Top 10 Permaculture Design Courses (PDC) in India- Offline

The concept of Permaculture is recently gaining popularity all across the globe. Most often individuals find it extremely difficult to locate details about the best training programs in Permaculture Design. Here is the crisp list of permaculture farms hosting  Permaculture Design Course in India, with the comparison summary table provided at the end. for more details and comparison of all the PDC courses.

1. Aranya Alternatives Agriculture

 

The PDC at Aranya is hosted by Narsanna Koppula, (who is also a mentee of Permaculture Pioneer Bill Mollison and Dr. Venkat) at his 11 acre farm in Bidakaane, Telangana. This 13-day Residential program is extensively covers topics like, Permaculture Principles, Studying the landscape, Soils, Composting, Water Harvesting- Grey and Black water management, Food Forest, Animal integration, Biodiversity Conservation, Food Preservation, etc.  It is offered regularly every month throughout the year.

Loaded with highly immersive hands-on-learning activities, this course is a life changing experience. It completely transforms the way you look at Earth, Soil, Plants and Animals thereafter.   Not Just the above mentioned Permaculture Design Course, Aranya also offers training on Advanced Permaculture, BioChar, Advanced Earthworks and Water Harvesting Structures. Having personally attended my PDC here, I highly Recommend enrolling in any of their programs. 

 

Narsanna with his Soil Latte 🙂

2. Solitude Farm 

Solitude Farm is a part of Auroville city, located to the South of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The restorative agriculture  workshops at Solitude Farm vary from One-day workshop to Three-day weekend Retreats. This farm also offers volunteering and internship opportunities all year long. It is one of the very few experimental sustainable community based city in the world. Golden opportunity to learn, gain first hand experience and network with the fellow ecology enthusiasts .

Outdoor Sessions with Krishna Mackenzie

3. The Art of Living Ashram, Bangalore

The Art of Living Ashram’s has a 7 acre model permaculture farm established on an originally barren hill in Bangalore.  It offers a 9 day Residential Retreat to study and experience the landscape transformed by using the Permaculture Ethics and Principles. The curriculum is facilitated by Mr. Binay Kumar, popularly known as “man in the bus” from his viral video. The added advantage of attending this retreat is that you will get to stay in the Art of Living’s International Yoga Centre.  

Binay Kumar with his riches in Seed Savers Talk

6. Navdanya

Dedicated to the service of mother Earth, the beloved community of Vandana Shiva- is living  the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam( World is One Family). It hosts a one month long Return to earth- A-Z of Biodiversity, Agroecology, And Regenerative Organic Farming course and many other courses on climate justice such as, Earth Democracy, Ecofeminism, Gandhi and his Triple Peace. 

4. Kokan Permaculture

Located in the highly diverse coastal belt of Maharashtra, The Kokan Permaculture is managing farms at two locations in Murad(Thane) and Nate(Ratnagiri). It offers a 4 month blended Permaculture Design Course(PDC) including both Online and Offline modules.

5. Tribe Permaculture

Tribe Permaculture holds a 13 day holistic Permaculture design learning program on a 1-acre model farm in Theia Farms, located 60 kms away from the city of Hyderabad, Telangana. 

7. Dharmalya

Dharmalaya offers a 6 month residential internship program for Permaculture and Organic Farming Gardening. The Application process for this program is quite extensive, which requires the completion of a set of prerequisites  to be eligible for the program. 

8. Swayyam

Based in lush green landscape of Nilgiris, Swayyam also occasionally offers both short (2 or 3 days) and long( 16 days) residential course on Regenerative Agriculture.  

9. Navadarshanam

A 4-day Sustainable farming- Permaculture program at Navadarshanam, (Tamil Nadu)is designed for anyone interested in growing their own food and gaining a basic foundational knowledge of holistic living. 

 

10. Geeli Mitti

Geeli Mitti is originally focused on Natural Building programs in Himachal Pradesh. However, it also occasionally offers a 16 day workshop on Natural Farming. 

PDC Location	Duration	Fee & Frequency	Amenities
Aranya Alternatives Agriculture Bidakanne, Hyderabad	13 day, Residential	20,000 INR ( Indian Residents)25, 000 INR(International) –offered REGULARLY every Month	Includes Tents and Shared Dormitory, separate for males and females Includes morning tea+ porridge followed by 3 highly nutritional seasonal south Indian Meals with 2 Tea breaks with yummy snacks everyday https://permacultureindia.org/get-involved/permaculture-design-course-pdc/?fbclid=IwAR1KuLhX6AIeyWNCl33oyk6nUOETRkwzRErb-Xz7WDfVYrS13Jo66e5KTZs
Solitude Farm Auroville	1 day mini permaculture workshop 3 day workshop	INR 14,500 Offered regularly	On-Site living, More info https://auroville.org/page/solitude-farm-workshops great opportunity to visit Solitude Cafe, Sadhana Forest there long term volunteer opportunity available
Art of Living Ashram Bangalore	9 day Residential	Not Offered regularly	Campus Living *Bonus- enjoy Yoga experience at the International Art of Living Ashram, Bangalore More info https://bangaloreashram.org/permaculture/
Navdanya Doon Valley, Uttarakhand	1 month Residential	Not Offered regularly	Campus Living- More info https://www.navdanya.org/courses-at-earth-university-2022-2023 volunteer opportunity available
Geeli Mitti Himachal Pradesh	16 day Residential	INR 35,000 (425 USD) Not Offered regularly	Paid accommodationVaries between 900-6000/person depending on preference More info https://geelimitti.in/geeli-mitti-events/pdc/ volunteer opportunity available(need to pay the living expense)
Dharmalaya Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh	6 month Residential	Prerequisites required Not Offered regularly	Campus living- More info https://dharmalaya.in/programmes/internships/internship-in-permaculture-and-organic-gardening-himalayas volunteer opportunity available
Kokan Permacutlure Maharashtra	3.5 month blended( Online+ Offline)	INR 46,000 Not Offered regularly	Mostly Offline, one week on-Site Upcoming from June 08-Sept 29. Register http://www.kokanpermaculture.com/index.html
Tribe Permaculture Hyderabad	13 day + 1 month InternshipResidential	INR 26,000 Not Offered regularly	-More info https://www.tribepermaculture.com/general-8
Swayyam Yellachatti village(Nilgiris), Karnataka	16 day Residential	INR 42,000(Indian)INR 45,000( International) Not Offered regularly	-Insta @swayyam_permaculture volunteer opportunity available
Navadarshanam Gumalapuram, Tamil Nadu	4 day Residential	Not Offered regularly	-More info https://navadarshanam.org/?page_id=246

I hope the above information is useful for you. The missing details in the table will be updated as available in the future.

If you would like to explore the Online Permaculture Design Course directory, check it out here. Please do leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions or doubts.

 

Have an adventurous Permaculture Design Journey ahead! 🙂