The Timbaktu Collective

Scenario

AlthoughIndia is considered a developing country, it continues to face enormous problems related to hunger and poverty. The country is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people, and despite the Green Revolution (1965-1968) and the increase in food production that could have fed the population, the difficulties remain numerous (Narayan, 2011).

Indeed, for many, it is difficult to afford a nutritious diet, leading to high levels of hunger and malnutrition, especially among children. Many deaths are due to malnutrition, and to make matters worse, rising food prices further challenge poor families, who often spend more than 60 percent of their income to purchase food (Narayan, 2011).

Small farmers have also suffered within this increasingly elitist and unequal system.Rising retail prices, coupled with the fact that they receive less compensation than the fair value of their produce, has deprived many of the dignity of a fair living. In the past fifteen years, about a quarter of a million farmers, crushed by debt, have taken their own lives (Narayan, 2011). A case in point is the series of collective suicides that occurred in the late 1990s during the cotton crisis (Kannuri & Jadhav, 2021).

Like many other countries, India could become a prosperous place for its people. However, socioeconomic development has excluded most of the population. Even with the recent push toward modernity, three systemic trends of impoverishment persist: jobless growth, reduced agricultural yields, and social exclusion (Narayan, 2011).

This situation of hunger stems not only from a lack of policies aimed at people’s well-being, but also from historical paths, limited access to information about new cultivation techniques, and the effects of climate change.

In India, and particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where the Timbaktu Collective operates, the consequences of this process are evident. Prior to British occupation, the area around the village of Mushtikovila in Anantapur district was covered by vast hardwood forests dominated by teak trees. The British cleared these areas in the 1860s to provide timber for the expanding railway network. After independence in 1947, local communities continued to cut down trees, and within a few generations, most of the forests were replaced by bush and grasslands.

The loss of biodiversity and fertile land prompted many inhabitants to leave the region. Only small farmers remained, cultivating the land to feed livestock. In the 1970s, the Indian government changed land tenure laws, encouraging a shift from subsistence farming to cash crops. This caused further soil depletion and a drastic reduction in biodiversity. With erosion and rising temperatures, agriculture collapsed, leaving farmers in dire straits (Short, 2019).

It was in this context that the Timbaktu Collective was born in the 1990s, initiating a new paradigm and writing a story capable of transforming the land and the lives of many families and communities.

Timbaktu Collective’s Dharani Initiative now works with 2,393 smallholder farmers from 74 villages in 10 mandals of Sri Sathya Sai and Ananthapuramu districts. It promotes sustainable organic farming that is resilient to climate change, helping farmers earn more income through greater control over the agricultural supply chain. Crops include millet, groundnuts and lentils.

To support these activities, the collective founded the Dharani Farming and Marketing Cooperative Ltd (Dharani FaM Coop ), a cooperative owned by the producers themselves, which is responsible for harvesting, processing, enhancing and selling organic products under the Timbaktu Organic brand.

The collective’s field team meets regularly with farmer groups (sangha) to guide them in organic farming practices, providing precise guidance through a “Package of Practices” (PoP). It supports them in crop planning, training and organizing field schools, ensuring compliance with the Dharani FaM cooperative’s rules for selling produce.

In addition, the collective helps farmers document their work and obtain organic certification through the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), in collaboration with PGS India and PGS OC. Recently, Dharani initiated a new project to engage local women and youth in organic vegetable production by developing a dedicated PoP for them as well.

The Dharani FaM Coop thus represents a federation of sangha and a producer enterprise established to help farmers in post-harvest processes and marketing.

Description

The Timbaktu Collective is a unique grassroots reality that has been transforming the lives of people in an arid region of Andhra Pradesh for decades. It all started with the meeting between Mary Abraham Vattamattam, originally from Kerala, and Choitresh Kumar Ganguly, known as Bablu, from Bengal.

The two arrived in Anantapuramu district in 1978, but it was not until 1990, together with their friend John D’Souza (of the Centre for Education and Documentation, Bombay), that they purchased a 32-acre plot of degraded land near C.K. Palli village. They named it Timbaktu, a term meaning “Last Horizon” or “no man’s land,” known locally as Sarihaddu Rekha in Telugu. Curiously, that piece of barren land represented on a small scale the degraded landscape of the entire district.

From that modest beginning, the Timbaktu Collective was born. The three founders decided to abandon protest activism and embrace what Gandhi called the “politics of constructive work.” They believed that real change came from enabling people to live with dignity and in harmony with the earth and all forms of life. They were also deeply inspired by the ideas of economist E.F. Schumacher, who said, “We must do what we think is right…otherwise we become part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Before embarking on their journey, the three trained in Permaculture Design with Robyn Francis, a student of Permaculture founder Bill Mollison. A key lesson they learned was from Mollison himself: real change comes when we move from being mere consumers to becoming producers of food, energy, ideas and hope. He said, “Revolutionaries who do not grow gardens, who do not produce food or shelter, still depend on the system they criticize.”

With this philosophy, the Timbaktu Collective embarked on its journey, growing over time into a movement that now involves more than 40,000 families in 347 villages spread across 14 mandals in Anantapuramu and Sri Sathya Sai districts.

The collective runs several innovative programs, including:

• Swasakthi (“Self Strength”) – promotes women’s empowerment through credit and savings cooperatives.
• Militha (“Inclusion”) – supports the rights and livelihoods of people with disabilities.
• Chiguru (“Sprout”) – works with children and youth, promoting alternative education and children’s rights.
• Kalpavalli (“Eternal Source of Abundance”) – protects biodiversity and regenerates natural resources.
• Gramasiri (“Village Wealth”) – helps farm workers improve their conditions by raising small ruminants.
• Dharani (“Earth”) – promotes organic farming and sustainable food processing.
• Enterprise Development – supports the development of locally managed community enterprises.

What began as a dream on a barren piece of land has now become a concrete force for sustainability, inclusion and rural empowerment in one of India’s most challenging regions.

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