Case Leader: Manju S Nair S Nair email

Case Location: Welthungerhilfe Homepage

Where: Kerala, India 

Main stakeholders involved: Students, teachers, farmers, policy makers, extension workers

Multi-actor approach in case: Where students from diverse disciplines come together and accrue skills from experience to co-create knowledge along with farmers and other stake holders to benefit the society as a whole to meet the challenges of sustainable agriculture.

Expected outcome: There is a growing realization of the need for a relook into the educational system followed in India and this realization to get ramified into policy changes needs  successful educational prototypes which can fix the systemic faults that has crept into the system and make education more reachable, learner centric, flexible and dynamic to meet society’s ever changing needs. This alteration has to begin at the root of the society and ostensibly a change in system of learning from conventional, monoculture style to experiential learning has the power to kindle this transformation where the student is trained to be agent of change. Course on Agroecology through Action Learning, aiming to be a successful educational prototype is a maiden effort towards participatory education in the state of Kerala, where students from diverse disciplines come together and develop skills from participatory experience to co create knowledge along with farmers and other stake holders to benefit the society as a whole to meet the challenges of sustainable agriculture. Within the NEXTFOOD action learning cycle, the case will reveal whether the adopted pedagogy promotes the competency to address the complexity of sustainable food and farming system. This case, based on action- and practice-oriented learning, will offer a new approach to the outreach of sustainability knowledge in India. The pilot course will contribute towards creation and documentation of skills and competences needed for transition to more sustainable agriculture and will also identify the gaps and needs in the current educational system and through that process exemplify the hindering and supporting forces for such transformation. The course to be piloted under the case is a three one-month certificate course at graduate level.