- Accepting Inefficiencies
- Irrigation: Drip, Spray and Misty!
- Planting Trees
- Principle#9 - Design in Modules
- Principle#8 - Farm Surplus must be Distributed in Creative Ways
- Principle#7 - Farm, Friends and Family.
- Principle#6 - Efficiency must be sought - at human scale and pace.
- Principle #5 - Diversity is the Soul
- Principle#4 - Natural Farming Means Nature does the Farming
- Principle #3 - No Two Farms are Alike
Organic Farming
Organic farming, even during the 80’s, was considered a “costly experiment”. It was challenged on all aspects of the agriculture business: cost, yield, market and profitability.
However, in the last decade, organic farming has become a way of life for many cosnumers. It has also become the fastest growing business sector. According to Wikipedia, “The world organic market has been growing by 20% a year since the early 1990s, with future growth estimates ranging from 10-50% annually depending on the country.”
In India, more and more farms are getting converted to organic farming. So at this point, any new organic farmers, like us, have the privilege of getting a jumpstart (organically, of course) to participate in the 'forever green' revolution.
What we have done so far:
Land: Along with six of our friends, we bought 10 acres of farm land in Madhvarayapuram. How we met with that land is a story by itself :)
Affinity: While we were growing up in India, Nisha and I had vegetable garden in our backyard. In the US too, we did the same for a couple of years. It is not much but these experiences along with spending summers in villages where our relatives lived (and farmed) has given us some affinity to farming.
People: When I was volunteering with Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory at Standford, I met Dr.Thomas George, an agricultural scientist who quit not just his job but his 15 year career to literally take things in his own hands and help farmers by creating a Fair Market System. He has been working successfully with farmers in Kenya for the past three years through Vipani, an organization that he created to launch his ideas. Whenever he visited the US (a few times in a year) we would meet and he told us about all his difficulties and successes. We highly value his experiences as they have given us a close-up view of all the challenges and opportunities involved in farming. We have also been inspired by Timbaktu Collective in Andhrapradesh, thinking of training with Center for Indian Knowledge Systems and meeting the folks at The Academy of Natural Farming in Karnataka.
Books and Websites: Many years ago, on the last night of our stay with a friend in Goa, we read the book One Straw Relovution by Masanobu Fukuoka and were super inspired. Once we bough the land, we started reading up on organic farming related material and naturally came across Permaculture and read Bill Mollison's Introduction to Permaculture over a few months (they have lots of specific details and it is not an easy read). We researched on the net and and read the experiences of many people who have been doing organic farming for decades in India and in other places.
What we intend to do:
Our interest in organic farming is to help ourselves and the small farm owners sustain a healthy, simple and comfortable life. We are looking forward to spending a lot of time observing nature and learning from wise men and women around.
The real challenges related to organic farming though is not in production but in access to credit, cash flow management and successful engagement with the middlemen or co-op that works well for the farmer. In the short-term, we may have to grow high value produce and stand the ground without being exploited. We will be exploring ways to create a system that works for all.
If you have an affinity for farming, do share your thoughts with us.