Our Work

Anna – food; Dana – to give Annadana – the gift of food At Annadana, we believe that everyone has the right to food and everyone has the right to chemical-free food. We also believe that the human race is charged with the responsibility of preserving bio-diversity through sustainable farming so that our children inherit an earth that is clean, healthy and fair. At our certified organic farm ‘Ishana’ in Bangalore – a team of 18 farmers and 5 experts are dedicated to developing Best Practices in integrated organic farming from soil fertility management, seed saving, recycling, zero waste management to low cost farm applications. We are proud that Ishana is fast emerging as Karnataka’s leading knowledge centre for promoting sustainable biodiversity as an alternative to modern corrosive agricultural methods of cultivation. We at Annadana think that the only way marginal farmers can be made self-sufficient is to remove their financially crippling reliance on multi-national seed corporations. So along with conserving the biodiversity of 200 heritage varieties of native vegetables, cereal and flowers, we are trying to revive the dying skills of seed saving and storage. Over the past decade, Annadana has set up model farms & seed banks for governments and NGOs, adopted villages during the Tsunami rehabilitation project and distributed over 300,000 organic vegetable seed packets to impoverished farmers free of charge, allowing them to grow chemical-free food and freely replenishable seed stock. The outcome is a win-win deal as farmers supply fair priced organic produce to organic retail outlets to benefit themselves, consumers, the economy and the environment. And with all this, we at Annadana continue our workshops, consultancy and lobbying so that people from all walks of life are educated on the issue of safe food and sustainable farming.