Our Amrit Krishi program does three things:

1. enhances education, through hands-on, project-based learning, social-emotional learning - using the pure Vedic essence of Indian cultural heritage. While agriculture is the central focus, other elements are woven together with greater overall results.

2. strengthens community -by connecting schools with family, cultural groups and local business and government.

3. brings much-needed healing to the environment  -using the most verifiably environmentally friendly methods, techniques and materials.

To achieve the above goals, our program weaves together several elements of our cultural traditional heritage arts and sciences around food, performing arts / self expression and our ancient earthen construction sciences. Weaving them together makes each element stronger and makes the community garden more sustainable as it creates more excitement and fun for the students which activates interest from the wider community including teachers, staff, parents and outside community members such as public partners.

Uplifting education. उत्थान

Education is seeking new ways to excite the children beyond the classroom. Sustainable Regenerative Education is about Hands-on learning, project-based learning and social-emotional learning . These are all the new buzz words and terms and our program is aligned to these changing needs. Our recipe for success includes using and blending our traditional cultural arts and sciences around food, shelter and self expression.

Food भोजन

Agriculture, like most industries, is looking for greener solutions and yet there is nothing greener than our traditional Indian heritage Amrit Krishi or Vedic kheti which is fully aligned to the growing modern global organic market.  Our program excites the children about agriculture by elevating it and validating it through celebration of culture. We weave together several elements around a festive culture that allows for the easy transfer of knowledge in a fun and natural way between the students and their parent farmers. It becomes a community wide revival of their ancestral millennium technology.

 

The joy of preparing and sharing food together. 

In addition to growing food together we also excite the children by allowing them to help host an event where they get to be involved in choosing, preparing, serving and sharing the food. We weave together all elements of food from seed to palate and empower teachers to use all of it as educational learning tools.

Shelter

We include traditional earthen masonry building techniques in our program to make the link between farming and the kitchen (rasoi) bhandar (storage) earthen cow sheds (Gaushala), ovens, chullahs, and of course farmers' own homes. Furthermore, ecotourism accommodations provide new earning opportunities for farmers. A key element in our program is beauty.  Like our traditional costumes and dances, our traditional building methods are being revived around the world into the most beautiful structures you can imagine. A small yet global earthen masonry movement is gaining influence. Weaving together Vedic (earthen) architecture methods, Vedic agriculture and other Vedic arts and sciences creates better overall results and more appealing. to all. The more cultural we are, the more we can tap into the ecotourism market and introduce a side profession for the students that goes with the traditional art of farming. This makes farming more interesting and exciting for our youth

Self Expression.

We provide students with a framework that enables them to take initiative and revive and remix old traditional songs and dances to create more fun in their agri classes and raise their energy levels to take on and excel in the tasks of the project. Adding this element to the weave achieves better results and enhances the program overall.

 

The Magic of the Weave.  How do we weave all these elements together in a meaningful and fun way?

 

The musical mudstomp is our special magical tool for instantly weaving together all the elements and exciting the students and community from day one.

Students and teachers are trained to plan, organise and host a musical mud stomp event to celebrate as a community and experience the true strength of teamwork. Participants mix mud together with their bare feet to the sounds of a live ensemble music in front of an audience, share food and perform ceremonial plantings. Like any great event, it is well prepared. Preparation includes deciding recipes and dishes, planting seeds and sourcing ingredients, creating and learning dances and music, and inviting audiences and supporters to be present to witness the spectacle. The mud mixed at the event is used to make bricks for both small scale models and small life-sized structures such as chullahs, ovens, kitchens etc, that are built in their school playgrounds or adjacent farms. Participating in a musical mud stomp event is also a great activity for parents, teachers, local leaders or CSR staff to volunteer and join in with the students as team members. There are both muddy roles of mixing mud and making bricks and planting, and non-muddy roles of audience, food preparers, servers and music ensemble members.

Friendly competition

Student teams can compete against each other to produce the most spectacular and productive event. Productivity can be measured according to how many bricks are made and/or trees planted, number of and quality of produce grown and served. The entertainment value of the dances and music can be factored into the score.

Inspirational Program activator

The musical mud stomp is like that first initial flight where brand new pilot cadets are taken up by veteran pilots to experience the full glory of flight. Enough excitement and inspiration is generated in that one afternoon of flying for them to continue their many years of studies to become a pilot.  The musical mud stomp excites students about several varied aspects of their culture of which agriculture is a major part of. Agriculture is experienced in a glorious way, as part of a weave of other equally interesting strands that when woven together are much greater than the sum of their parts.

How do we implement it?

Teacher Training

One way to start is with an introductory training workshop for teachers to guide them through the process of identifying and gathering all the existing resources and assets from within the school community to make the first event and project a success. Teachers create fun new lesson plans that weave together academic theory with practical project-based applications.  The course is offered as training in project based learning, social emotional learning and hands on learning. Agriculture and the festive events is the modality.

Online Support

After introductory training is complete, teacher training continues via online support throughout the duration of the project and according to a schedule that is created in consultation with the teachers.

Supplementary trainers 

This is to be supplemented by trainers who have been trained to help the teachers conduct the sessions in the school.

Children help make bricks to build structures to compliment the farm.

A great first school project is a school garden farm with adjacent hand sculpted kitchen structure and stage area, to weave together our cultural heritage food sciences - the Yoga of food or Ayurveda, together with our cultural music and dances and our heritage earthen masonry technology. 

Year Round Programming

Such a program is to be run throughout the entire school year, giving time for each class to extract as much learning about each subject, over the different seasons and take advantage of the unique benefits that each season brings to the overall project. For a successful garden project, there must be a plan for the school holidays to attend to the crops while school is not in session and the premises are vacant.

Summary - Our program: 

-Enhances education through project-based learning modalities and a social emotional learning framework (teamwork and cooperation).

-Creates stronger connections between industry, education and community.

-Elevates and validates (globally) our heritage cultural arts and sciences - food, construction, performing arts.