Peermade Development Society (PDS), is a registered non –governmental organization under the Travancore-Cochin Literary and Charitable Societies Act of 1955 (Reg.No. I 126/80 ) at Peermade, Idukki district. This organization was established by Bishop Mathew Arackal in 1980. Within this short span of time, PDS has attained high reputation and phenomenal growth and has become one of the largest voluntary organizations in India It has 18 departments, all headed by highly qualified professionals. Our area of operation covers the districts of Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta.
Our R&D focus covers Tribal Development, Organic Farming, Natural Resource Management, Watershed development, Renewable Energy, Climate Change, Food Security Micro Finance, Skill development, Entrepreneurship development, Technology Development and Dissemination, Formation of micro level organizations, community health and waste management. Our target group is small marginalized farmers, tribals, women and children. It has to be specially mentioned that all the programmes of PDS are being implemented only through our micro organizations in the villages which comes around 1863 self-help
groups, 740 Joint Liability groups and couple of Farmer Producer Organizations.
PDS is the Centre of Excellence and nodal agency for the Ministry of Science & Technology and we conduct various research programmes with their support. Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India recognized PDS as a scientific and research organization. PDS is the first NGO in Asia to be awarded the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for food and agriculture for Food Security Programmes. We are the national collaborator for National Innovation Foundation, Govt. of India. Ministry of Rural Development has recognized PDS as the Technology Resource Centre. PDS is the first NGO in Kerala to be awarded Tribal Development Fund from National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and it is the only non-official member of its project sanctioning committee. We were bestowed with the responsibility of organizing the Kerala Science Congress by STEC, Govt of Kerala, recognizing our scientific pursuit.
We have organized almost 3000 small organic spice and tea farmers into Farmers’ Consortiums and today we are the largest exporters of Organic Spices in India. We do closely associate with Khadi Board and Kerala State Backward and Minorities Commission too. Because of our professional approach and dedication to every task, various national and international agencies have come forward to support us. Today we have developmental programmes from UNDP, FAO, BMZ, GIZ, PlaNet Finance, and Karl Kubel Foundation. Various ministries and departments of Central and State Governments are also extending their support to PDS.
We have established excellent research facilities covering soil and leaves analysis, micro-biology laboratories, mushroom production, Tissue culture laboratory, spices quality testing and evaluation, Ayurveda medicine manufacturing and quality testing as well as skill development infrastructure. Our Marian College is internationally renowned for its academic excellence and is one of the most sought after colleges in the state.