Agricultural Exchange, Pal

19 - 27 November 2026

Returning to India — reconnecting & listening

When we travelled to Pal in January 2025, we came to reconnect. It was our first trip as Future Collective, picking up a friendship that Noel and Jenny Blencowe began in the 1970s and that CERES Global has held since the mid 2000s. After ten days of meetings with farmers, educators, school principals, women's groups, forestry officials and tribal community members, the message from our friends was clear: they want to share knowledge and experience in sustainable agriculture.

Farmers in the Satpuda region told us they're looking for practical help with soil health recovery, water management, and moving away from heavy chemical inputs. They also told us about pressures we can't ignore. Around 10-15% of young people leave the region for work each year. Farmers are selling online for better prices, but that threatens the local cooperatives that give them stable returns through seasonal swings. And heavy pesticide and fertiliser use is affecting soils and biodiversity.

This November, we're heading back to respond.

The Exchange

For one week, we'll work alongside our friends at Satpuda Vikas Mandal (SVM) and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Farm Science Centre in Pal. Four days of hands-on workshops, field visits and peer exchange will bring together KVK staff, local farmers and our travelling group, and we'll be learning as much as we share. We hope to:

• Co-design practical solutions: share alternative agricultural methods tailored to tribal farming and climate realities.

• Build capacity: lay foundations for exploring deeper issues like market access and the pressures on local cooperatives.

• Learn directly from a network of around 1,000 tribal subsistence farmers in a remote Maharashtra setting.

• Deepen a 50-year friendship with the local tribal communities.

Cost: AUD $1,470 (exc. international flights)

The Week Ahead

• Nov 19: Arrive in Mumbai. Check-in and evening orientation.

• Nov 21: Day in Mumbai, then an overnight train to Pal.

• Nov 22-25: Agricultural workshops, field visits and peer exchange in Pal.

• Nov 25: Final consultations, then overnight transit to Delhi.

• Nov 26-27: Depart Delhi for onward travel.

Accommodation in Pal is simple, meals are traditional vegetarian fare shared in community settings, and discussions are in English across cultures. It's a week of deep immersion in a tribal farming context, so come ready to listen as well as share.

We're delighted that Willy Kutanata from KPTT Salatiga in Central Java, Indonesia, will join our group as our expert rural farmer. Willy is the lead Agricultural Researcher and Manager at KPTT, and brings a breadth of knowledge to share.

Kursus Pertanian Taman Tani (KPTT) was founded in 1965 and is run under the Jesuit order. It's a benchmark institution for education and production in agriculture and livestock farming. Its original purpose was to help farmers adopt new methods and to form skilled, self-reliant and caring farmers with a strong sense of character, and it continues that work today.

KPTT's grounds in Salatiga cover about 10 hectares across three sites: a main campus with classrooms, dormitories, nursery and livestock; a market and greenhouse site with a farm shop, mushroom logs, vegetables and strawberries; and a larger plantation site growing coffee, coconut, ginger, avocado and pepper. What we find inspiring is the seed-to-market approach. KPTT wants farmers to be able to meet their needs from start to finish: inputs, production, post-harvest processing and selling, under its own iniGo brand. That speaks directly to what Pal farmers told us about markets and chemical dependence.

KPTT sees itself as a true Teman Tani, a friend to farmers. We think Pal and Salatiga will recognise something in each other.

Our Partners in Pal

Come with us, or help from home

We're inviting advocates, agriculturalists, community builders, culture enthusiasts, permaculturalists and partners to join the trip. Everyone is welcome despite your agricultural knowledge or experience. We're a small group, and it's a short runway…

We are accepting expressions of interest until 1st November