Zook.  Other projects in the planning stages include: tea worker trainings in Permaculture for improved quality of life (e.g. water processing and cycling for health, home gardens, humanure, etc.); and conversion of a working tea estate to a socially just and environmentally appropriate model.

In south India Mr. Zook works with several private clients whose projects include a university, a healing centre, a children's camp, and assisting local farmers and tribals convert to organic agriculture.  Past projects have included wetlands construction for wildlife, a children's school, and many private consultations on farms and homesteads.  An ongoing focus is the conversion of a traditional family farm into a model of sustainability and Permaculture.  Located 15km south of Udipi in the state of Karnataka Punarvasu Farm annually hosts several work weeks for foreigners and Indians with hands-on learning and cultural immersion.

In Cambodia Mr. Zook is building a network of projects and associations with NGO’s similar to that in India.  He also conducts several trainings for Khmer farmers, as well as assisting in the development of several demonstration sites.  This past year he trained a group of teachers from the Teacher’s College in Siem Reap, and is working with them to develop a curriculum that will become part of the government’s Life Skills Program that is part of the public school’s curriculum.

In Taos, New Mexico (USA) Mr. Zook is working with the Hanuman Temple in creating a 5 acre urban Permaculture farm.  He is also working with the San Cristobal Youth Ranch in converting to a holistic ranch model, as well as interacting with youth campers in educating them with hands-on applied Permaculture techniques and strategies.  At times he provides consultations to private clients. 

Every year Mr. Zook visits new sites, meets new NGO’s, and teaches numerous courses, from 1 day introductions to 2 week design courses with certification, for farmers, villagers, NGO workers, and foreigners.  This year will be the 7th annual Permaculture Design Course in Darjeeling, the longest running course of this type in India.  He is always open to inquiries and requests.  He also accepts qualified apprentices.

In addition to academic and professional credentials, Mr. Zook has spent more than 25 years living in nature, including long-term residencies in California’s Yosemite National Park, the demanding Sangria de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico, and as a homesteader in Northern California wilderness. For more than a decade as Land Manager for the Lama Foundation, a spiritual community and retreat center North of Taos, NM, Mr. Zook designed and transformed the rugged, semiarid high-altitude site that had been decimated by wildfire into one of beauty and productivity. Using permaculture practices and a lifetime of observation and interpretation of the natural world and how to create human harmony with it, he has built a visible and successful permaculture demonstration and teaching site. It is a model of design integrating the needs, resources and yields of community and nature in proactive and abundant ways with respectful and restorative impacts on the environment.

Mr. Zook is a graduate of Sonoma State University, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies focused on land restoration, with minors in Biology and Philosophy.

For more information about Mr. Zook and his work go to www.i-permaculture.org

Narsanna Koppula

A Certificate holder in Permaculture from “Permaculture International Institute, Australia” and is a post graduate from Osmania University in Philosophy. Dr.venkat has been his mentor and Bill Mollison and Robyn Francis his teachers.

He is an expert Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture) designer and is professional guide in “efficient water use techniques in command irrigation. He is actively engaged now in implementing Tree Based Farming Systems (TBFS) and planting 100000 fruit plants and 3 lakh mixed forest species on 1000 tribal families’ lands under Tribal Development Program. 

He is also project evaluator for various natural resource management projects and networking with several national and international organizations. Keen professional publisher of books on sustainable agriculture and has visited different places like Australia, Denmark, China, Vietnam, England, Bangladesh, Brazil, Thailand and Jordan in context of promotion of Permacultural practices and sustainable agriculture in different parts of the world.

He is serving in the development sector for the past 25 years in various capacities. At present he is Secretary, Aranya Agricultural Alternatives and is serving in this capacity for the past 12 years. He was also on Board of Permaculture Association of India. Narsanna also known as Narasaiah served for 12 years(1986 to 1998) as Director and General Secretary (and in various other capacities) of Deccan Development society, a premier NGO working on sustainable agriculture.

http://www.permacultureindia.com

Martin 

After completing a master in Anthropology and a degree in Humanitarian Project Management, Martin went to live for one year in the Indonesian jungle of Siberut with the Mentawaian tribe. There he discovered a highly sustainable life style based on a careful observation of natural laws and resource management. Following this life changing experience, he decided to stop his academic career to go into organic farming and sustainable living. After a first experience working as project manager for an organic rice-farming project in Vietnam, he followed a PDC with Heal The Soil in February 2013. Since then he has been learning and practicing Permaculture by co-developing the garden at Sapney Farm, teaching monthly Permaculture Introduction Workshops and volunteering in a reforestation and seed conservation project called Peeble Garden.

Roman
Roman has been studying and living with Permaculture since 5years which brought him to a diverse range of Projects, Countries, Climates, Cultures and People all over the planet.

He has lived, worked and learned in places like Africa, India, Nepal,Thailand,the Carribean and Portugal. He was part of 8 PDC Courses and his teachers and mentors include Alex Kruger (Berg en Dal Ecovillage),Rico Zook( www.i-permaculture.org ) and Bernard Alonso(permacultureinternationale) and Govinda Sharma (organichasera.org)

Currently he is living in India and co-creating the Sapney Farm Design with focus on perennial Gardens and Food Forest. He is part of the Permaculture Association UK and at the moment doing his Applied Permaculture Diploma with them.