The JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre strives to operationalise sustainable development in the field of agriculture and rural development by promoting job-led economic growth strategies based on pro-poor, pro-women and pro-nature orientation to technology development and dissemination. Using the concepts of Biovillage and eco-enterprise development, the Centre focuses on blending sustainable natural resource management with livelihood security. Adaptive participatory research and development, capacity building and grass-root institution building are the strategies through which the Centre is striving to strengthen the process of sustainable development.


Through its operations in different agro-ecological systems prevailing in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Orissa, the Centre is evolving models of sustainable development for policy advocacy with Government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), private sector, banks and international development agencies. The programme lays emphasis on skill and knowledge empowerment of the rural poor.

Research, development and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies, are the focus of activities undertaken by the Centre, which are in the nature of

1. Technology Specific Participatory Research, like Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM), Integrated Nutrient Management (INM), Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Water Management (IWM) and Biological Software’s – attempts at developing specific technologies under the above mentioned areas and demonstrating in the field through the process of demystification



2. Area Specific Field Research, focusing on integrating a group of technologies to develop models like Integrated Farming System (IFS)/Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture/ Aquaculture (LEISA) etc. These models provide scope for promoting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) at different scales like farm level to the level of covering a region within a watershed and promote crop diversification (low input high value crops), integration of farming systems and group farming to confer the power of scale both at production as well as marketing domains. The Centre also facilitates organic farming in de facto organic systems in hilly ecosystems by considering its comparative market advantage and ecological sustainability



3. Promoting Community Based Organisations, that are structured around Federation of Self Help Groups and Farmers’ Association. They are effective local forums for decentralised planning and action, which helps to provide scope to accommodate the process mode. The Self Help Group Federations/Associations are evolving into Community Banks, which are sensitive to local social complexities like caste, class and gender. In context to these social complexities, these grass root institutions create economies of scale, reduce promotional and transaction costs, enable provision of value added services and increase the bargaining power of the poor and thereby empower them in the process. These institutions are supported through linkages with other institutions for technical and financial support.