Timeliness, frugality, good skill and experience, deep subject knowledge, work ethics and love for labour – all of these factors contribute to the efficiency of a task. Over the last one year, during the course of purchasing many products and hiring many services for our farm work and house construction, we discovered a worrisome fact: Regardless of the price one is willing to pay; patience and leniency one is willing to show; and even the loss one is willing to accept, most people are not interested in any of the factors that contribute to efficiency.

We were lucky to purchase a farmland that has a water source (a bore pump) with the water table at around 80 feet and free, state government sponsored electricity. Our current irrigation system depends on these two.

The act of placing a tree sapling in a pit seems to be simple. But the pre-work and post-work can take up a lot of time if you are planting lots of trees in a short period.

The pre-work involves figuring out:

Initially, the idea of taking care of a big piece of land was overwhelming for us. We had a lot of questions that started with, "How are we ever going to...?". But having the land divided into one acre parcels for irrigation brought some comfort. We only need to turn one valve in a day. And the further sub-division of each acre into 25 feet parcels brought more comfort. The laborers only need to prepare for planting or harvesting in one section in a given day.

When your cup is full, it overflows. When a family’s needs are well met by a farm, generosity springs up naturally. There was a time when sharing a farm’s surplus was the norm. It was not only gifted to the needy, it was also part of the payment for all kinds of services that a farmer used besides regular farm labour: vetinirary, carpentry, post harvest work, personal house work, painting etc.

Laughing, playing and enjoying together are easy, even with strangers. But all relationships develop strains at some point. Hence, it is better to first develop friendship and kinship with the workers, neighbors and strangers and get ready to weather the storms. Friction in a healthy relationship, when dealt with patience, increases the strength of the relationship. Friction in an unprepared relationship, even with uncommon patience, leads to breakups for want of trust and receptivity.
 

The seeking for efficiency in the post industrial age has come to mean getting more and more for less and less. In other words, the purpose and spirit of efficiency have been reduced to serve human greed. But around the world, for centuries, efficiency was sought at different levels to serve different purposes:

Principle #5 - Diversity is the soul of a sustainable eco system

Natural farming means nature does the farming and you take care not to allow anything unnatural to enter the farm

No two farms are alike, hence the principles may remain the same but the practices are likely to differ