Dear Reader, 

 

A story, once published, has a short shelf life. The moment it enters the public domain, ready to be consumed, its expiration date is already fast approaching. 

 

It takes about 10 minutes to consume a 2,000-word story, another five minutes to share it on social media, and the next two minutes to forget about it. Factors including a 45-second attention span, an urge to scroll and tap on the next best thing, and a constant abundance of choice, ensure a limited lifespan for a story.

 

But there is one place where a story continues to persist—the process through which it is created. From the seed of an idea, through many drafts and edits, by the time a story reaches its final form, it has already found sanctuary in the writers, editors, photographers, sources, organisations, and funders who have come together to bring it to life. Among these various collaborators, the story outlives itself. 

One such collaboration, for me, is The Locavore’s Woman Farmer Project—a multimedia storytelling fellowship that documents women’s labour in agricultural systems in India, and the role they play in upholding our food systems. For this project, we brought together six women storytellers to report stories from three distinct geographies—the hilly terrain of Meghalaya, the coastline of Tamil Nadu, and the drylands of Madhya Pradesh. 

 

For 45 days, beginning this week, these writers  and filmmakers will travel across villages and towns. They will live alongside local communities, try local ingredients, hunt for regional recipes, and document everyday lives of women farmers—their hardships and joys—to communicate the critical role women play in food, labour, and care systems.

 

Launched in collaboration with the Doc Society Climate Story Unit, the fellowship brings together regional organisations, mentors, and community representatives, working together with fellows to ensure each story, film, photograph, and recipe is put together with care and sensitivity. The value of this storytelling project lies in this process of collaboration. It has made evident that integral storytelling goes beyond individual bylines and unilateral practices. The longevity of the stories that come out of the Woman Farmer Project will lie with the individuals and organisations who collaborated to make them possible.

Within each fellowship region, The Locavore is joining hands with organisations whose work lies at the intersection of food security and sovereignty, livelihoods, ecology, and climate concerns.

 

Learn more about our partners, North East Society for Agroecology Support (NESFAS) in Meghalaya, The Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) in Madhya Pradesh, and Dakshin Foundation in Tamil Nadu, here.

Ibapdianghun Myria’s work is rooted within communities in Meghalaya. She documents lived experiences around livelihoods, culture, food, climate, and community-led change through film, photography, and writing.

 

“While I already work closely with communities, I want to learn how to approach that relationship more ethically and thoughtfully—how to listen better, build trust, and represent people more honestly without simplifying their lives or experiences.”

Queeneerich Kharmawlong grew up in the quiet hill station of Shillong; she became a journalist and a multimedia storyteller to catch the city’s  fleeting tales and weave them into something real.

 

“Through this fellowship, I hope to rediscover a way of writing that captures the nuance that exists ‘between the lines’. I hope to move beyond simple reporting and learn to translate the deep, human elements of rural life onto the page.”

Kiran Admache is a Gond Adivasi filmmaker and engineer from Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and is an alumna of the Green Hub Central India Fellowship where she learned documentary filmmaking.

 

“I hope to learn how to tell honest and meaningful stories through photographs while building trust with the people I capture. I want to improve both technically and emotionally.”

Nidhi K is a Mumbai-based independent journalist who writes on travel, food, policy, public health, and the environment. She loves scouring databases to bring stories to the fore.

 

“This fellowship gives me the rare opportunity to understand the lives of women farmers in Madhya Pradesh. I hope to understand food systems beyond agriculture policy through their lens, and bring out stories that show their everyday lives and systems.”

Revathi Sunil is a Bengaluru-based filmmaker, writer, and editor working across documentary and fiction. She is interested in intimate, non-intrusive storytelling that centres dignity, complexity, and the perspectives of those furthest from the frame.

 

“Through this fellowship, I hope to develop a filmmaking language shaped by the women and food systems I encounter, stepping outside my own peripheral vision in the process.”

Trained in Geographical Information System (GIS) and environmental law, Rashmi hopes to work with fishing communities to map their resources, with a focus on women’s labour, seafood markets, and collective action.

 

“I am looking forward to observing my surroundings with intent and to writing stories that foster allyship with fisher movements.”

In May 2026, our fellows spent time attending training sessions that were facilitated by writers, journalists, photographers, and editors. These sessions were an opportunity for storytellers across age groups, experience, and genres to come together and work toward effective storytelling. 

Award-winning independent journalist Shreya Raman discussed the nuances of reporting and writing on the environment with accuracy,  while holding a community-centric approach. She took the fellows through the different aspects of environment reporting including research, interviewing, identifying patterns, locating data, identifying sources, and writing the final story.

Independent photojournalist Harsha Vadlamani discussed how storytellers should prepare for a photoshoot, handle  equipment, build relationships with sources, establish a frame, and ethically convey intimacy and emotion while capturing different scenes and individuals. 

Laxmi Murthy, a senior journalist and one of the founding members of Network of Women in Media, India talked to the fellows about the various ways they can navigate days on the field. Her own experiences of reporting as well as the resources collected over the years enabled an open discussion on the challenges women storytellers face on the field. Laxmi discussed how journalists should dress for the field, how they can take care of their health and well being, how journalists should think about digital safety, how to build situational awareness, and how women journalists can be safe while building trust-based and consensual relationships on the field. 

Karthik Madhavapeddi, Managing Editor at IndiaSpend, discussed how journalists can find, interpret, and use data alongside human narratives. Karthik also emphasised the importance of looking at data critically during the storytelling process and being mindful of where data is found, how it is collected, and the gaps that journalists must account for.

Mohar, an independent reporter who has covered issues including development, public policy, climate change, and the environment, supported the fellows in story ideation. The session discussed the process of background research, writing a pitch, conducting interviews, and structuring the story. Through the session, fellows were able to transform their ideas into stories, and start the process of preparing for field reporting.

We are now a third of the way through the Woman Farmer Project and the fellows will soon reach their respective field locations in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Meghalaya. They will be carrying with them the conversations and notes from seasoned journalists and mentors who have been generous enough to share their experiences with them.

 

As storytellers, it is often easy to forget what motivates us to pursue a story in the first place. Challenges on the field, long hours, rejection from communities, and deadlines, all work together to push us further away from the carefully built processes we set out to follow on the field. But I hope these processes will be hard to let go of, this time around. Everyone who has come together to show solidarity with The Locavore and our fellows has exemplified how intentional and ethical storytelling processes are not only possible, but often the only way to navigate the complexities of the field. For me, the Woman Farmer Project is a reminder that if we want to prevent stories from expiring, the secret lies within the processes through which we approach them. 

The Woman Farmer Project is a multimedia storytelling initiative led by The Locavore in partnership with the Doc Society Climate Story Unit. It aims to build a roadmap for successful collaborations between storytellers, grassroots organisations, and community distribution networks across India for impactful climate storytelling.