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Navdanya has a primary membership of more than 6,50,000 farmer families in seventeen states of India namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

It has also established 111 Community Seed Banks (CSBs) in 17 States across India.

Till date Navdanya has formed more than 5000 Jaiv Panchayats in different parts of the country. They have their own Community Bank Registers (CBRs) wherein they register the diversity and knowledge that exist in their village.

We have organized more than 50 international courses on Biodiversity, Food, Biopiracy, Sustainable Agriculture, Water, Gandhian philosophy, Globalization, IPRs, Buisness Ethics, Grand Mothers University etc.

2,00,000 farmers have been converted to organic farming in different parts of the country.

Once a year, Navdanya staff and partners meet for sharing experiences and learning.

Navdanya has trained about 500,000 farmers, conserved 3,000 varieties of rice.

Navdanya's seed bank in the farm at Dehradun preserves 500 land races of paddy, 150 land races of wheat, 11 land races of barley, 5 varieties of barnyard millet, 10 varieties of oats, 6 varieties of finger millet, 3 varieties of foxtail millet and 7 varieties of mustard.

Biodiversity Conservation

Till date Navdanya's conservation farm has protected 12 genera of cereals and millets, 16 genera of legumes and plants, 50 genera of vegetables, 7 genera of oil yielding plants, 13 genera of spices and condiments, 20 genera of aromatic plants, 54 genera of fruit and flower yielding plants and 250 genera of ornamental, timber and medicinal plants.
Navdanya is born of a vision that all beings have intrinsic value and an inherent right to live, grow and evolve to their full potential through their self organisation. The diversity of biological life forms and cultures is the basis of peace, harmony and sustainability. We therefore view the conservation of biodiversity and protection of all life forms as a fundamental human duty, as our universal responsibility.

Navdanya also has a vision that all humans have a fundamental right to ecological, economic and political security, to the protection and defense of their resources, their livelihoods and production and consumption patterns shaped by people through their participation. Biodiversity provides the basis of livelihoods of the marginalized majority – of women, peasants, tribals, fisher folk. Biodiversity offers the potential to overcome poverty and powerlessness.

Through biodiversity, we envision improving the productivity and incomes of rural communities, thus combining the conservation of nature with removal of poverty, destitution and misery. Biodiversity also enriches our lives by sustaining cultural diversity. And it is through the flourishing of diverse cultures conditions are created for peace and harmony among the human community.

“Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of villages till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance, but ever humble, sharing the majesty of he oceanic circle of which they are integral units. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and will derive its own strength from it.”
We in Navdanya view the right to biodiversity and knowledge to livelihoods and creativity as fundamental human rights in accordance with the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and in the footsteps of Gandhi’s economic constitution of 1928. Vital resources like biodiversity and water are necessary for survival and well-being. They should be accessible to all. In our vision, biodiversity and water are the ultimate commons, which should not be privatized and commodified.

Our vision is based on the imperative to create alternatives to gigantism and centralisation by building on the strengths of the small and the decentralized and for sustainability and justice, for freedom and peace. A globalisation of the local, rather than a globalisation driven by giant corporations and institutions is our vision.

Ecological recovery cannot be based on centralized and globalised control over resources. It has to be based on the decentralized logic of Gandhi’s “ever-widening, never ascending’ circles.

Navdanya’s vision is based on earth democracy – the participation of all people and species in the common welfare of all.