MALVIKAA SOLANKI
PERMACULTURE DESIGNER, CONSULTANT AND EDUCATOR
www.swayyam.org Malvikaa has spent her early years in a village, raring silkworm, milking buffaloes, sowing paddy, growing melons and bananas. Later on, she lived in the city wading through the city life till she realized it was time to move back to the land, back to the roots. In the city, she worked with nonprofits at the policy & grassroots level with women and children on issues of ecology, environment, livelihood, health and gender. She worked as a research scholar, studying the ecology of lakes and water bodies at the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, while doing her master's degree. She has volunteered on several organic and permaculture farms and brings with her a diverse range of experiences.
She did her 1st Permaculture Design Course with Geoff Lawton in 2013 and subsequent ones with Rico Zook and Narsanna Koppula. She did her Permaculture Teachers’ Training with Rosemary Marrow in 2018. She has been teaching Permaculture & Regenerative Organic Agriculture drawing from her real-life experiences on the Open Shell Farm.
She founded swaYYam, a non-profit in 2011. She has been living and working on the Open Shell Farm (
https://swayyam.org/open-shell-farm/) since its inception in 2014. Today the 5 acre farm produces about 70% of all its food and boasts of over 4000 saplings of over 400 species of trees.
She’s also working with the local community of farmers on the 1000treeproject (
https://www.facebook.com/1000treeproject-1918616981562812/) in her village on the edge of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The project aims to ensure food, fodder and livelihood security through regenerative practises that in turn reduce the stress on the fragile forests and prevent biodiversity losses.
She is a Permaculture designer, teacher and a consultant.
