Agriculture

Anshul joined Auroville in 2019 and works at AuroOrchard. His journey with farming started in Auroville ten years ago with his intention to grow his own food.

“Enhance Auroville food production to meet the needs of Auroville...” – View point of the Governing Board as recorded in the minutes of the 57th meeting.

Auroville has 22 farms, ranging in size from 120 to about 6 acres. Each farm is managed by one or two farmers. Jointly, they run the Farm Group.

One of the biggest mysteries, for me, has been the process of change itself. The transformation of one thing into another has fascinated me since a very young age.

Are we ready to coordinate Auroville's food sector?

On a recent Thursday morning, there were sharing 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.

Like so many Auroville projects, Annapurna farm started with a simple keet-roofed hut, no money to speak of, not many expectations but with high aspirations.

Aurovilian Deepika Kundaji was one among 30 women and 9 institutions to be conferred the “Nari Shakti Award for 2017”, India’s prestigious award for women, by the President of India on the occasion of International Women’s Day at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s Palace, in New Delhi on March 8th.

Bindu, who is working on a movie on the topic, shares her understanding of the importance of millets, internationally, nationally and locally.

Even though Auroville farms largely use sprinklers and drip irrigation to reduce wastage of water, it goes without saying that our agricultural sector consumes the maximum amount of water.

Demonetisation – this brittle word with its short, sharp syllables, gained currency overnight with the draconian move of the Indian Government to invalidate Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes.

Auro-Orchard, one of Auroville’s biggest farms, took the decision to go organic in October 2012. How have they done? And how optimistic are they about the future of food production in Auroville?

Little is known about those early days before Auroville’s inauguration, when land purchase and the first Auroville developments were started by the Sri Aurobindo Society.

Tomas and Krishna farm on different scales and in different ways. Tomas manages the 134 acres of Annapurna Farm; Krishna farms six acres of Solitude in the ‘non-till’ Fukuoka style.