Organic And Sustainable Farms On Auroville's Scattered Lands

From the very early days – and at considerable distances from each other – a number of Auroville farmers have literally battled to create organic and sustainable farms on Auroville’s scattered lands.

Started in 2000 as a vegetable section of Siddhartha Farm, Buddha Garden very soon became an independent farm, thanks to considerable investment made by Priya Vincent, its coordinator. Priya, who had always dreamed of doing agriculture in Auroville, believed in putting money where one’s mouth is and developed a fertile area of about 11 acres into a farm, fully run on solar power. Convinced that food should not be produced with hired labour at low wages, Priya initiated an educational farming programme and made it a principle that food production at Buddha Garden would be done only by Aurovilians and volunteering students. For this purpose, she built simple guest accommodation facilities on the farm. Buddha Garden does employ a local lady to clean work spaces and public areas, a watchman for a few hours a day, and an assistant who helps out with office work, data entry, and food deliveries. Along with Priya, who looks after the overall well-being of the farm and is in charge of the educational programme, three Aurovilians work with her. One of them looks into the possibilities of developing food products to generate income for the farm, while another has a doctoral degree in agriculture and offers consultancy services on behalf of Buddha Garden.

Auroville’s Central Fund subsidises three part-time maintenances; the balance is paid from the farm’s income. Financially, the farm is able to cover its regular costs, but expensive repairs and investments remain a major challenge. As an example, Buddha Garden managed to buy a wind turbine for electricity supply, but is still in need of funds for constructing the tower on which to mount the turbine. “I don’t think that any farm in Auroville can be financially viable by just selling its produce,” says Priya. “At Buddha Garden, 75% of our annual expenses are covered by the income from our education programmes; they generate the money for investments.” She adds in a convincing tone: “It is very difficult for any Auroville farm to survive without internal subsidy or external community support.” Priya’s observation raises important questions the community has been grappling with since a very long time. If insufficient community support is forthcoming, how will Auroville feed its residents? Where does the food we eat come from? How (un) healthy and (non) organic is the food bought from outside? Farmers in Auroville have been dealing with these issues from the early days. When asked about the use of chemicals and pesticides by the first Aurovilians, the Mother replied: “Auroville should not fall back into old errors, which belong to a past that is trying to survive.” Since then, organic farming has been a condition for food-growing in Auroville.

The different economic systems the community developed over the decades have also impacted the farms and their food production. In later years the Auroville Farm Group was formed, which monitors a small loan fund for capital investment. The group has also been keeping records which show that “over the years the dairy sector became by far the biggest sector, followed (in order) by fruits, poultry and vegetables. The development of the grains sector, as well as vegetables, has been relatively small, partly due to inappropriate soil quality.” 5 It appears that Auroville is still far from self-sufficient in terms of food production. Given the dynamics of agricultural production worldwide, the scale of economics required for viable farming, and the added challenge of growing organic food, this situation is likely to continue for some time. At present, the Auroville Farm Group coordinates 15 Auroville farms covering an area of 400 acres of cultivated land, managed by some 35 Auroville residents. About 200 full-time workers from the neighbouring villages are employed in this sector. Its main challenge in many years to come will be: how can Auroville stimulate farming activities in order to secure sufficient healthy, organic and nourishing food for its residents?