Snapshot of the farm
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Year started |
2000 |
|
Current stewards |
Priya |
|
Total acreage |
11.5 acres |
|
Total cultivated area |
4.5 acres intensive vegetable growing, 2 acres of indigenous orchards, 1.5 acres for water conservation 1.5 acres of Indigenous forests and rest of the 2 acres land reclamation with forest. |
|
Main produce |
Vegetables, fruit and a few organic eggs |
|
Annual turnover |
Rs. 350,000 approx. from farm products and around 400,000 from research and other activities |
|
Opportunities for potential volunteering |
Yes! The farm is well set-up to receive volunteers. |
|
20 residential volunteers Unlimited number for the morning activities, which is 6.15 – 9.00am Monday to Friday and 7.00 – 9.00am on Saturday. Although if you want to come as a group please let us know so we can organise the breakfast. |
|
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Contact info |
buddhagardenav@gmail.com |
Vision and mission of the farm
Buddha Garden’s vision is to produce healthy food for the community of Auroville in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. At the same time Buddha Garden would like to be a place where people come to share knowledge, research and experience. To be a source of inspiration both practically and spiritually.
Current operations
In Buddha Garden, we are creating a living model of an organic farm which is sustainable in every way. This includes using sustainable solar energy; the whole farm is completely independent of the normal electricity grid. It is the anchor from which we reach out to offer a place where others can come and join us on this journey towards a more sustainable and earth-friendly future.
FOOD GROWING is the basis of all the work we do in Buddha Garden. Approximately 4.5 acres of our land is devoted to raised vegetable beds where we grow mainly local seasonal produce. Similarly in our orchards where we produce a range of local fruit as well as cashews.
VOLUNTEER PROGRAM is for volunteers to come to stay and work, or work with us, on a daily basis. To experience and learn what it is like to grow food organically and to live lightly on the land.
CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE FARMING is our educational centre for our sustainable farming courses, research student program and publication of books and internet material. Recently we have started a vegetable garden in a local school and have a range of other activities with both local and visiting school groups. It also includes the courses we run in Buddha Garden Kitchen about cooking with locally produced food.
In collaboration with Heriot Watt University and their SCORRES project, for the last year, we have been researching how a smart watering system works on our farm.
With six research beds in three different parts of the farm, we compare the automatic system with our normal watering regimen. To begin with, the amount of water given to the various plants by the automatic system was based on previous research carried out by Buddha Garden. Research that had found out what different varieties of vegetable plants needed at different times of their growth. As more data has been received from the beds about plant growth, soil conditions and water (including rain) received, the system has learned to control the irrigation automatically by a predefined algorithm more precisely.
The plants have therefore received optimum irrigation for optimum production. As a farm that wants to be both financially and ecologically sustainable, lower water use and increased crop production are most important to us. We have found that when our vegetable plants are watered with the automatic system, according to the predefined algorithm, we have healthier plants that produce more crops. Compared to those crops watered with our manual system they produce more while using less water. The automatic system also saves us a lot of time as we no longer have to turn the system on and off manually to do the watering. In the future, we plan to disseminate information about and practically help farmers to set up similar systems.
VISITING THE FARM; We have created an audio guide so that you can visit and learn more about what we do. Come any time between 10.00 and 11.30am Monday to Friday and go to the Farm Office to pick up an audio device. We also offer other courses for the general public, organisations, and schools, and we are available for consultancy work. For more details contact us above. Please note that we are closed for casual visitors on Sundays.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
We hope to engage in more cutting-edge applied research and to disseminate our results in a way that will practically help local farmers. We want to go on improving our educational material and activities with young people of all ages. This will only be possible if we continue to work in Buddha Garden growing food for the community of Auroville. We want to demonstrate that shows a sustainable and earth-friendly future is possible.
www.buddhagarden.org is our website where there is more information and through which you can contact us.
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