Soumya Mondal

Currently working at Sundarban Green Environment Association in the mangrove plantation and conservation project, Soumya is passionate about preserving the biodiversity and ecosystem of the Sundarban delta. As a GreEntrepreneur, he ran the Mrittika project with the farmers of the area with a focus on agricultural practices. Soil is an important source of sinks of atmospheric carbon due to agricultural application and strategies, and adoption of the best management practices can provide a higher carbon sequestration in agricultural fields. Soumya’s project aims at establishing sustainable agricultural practices and works with farmers who own more than 350 bighas of land. The project also aims to establish a proper supply chain, bring back indigenous agricultural practices into the mainstream, promote lost indigenous seed varieties and build capacities on how to identify and preserve seeds. With 15 farmers now engaged in the practice, there is increasing acceptance of natural farming techniques; the local community participated in plating 3,000 mangrove trees; a youth group has been formed to actively discuss and brainstorm, in order to widen the net and increase awareness on the issue; and the local community is being mobilized in order to reduce carbon emissions in the day-to-day local life. The project continues to add more farmers to its group, andis working on arranging market-product linkages for the farmers and ensuring that more indigenous seeds are being exchanged with the seed bank.