1.1 m² of contaminated wasteland in India will be recultivated

The target region of Thiramangalam in Tamil Nadu, India is characterized by small-scale subsistence farming and monocultural rice cultivation. The marginalized rural population in the target region is surrounded by a cycle of undernourishment and poverty. There are hardly any income opportunities, there is a lack of the necessary basic infrastructure, access to education and health. Rigid social structures and social marginalization exclude small farmers from social participation and make it difficult to help them help themselves. The most important available resource for securing their own existence is the family's land, there are hardly any alternative income opportunities. However, the agricultural land of the small farming families is heavily polluted and depleted after decades of intensive monocultural farming and the soil structure is enormously damaged.

Traditionally, family-owned land is passed down from generation to generation, with the land being divided between descendants. In order to ensure that the family can feed itself on the small areas of land, massive deforestation has taken place in the past to reclaim land and almost completely destroy natural forests. The needs of intensive monocultural farming that has been practiced for decades, using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, combined with the difficult climatic conditions (long dry periods, irregular rainfall) have led to soil degradation and erosion, with the result that large parts of the land lie fallow as wasteland and crop yields on the remaining areas of land are steadily declining.