00:01After school, eight-year-old Kitsana heads straight to her vegetable garden.
00:06She grows chilies, okra and eggplant.
00:11But she can't do it alone.
00:13I'm going to go to school.
00:17I'm going to go to school.
00:19I'm going to go to school.
00:31The village of Kanjikore in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
00:35Virtually everyone here grows vegetables and is self-sufficient.
00:39They farm organically, without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
00:45The way these 9,000 families have worked together to build a local food system could serve as a model
00:50for other regions as well.
00:57Every pot and every kitchen garden and backyard is used for growing vegetables.
01:03We have two vegetables to grow.
01:07We have two vegetables to grow.
01:09We have to grow vegetables here.
01:12We have to grow vegetables.
01:12We have to grow vegetables.
01:14We have to grow vegetables.
01:21But it wasn't always this way.
01:23In the 1990s, Kanjikore depended heavily on vegetables brought in from other states, often grown with chemical fertilizers.
01:31In order to strengthen food security and improve people's diets, the local council proposed a different approach.
01:38It began encouraging families to grow organic vegetables in whatever space they had.
02:07One of the first challenges the community faced was turning poor soil into fertile ground.
02:13What Kanjikuri achieved has earned the respect of agricultural experts.
02:18When we look at the soil in these areas, we can really see that it is a sandy soil.
02:25So the problem with this sandy soil is that it doesn't retain water, it is infertile.
02:31So just we can imagine the effort that is required to turn it into really cultivable form.
02:37An effort that required innovative ideas.
02:3972 year old spinach farmer Pushpajanan learned to improve soil fertility, retain moisture and manage excess water.
02:47We are able to do the soil.
02:50We will cut the soil out of the soil.
02:52We cut the soil out of the soil.
02:55We will cut the soil out of the soil.
02:59We will cut the soil out of the soil.
03:01We will cut the soil out of the soil.
03:08But turning sand into forest,
03:09fertile soil was only the beginning.
03:11Now there's another major challenge, climate change,
03:14which makes farming increasingly unpredictable.
03:17Here too, more good ideas are needed.
03:20Farmer Udayappan found a way to keep farming
03:23his small patch of land even when the water rises.
03:49For years, farmers here sold their vegetables
03:52along the national highway,
03:54but construction work disrupted access to the roadside shops.
04:01Sujith came up with the idea of a vegetable van
04:03to take the market to the people instead.
04:05He brings fresh produce closer to urban households
04:09where he can count on a steady customer base.
04:20And the response is overwhelming.
04:27At the district administration complex in Irnakulam,
04:30about 60 kilometers north of Kanjikuri,
04:32customers regularly gather around the van,
04:35eager to snap up the vegetables before they sell out.
04:39For many, the produce has become synonymous with freshness,
04:43quality, and reliability.
04:45What are you doing?
04:47What are you doing?
04:49I'm doing it.
04:50I'm doing it.
04:51I'm doing it.
04:53I'm doing it.
04:53I'm doing it.
04:54I'm doing it.
04:56I'm doing it.
04:56I'm doing it.
04:58I'm doing it.
04:58I'm doing it.
05:02A farming model of any scale is never a one-size-fits-all.
05:05But experts say the Kanjikuri model can be adopted elsewhere
05:09with few modifications.
05:12For example, if we look at Rajasthan, we cannot go for the crops that Kanyakuri is doing because
05:19obviously we know that the place is quite, you know, they are struggling with water.
05:23There is a lot of scarcity of water.
05:25So obviously much drought resilient crops have to be cropped out there.
05:30So if we can take the basic principles and the techniques that Kanyakuri has adopted
05:35and then we change it or we, you know, modify it as per the locality, we can surely replicate it.
05:43What began as an experiment in food self-sufficiency has changed how people see themselves.
05:50Kanji Kari has become a vegetable brand now.
05:53I think it's very important to know that the Kanyakuri is a vegetable brand in the market.
05:59I think it's very important to know that Kanyakuri is a vegetable brand in the market.
06:17Together, the people of Kanji Kari have transformed a sandy coastal village into one of India's
06:23most successful community-led food systems.
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