Sustainable Farming

Aware of the problems on small farms as well as the accelerating ecological deterioration in the developing world, I had been thinking about various solutions, and talking about them with a few people including Satlaj, who is a developmental economist. Sustainable agriculture appeared to be one of the cornerstones of any such solution. When Sameer informed me about Google's Project 10¹⁰⁰, it was immediately clear that promoting sustainable farming would be an excellent idea for this initiative.

The project will ultimately select five ideas based on the following criteria, and a total of USD 10 Million will fund the implementation of all five. The money goes to organizations that implement the idea - we will get just good karma (and perhaps a lousy t-shirt? ;).

• Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
• Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
• Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
• Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
• Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

• train a few thousand people,
• help them establish their own training centers,
• and then let the program run on its own.