Meet Mr. Govindaswamy, a TIST farmer along with his family from Kurisilapattu Village in Thirupattur, Vellore District, Tamil Nadu, India. He joined TIST in 2008, attended all meetings and trainings and learned how TIST encourages farmers to continue farming along with planting trees. By sharing the Best Practices learned from TIST, he invites other farmers to his fields to see his teak and kumil trees along with his intercrop plantings.

His wife and son join him in the field to plan what to plant for the next season like turmeric, bananas, pigeon pea and horse gram, which is used to feed cattle. They plant these crops in between the teak trees that provide shade during hot weather.

TIST provides tree stipend income for the 971 trees he has planted so far and helps to supplement their crop activity. He is proud of being able to use his land wisely and keeping the land in good condition for the next generation.