Of farms, fences, and funds

On a recent Thursday morning, there were sharings by a number of Auroville farmers related to new and on-going initiatives on the lands they steward, along with the many immediate challenges they face. The event was organized by the small team of Fundraising Consultancy for Auroville Projects, a recently registered service unit. Attendees included stewards or representatives of a dozen Auroville Farms, food processing units, the Budget Coordination Committee, as well as other interested Aurovilians.

Each of the farms had a valuable story to tell. Kottakarai Farm was able to continue engaging children from surrounding village schools and the Auroville Kindergarten on the land, even through the COVID lockdowns and school closures. The programme allows children to directly connect with the soil and each stage of growing and harvesting produce. Buddha Garden has evolved a body of sustainable practices, a flourishing micro-green production and packaging set up (sandwiched among fruit orchards and intense vegetable production), as well as strong volunteer and visitor programmes. Kalpavruksha is a family effort, focused on Zero Budget Natural Farming and developing a Seed Bank for local crop varieties. At Auro Orchard, a committed team of young Aurovilians has come together to focus on a sustainable model to carry the farm forward for the next 50 years, building on all that Gerard and Bithi have accomplished over the last 50 years.

While the range of soil, crops, practices, and activities varies widely, the farms largely face similar challenges. Whether old or new, big or small, virtually every farm desperately needs funds for fencing to protect the land from encroachment, cow and goat herds, and burgeoning wildlife (pigs, deer, porcupines, peacocks, mongooses). Some farms require greenhouses to nurture seedlings in the harsh local climate and to considerably expand vegetable production seasons. Other farms require basic housing for Aurovilians and volunteers who work the land, manage farm systems, or run complementary research, educational, and food processing activities. Most farms would benefit from investments in equipment and machinery. On older farms, physical infrastructure (including those fences) needs repair or rebuilding, as such things age quickly in this climate. Newer farms need to start building to begin adequately protecting the land and to scale up farm capacity.

Initially, Auroville farm and forest land was largely purchased and developed through personal funds raised by pioneers with foreign passports.

They donated all personal savings and all they could earn by leaving Auroville to work in their country of origin for a few years. As stewards, they then called on friends from abroad to chip in what they could. Such funds went a long way at the time. But the current reality is different. A new generation of young people on various farms are enthusiastic to take over from aging stewards, to pour their energy, sweat, and organizational skills into robust farming models capable of meeting Auroville’s food security needs, even as it grows. But this generation has no financial means. And Aurovilian farmers from local villages never had such resources to begin with. At present, Auroville has no general land maintenance or development budget. While the Farm Group is allocated a budget, it is far from sufficient even to cover the maintenance/basic income of all those who work on the farms.

In order to access funds from foundations or large corporations with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, farms would generally have to conduct research or offer specialized educational programmes and training related to regenerative, innovative, sustainable green practices and models. The Fundraising Consultancy unit has already called for rough project proposals from the farms and now intends to help refine and reshape these proposals to better align them with available funding options and statutory requirements. Sigrid is sure that her unit will be able to match farms with appropriate foundations and CSR funding once the proposals are more professionally framed. To make them appealing to donors, farms would also need to collaborate to create large enough projects, both in terms of funds and impact. After the funding comes through, the Consultancy unit will provide project monitoring and donor reporting support.

At the same time, Sigrid knows that this type of grant-oriented funding can only meet some part of the farms’ financial needs. In fact, there are little to no funds available from institutional donors for large equipment, machinery, or infrastructure investment and maintenance. Furthermore, funding is just one aspect of what the farms require to become viable models. Having spent many years fundraising for Auroville land, Sigrid is also keenly aware of the larger issues and pressures related to acquiring, protecting, and ultimately farming or afforesting the land. And so she hopes to draw the community’s attention back to the land and the ways that all of Auroville will have to take responsibility to support this collective resource.

Many in Auroville have moved on from (or have never known) the physical toil of the early pioneer years. Meanwhile this work continues, day after day, on farms that are intended to support Auroville’s food needs through sustainable models, but don’t yet have the capacity to do so.