A journey from conventional to regenerative agriculture to feed the City of DawnIf you check Auroville’s website, you will read that “Auro-Orchard is the oldest and the second largest farm of Auroville, that grows most of the fruits and vegetables produced in the community. It also serves as the main poultry farm of Auroville. Since its inception, Auro-Orchard’s main vision was to provide food for the Auroville community. For many years, to meet the immediate needs of the Auroville community in food, conventional farming practices were used, but since 2012, Auro-Orchard is being converted into an organic farm. (…) Regenerative organic farming (agro-ecology) is now the motto of the farm.”. This article is about the recent and successful transition from “conventional” agriculture to regenerative organic agriculture. You will read about our visit of Auro-Orchard as well as Mathieu’s two-week volunteering session there. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊 I volunteered for two weeks at Auro Orchard with a great team of locals, volunteers and Aurovillians. I take the time to thank everyone of them at the end of the article because it was an amazing human experience. However, the focus of the article is to share with you the successful move of Auro-Orchard from traditional agriculture methods that killed the land to respectful methods that regenerate the land. As a volunteer I could see the direct results of the transition. This ongoing success has been possible through an intransigent and straightforward strategy:
On top of that I want to salute the effort for human and social respect as well as for animals’ respect at the farm. In this regard, another part of the article relates on how the present manager is addressing human and animals’ issues at the farm. As a broader attempt to describe the farm, Laura and I have listed a few areas of development which are task management, communication and other opportunities that can clearly help the farm optimize its work and grow in the future. As usual (you can find it in most of our articles), we tend to be as objective as possible in our report on projects, which means we also provide readers with subjective remarks. Feel free to comment and give your opinion too! Enjoy the read. Before Auroville was established, the Mother had already started to plan a farm for the international township. Indeed, even though she was a very spiritual person, she was also very rational and pragmatic: if she wanted to build for 50 000 inhabitants, she needed to feed 50 000 inhabitants. Moreover, as a follower of Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, she strongly believed that fieldwork was the basis of spiritual work; feeding the community was a way to achieve the divine will. In 1964, Mother acquired a piece of land a couple of kilometers away from the center of Auroville. She got the land from a Swami (priest) under the conditions that the land remains dedicated to farming, that the farmers protect the existing Ganesh temple, and that the farmers make a pudja (prayer) every day. Those conditions are met. In 1955, the Auro-Orchard’s founder, Gérard, was already supporting Mother at the ashram in Pondicherry. When he came back in 1968 from a journey in the Himalayas and asked Mother what he could do to help, she requested him to feed the community. In those days, “green revolution” was booming in India and it was deeply modifying the traditional schemes of farming and land stewardship. Moreover, even though Mother asked three times for organic farming, Gérard did not feel, apparently, he had sufficient knowledge and/or competency to feed the community without using “modern” methods; he preferred to go for conventional agriculture methods. Auro-Orchard was born, the mission was clear and the strategy in line with contemporary mindset. Rehab’ In 2012, the farm vegetation was slim or none, the soils were dying: bear poor red sandy soil with no water retention, on some places laterite crudely recalling that topsoil runs off fast with heavy Tamil Nadu rains. The site looked like a deserted “microplanet”, this situation was not bearable for some of the volunteers and the decision was made: regenerative agriculture will cure Auro-Orchard and shift “from sucker to provider”. Since then, Auro-Orchard’s rehabilitation program focuses on the four objectives and axes that follow:
#1 – The Food We can consider that this objective is fulfilled. Auro-Orchard currently offers an average of 50 different products with a choice of 10 to 30 different items all-year round. As I volunteered there, three times a week, we would start the day with harvesting: several kilograms of beans, dozens of lemons, a couple kilograms of lemongrass, bunches of rosella leaves, turmeric, loads of potatoes, etc. I did not have the opportunity to harvest cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, etc. we stick to the seasons 😊 Moreover, the gardens and fields are surrounded by orchards full of cashew and mangoes; the lemon orchard also bears some avocado trees. I also remember the opportunity we were offered to harvest groundnuts / peanuts! Peanuts are a lot of work… from harvesting with proper dexterity and transport of the plants to the farm, to properly laying down to avoid mold development and over-heating (and resulting increase in aflatoxins in the groundnuts), to plucking the peanuts from the plants, to drying, to opening and packaging and testing for aflatoxin (which might lead discarding the production…) … I will not say “working for peanuts” anymore 😊 Feel free to refer to the presentation of the project on Auroville’s website to acknowledge the average yields. #2 – The Fertility Decades of conventional agriculture on an already desertic land damaged the soils. The fertility decreased with time and thus represented a challenge for the rehabilitation program. Working on fertility is thus a must if Auro-Orchard wants to produce healthy foods for Auroville. We started the visit talking about the nutrient cycle, i.e. “the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of matter”. The conventional farming nutrient/energy path is as follows: Whereas the natural nutrient cycle we want is as follows: mostlyNB. Plants also feed on the sun, the water and the air that the environment provides naturally. It is utterly important to acknowledge that and respect the soil as a living being. Auro-Orchard is involved in a regenerative process. During our tour, our guide shared key understandings about the nutrient cycle:
As I volunteered there, we applied several fertility techniques such as:
We can consider that the fertility objective is being met. Fertility rehabilitation is a dynamic process, and we look forward to the virtuous evolution. #3 – The Water In Tamil Nadu, the farmers benefit from a political decision that makes water and energy so affordable that, apparently, many farmers leave their pump on 24 hours per day. Even though it rains quantitatively a lot near Auroville (average 1 280 mm per year; Paris receives 650 mm per year), I have been told it only rains 50 days per year… Even though the region receives a lot of water, it is still "arid" because the water balance is negative... The sun and the wind make evaporation is stronger than rainfall! In Auroville, one can easily see how arid, hot and dry it gets. Water resource must be used thoughtfully. At Auro-Orchard, the first step regarding water harvesting was earthworks: bunds, percolation pits, trenches, etc. Such earthworks allow to slow the water, spread it over the land and sink it in the underground water reserves. The second step was to cover the ground with vegetation. Not only does the vegetation protect the ground from direct sunlight and thus limits evaporation, it also facilitates water infiltration in the ground and retains moisture in the soils; moreover, it produces mulching material and supports the soil building process and -guess what? - soil is a great way to harvest and store water in the ground. Finally, Auro-Orchard, worked on the irrigation system and continuously examine the irrigation system to prevent waste. As a result: Auro-Orchard achieves zero runoffs! All the rainwater that falls on the compound stays on it (or under it as it sinks in the underground waterbodies). Even though Auro-Orchard relies heavily on irrigation to produce healthy foods, the balance is positive: Auro-Orchard harvests and sinks more water than it needs. According to the numbers, Auro-Orchard uses only 14% of the water that can be harvested yearly on the land (an average 70% of rainfall can be collected, the rest is either evaporated again or absorbed by the plants). The farm manager sums it up nicely: “we produce water!” (and make it available freely to the environment and the neighbors, ndr). As I volunteered there, I helped Alain with the installation of new irrigation pipe on one of the beds. The irrigation system is well organized with three independent lines that run through the gardens and a follow-up of the available/requested water to effectively feed the pipes and sprinklers installed in the garden. We can consider that the water objective is fully met. We hope that this example will influence neighboring farmers towards sustainable water management practices. #4 – The Energy As written above, many farmers do not seem to care about saving energy. It is cheap and available, why not waste? However, Auro-Orchard’s vision is different, Auro-Orchard has the objectives to reduce consumption, become an energy provider and mix energy sources. The reason behind is simple: enhance autonomy to ensure self-reliance. Today, most of the energy used at Auro-Orchard is used to pump water up from the underground and make it available for irrigation. One example of consumption reduction: the pump that feeds the main irrigation tank switches automatically on or off in accordance with the water level inside the tank. This system allows the farm to always have sufficient water to properly irrigate the gardens and fields as well as reduce consumption (electricity, water). Auro-Orchard currently lacks the financial and technical resources to implement renewable power generators: wind? solar? wood gasification? Other? If you are willing to support, feel free to contact them 😉 Achievements after three years of rehabilitation After only three years we acknowledge:
Go further: Auro-Orchard’s challenges Human & social aspects: people care Auro-Orchard is not just about the food, the fertility, the water and the energy, it is a true human adventure that involves permanent staff, suppliers, buyers and customers, volunteers… Full-time workers at Auro-Orchard work according to Indian rules, 6 days a week, 7 hours a day, 42 hours per week. In 2012, Tamil workers received an average of 85 rupees per day of work; now, the daily salary stands between 150 and 300 rupees. There is a big difference between men and women… which is cultural and difficult to resorb. Workers now also have social security and retirement. For Aurovillian workers, salary agreements are found directly between the worker and the management; commonly, if an Aurovillian works 40 hours, she/he gets a full “maintenance” (Aurovillian financial compensation). Moreover, Auro-Orchard wants to develop a cooperative sharing spirit within the farm. Thus, they implemented a “time credit” system for workers and long-term volunteers. How does the time credit work? on a weekly basis, for every 20 hours you spend working on the farm you get 7 kg of food. Why 20 hours a week and 7 kg you wonder? The decision is based on World Health Organization recommendation and anthropological studies about the nutritional needs of two adults and that show that so-called primitive people generally work only 3 hours a day to make their living. Animals At Auro-Orchard, not only will you see or hear many wild animals, you will also encounter domesticated animals: hens, dogs, sheep, cows. Did you know one can listen to hens to know if hierarchy is well established? Apparently, hens snap each other with the beak to establish hierarchy. If the hens are silent, that means hierarchy is well established and that hens live in a balanced society. Even though the chickens were mostly silent when we visited the farm, we acknowledged that most of them were missing feathers. Our guide confirmed that the hens had a health issue. Auro-Orchard follows the European Union standards for free range chickens and therefore delivers free range eggs to Auroville. Free range standard is just one step before organic standard: all specifications are the same, except for the food… for the moment, Auro-Orchard chicken’s food comes from outside the farm and is not organic. Moreover, instead of killing the chickens after 18 months (as it is the case in conventional / industrial poultry production), hens live up to 25 months at Auro-Orchard (reminder: a hen can easily live up to 12 years). On the longer run, Auro-Orchard wants to develop an orchard-pasturage approach where animals can move freely between the trees. When we were there, it was already the case for several cows. Auro-Orchard is investing in electrical fencing to integrate cows and hens in the orchards. Meet the team Auro-Orchard’s achievements are the results of a team effort. I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to meet all the local heroes, but I can salute the contribution from the Tamil workers, Bithi, Jasmin, Erik, Ramanan, Alain, Vankatesh, Jely, Sylvain, David, Birra, Raj, Gloria, Naoko… Meet the doers: the Tamil workers The Tamil workers are impressive! I remember the “groundnut harvest” … a team of eight volunteers managed to harvest the equivalent of a quarter of a field in 1,5 hours. The twelve Tamil workers finished the job in less than one hour with perfectly-aligned red groundnuts to facilitate transportation with the tractor and perfectly-aligned pink peanuts to start the drying process on the field… I also admire their wisdom and respect: they pray (do “pudjas”) before going to the fields and refuse to wear shoes on the field; shoes and “chappals” are disrespectful to Mother Earth. I would have liked to spend more time with them to learn Tamil and get to know them, get deeper into the Tamil culture. Meet the wise founders: Bithi and Gérard Bithi’s sense of humor and great smile always made it so enjoyable for me to carry baskets of beans, lemons, lemongrass, turmeric, potatoes, etc. for her to assess the yield and make sure we keep records of it. Both Bithi and Gérard inspire respect. I would have loved to connect more with her and learn from her wisdom and history. Meet our caring angel: Jasmin Jasmin is the first person I met at Auro-Orchard. She is a very sweet person with whom it is very easy to enjoy delightful conversations. She lives on site with her partner, Aravinda, in a nice house they built themselves from recuperated material. Every day, she prepared breakfasts for the team and on harvest days, she delivered the harvest to Auro-Orchard’s customer. Meet the expert: Erik Erik is a gardening expert! He is very energetic, working at the farm is not a meditative experience; it should be efficient. He is very knowledgeable about agroecology: he was a trainer for “Terre & Humanisme” and I must say his advice and teachings were very useful: from composting, to pruning, to mulching, to harvesting… For instance, I cannot forget the compost technique he described to me and how he used two cisterns to reach the optimum moisture level of compost! If you are interested, feel free to comment and I might prepare a DIY tutorial for you 😉 He works part-time on the farm, so he can spend more time with his family, especially his newborn baby. Meet the sunshine: Alain Alain was the sun of our group: always shining with a bright smile and great sense of humor. I enjoyed a lot working with him and talking about the farm, Auroville and life in general. His philosophy: he believes in destiny and therefore does not feel the need to worry: he is where he needs to be and appreciates the moment. He is very positive. Oh, and he has beautiful 38-year-grown dreads; quite impressive! Thank you Alain for the great talks and for making hard working under the sun so enjoyable 😊 Treff die Tamil aus Berlin Jely already volunteered one year at Auro-Orchard. She came back; I guess that means she liked the place. Her volunteering is part of an exchange program / German international cooperation schema that focuses on sending youngsters to volunteer on projects worldwide. I was impressed to hear her speak Tamil with the workers on the farm. I also felt bad that most of the time, everybody else was speaking French… I liked chatting with her as we worked in the gardens, I appreciated her radicality (Berlin style!). Last but not least, she studies organic farming; I wish her all the best on her future projects! Meet the friend of Auroville: Pierre I met Pierre on my first day of volunteering at Auro-Orchard. He immediately took care of me and invited me with a big smile to join him to do together the different farm jobs of the day. He is so interesting and easy-going, I like that. He has also an unusual profile: Paris City Engineer, he developed the Environment Office of Paris. And he also loves Egypt and had the opportunity to work there many times and enjoy firsthand the archeological marvels this country has to offer. I wish I could have attended his lecture about his work in Egypt; next time. “- We cannot change the world Pierre…” “- Yes, we can. It just takes time!” Meet the chainsaw expert: Sylvain Sylvain is the guy that cuts trees. I enjoyed chit-chatting with him during the morning break. I will remember his great insights on “expat” life in Tamil Nadu in general and the life in Auroville in particular. I wish him all the best and safe operations with his tools! Meet the boss: Christian Christian does not really have the typical Tamil farmer profile (not many people have typical profiles in Auroville…). In his previous life, Christian worked as an engineer, expert in urban environments with a crush for solving complex mobility issues. In 2011 and 2012, Christian worked with Bernard at the Pebble Garden (see our blogpost about Pebble Garden). Bernard introduced Christian to Gérard in February 2012. Gérard welcomed Christian on the farm as a volunteer. In October of the same year, Christian could not bear the “conventional” methods anymore and informed Gérard that if the farm did not go organic, he would leave the farm. Gérard was apparently thrilled and invited Christian to initiate the transition. In 2014, Christian becomes the executive manager of the farm. Christian is sharp and has a broad culture; ha also has a great kind of incisive sense of humor that I appreciate. I enjoyed a lot talking about the farm, about Auroville and the related technical & human issues. I would love to support him and Auro-Orchard with some of the issues (see more about it hereafter). And more… Two weeks are too short to meet everyone. I was very happy to meet Gloria and hear about her regenerative agriculture + autonomy + ecotourism project she wants to start in Burkina Faso. I also enjoyed her Bissap juices very much 😊 and her friend Naoko that lives in Pondicherry and sees farming as an active meditation. I also had the opportunity to meet and harvest groundnuts with Laure. She told me about her world tour: Martin autour du monde. Amazing and inspiring! Read our general article about Auroville for more information. Opportunities: task management & Communication As we visited the farm, Christian told us more about some of his challenges. Two major challenges being:
Task management We were told that yields were not as good as expected. Apparently, the main reason for that is the lack of efficiency in the organization of the tasks on the farm: some priorities are not defined correctly, as a result, the crop rotation is slower and the yield smaller. Moreover, the processes are not formally described and there is no formal feedback on the applied methods and techniques. We derive the main requirements that follow for the farm management solution to be implemented:
See “Complementary and subjective remarks” to read more about our views on quick win actions and human aspects. Communication As Laura visited the farm only one day she had very little time to speak about the communication strategy. However, Christian shared his desire to expend the marketing effort of the farm to structure and strengthen the relationship between the farm and its customers. Indeed, even though the customers of the farm are clearly the Aurovillians, Auro Orchard is not the only farm in Auroville and still needs to differentiate itself from the “competition”, clarify its distribution channels, prices, products, etc. Moreover, Christian has enhanced the fact that marketing for a farm like Auro Orchard is very different than marketing for a standard company. The goals here are less to optimize profit than to nurture trust and collaboration between the whole chain. On top of that, some aspects of the farming activities deserve more focus and networking effort such as the obtention of seeds and sharing of seeds. This is clearly a new “product” area to develop and a marketing strategy can help the farm to make the move effectively toward more seeds related activities, i.e. identify the customers, the pricing, the quantities, varieties, etc. On a broader view, considering the scale of the farm and the scale of Auroville, and knowing that both are interrelated in terms of mission of the farm to feed Aurovillians, the farm clearly must adapt its internal structure as well as external communication tactics to fit the needs of the city. As the city will grow and its inhabitant will multiply, the farm will need a stronger marketing and communication strategy. In this regard, the farm needs to communicate with the external world to attract more volunteers and develop its “people network”. We did not do a proper marketing audit for Auro-Orchard but the farm is obviously present only on Facebook and on Auroville’s website. I believe the internet presence would deserve a stronger focus to show the farm’s accomplishment, develop a network of farming interested people that could contribute to exchange ideas and innovations for the farm, strengthen customer trust, encourage volunteering programs, support the communication strategy overall. The progress and U-turn that the farm made towards more respectful agriculture methods is remarkable and should be communicated to the world. To conclude on communication of Auro-Orchard, we believe there is plenty of marketing practices that could be applied and benefit not only the farm’s reputation but most importantly its capacity to grow and extend in the future. Opportunities Considering Laura’s experience as well as Mathieu’s experience, we know we could support. We have an opportunity to join the team over the course of a year to share our knowledge, expertise and dedication and be part of the Auro-Orchard adventure. We are very grateful and are glad to know we could help; let’s keep on travelling before we decide for any out-of-Europe period extension 😉 Complementary and subjective remarks Quick wins and human aspects A tool can do a lot for a team that already performs well. I believe that best solution for an organization is also, whenever it is the case, its worst problem: please welcome the FHF, a.k.a. F…ing Human Factor! I think that the biggest organizational issue lies in the clear and agreed-upon share of responsibilities and roles within the organization. It also lies in the quality of the information exchange and communication. Auro-Orchard has talented professionals working on the farm and also great organization wizards that can, I think, clearly define priorities. If team mates do not trust each other and accept their roles and the responsibilities of others, a tool will not help. Thus, I guess a great quick win for Auro-Orchard is to listen to each team mates’ desires, compare those desires with associated responsibilities and workload, agree on responsibilities and on how to share information. Time credit Why not offer the time-credit to short-term volunteers? I did not feel the need for it: we were very well welcomed and fed everyday; thank you again for that. However, I would have loved fresh healthy foods too as well as be part of the lucky team. Regenerative agriculture As we acknowledge the success of the transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture that Auro-Orchard managed to perform, the positive impact on yield and finances, we wonder why is this transition effort not more powerful on a broader scale? We see the French government talking about #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain and voting for glyphosate, voting for practices that hurt animals, voting against preventive measures to protect our children from junk food… We believe this tendency is not specific to France. We do not trust governments. We do not trust the lobbies that influence the governments. We do not trust the corporations that foster those lobbies. Regenerative agriculture can feed the world, United Nations confirms that agroecology, if sufficiently supported, can double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty. Feel free to check the sources: http://www.srfood.org/en/report-agroecology-and-the-right-to-food The problem of agroecology? It is a great solution for small farms and does not require heavy machinery nor chemicals. The solution for agroecology? You and your choices: what you buy is your real impact. Go futher… Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AuroOrchard
Auroville project presentation: https://www.auroville.org/contents/2877 Sri Aurobindo’s work: http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/ashram/sriauro/writings.php Martin autour du monde: http://www.martinautourdumonde.com/ Report: Agroecology and the right to food: http://www.srfood.org/en/report-agroecology-and-the-right-to-food Learn more about our projects: https://sustainable-autonomy.weebly.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sustainomy/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2L1bbFz
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Laura & Mathieu
6/8/2018 12:02:27 pm
Salut Christian!
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