The Navdanya Farm Derhadun, India
The Navdanya farm is thriving! Walking the farm, in the foothills of Dehradun below the Young Himalayas, is always a reminder that organic farming is inherently robust and resilient. Crops are producing beautiful yields in fields teaming with biodiversity. We’re talking blankets of bees and butterflies and over 72 species of birds!
SEASON OF MILLET
For the last 33 years, Navdanya has partnered with women farmers from the Himalayas to revive Bhoole Bisre Anaj, the “forgotten foods” of India, otherwise known as millets. Cultivated for at least 5,000 years across the subcontinent, millets are the original climate-smart crops: hardy, drought-tolerant, quick-growing, and packed with rich nutrients. Their resilience allows them to thrive in both irrigated and dryland farming. With long storage life and a light ecological footprint, they are ideal famine reserves and are considered seeds of food security. Pest-resistant, ragi thrives without chemicals, restoring soils and conserving water even in times of climate stress. Historically, millets have been woven into India’s diverse food cultures. Once central to traditional Himalayan diets, they were gradually displaced by rice and wheat monocultures during the Green Revolution.
Today on the Navdanya farm, abundant green blooms of millet will transform into rust-colored stalks of renewal. The varieties Navdanya conserves are heirloom seeds, safeguarded by generations of women farmers who passed them down, even in times of droughts and floods. Jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), ragi (finger millet), jhangora (barnyard millet), barri (proso millet), kangni (foxtail millet), kodra (kodo millet), ramdhana (amaranth), and buckwheat seeds will be conserved, shared, and delighted in. While harvest comes later in the year, this season’s ragi stands as a living promise: by protecting our ancient grains today, we secure nourishment, biodiversity, and food sovereignty for tomorrow.
RESEARCH ON THE FARM & BEYOND
Important research is happening every day— in the soil, fields, and gardens. Navdanya scientists and farmers work together to study how organic farming supports healthier soil, better water retention, and more pollinators like bees and butterflies. At Navdanya’s Biodiversity Farm in Dehradun researchers track earthworm activity, crop growth, and the cycles of insects to prove that nature-friendly farming works better than chemical agriculture. The farm is a living laboratory where new ideas are tested to help farmers grow food that is good for people and the planet. From cotton to millets, findings prove that farming ecologically is not only more resilient, but it’s the future.
This science doesn’t stay on the farm—it spreads across India through Navdanya’s network of researchers, women farmers, seed savers, and community gardens. These local farmers collect data from their own fields to understand how climate change affects their crops and how traditional seeds perform in tough weather. From the mountains of Uttarakhand to the dry fields of Maharashtra, Navdanya’s farmer-led research is helping build a future where communities grow nutritious food, create surpluses, share seeds, protect nature, and share their knowledge with each other and the world.
In 1995, Vandana Shiva set out to build Bija Vidyapeeth (School of the Seed), also known as Earth University, in an old eucalyptus orchard in the Doon Valley in Utterkahand, India. Many said this could not be done, but Dr. Shiva persisted and transformed the soil and land into a successful thriving organic farm. Today, Navdanya's Bija Vidyapeeth is a fully operational 47-acre organic farm, seed bank, and biodiversity research center for farmers, educators, students, and thought leaders from around the world to come visit and learn about regenerative farming, agroecology, and the Navdanya movement.
Saving Seed. Saving Lives
The seed bank at the Navdnaya farm conserves and cultivates thousands of crop varieties. Navdanya has saved 4,000 indigenous rice varieties, 2,200 varieties of millets, pseudo cereals, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables, 205 varieties of wheat and 151 species of tress including orchard fruit. As the number of natural disasters began to increase in India, Navdanya started conserving climate resilient seed varieties in a program called Seeds of Hope to help disaster-affected farmers. Since 1998 farmers who have experienced either floods or droughts have been able to cope with these extreme conditions by planting flood tolerant, salt tolerant and/or drought tolerant seeds saved by Nadvdany’s multi-state seed collaborative saving network.
Earth University
Navdanya welcomes all visitors to attend courses at Earth University/Bija Vidyapeeth that offer a unique opportunity to learn from nature and biodiversity about the practice of agroecology, food sovereignty, and peace and harmony with nature and in the human community. Earth University offers weekend, week and month-long courses, many including conversations with Dr. Vandana Shiva. The thriving organic farm, biodiversity research center and seed bank welcomes farmers, students, researchers, and thought leaders from all over the world to come learn and engage in nature, surrounded by the Himalayas. Learn more about the Navdanya farm.
