#TenYearsOfChiguruFarm @Chiguru Farm
What an incredible journey it has been...
Now it is a full decade since I started farming and 8 years since I quit my job to take up farming as my full-time profession. It is seven years since we ventured into Agri-Tourism.
Started off with many dreams and fulfilled quite a lot of them.
Converted a chemical farm to organic farm and slowly turned into Natural Farm. (If you are not sure about the differences, you can read my earlier blog about this).
Seen the transformation taking place in front of our own eyes. Improved soil quality, diversification of crops, increased birds and insects population, reduced human intervention, improved ground water, improving yield over the years, to name a few.
Chiguru Farm has now turned out to be a "showcase farm" for many first-generation farmers to start organic farming, without having to do much trial-and-error.
I did write my experience with farming when I had finished six years as full-time farmer.
I also wrote a self-appraisal before that, six years after I started farming.
Obviously I don't want to repeat whatever I wrote earlier. This blog will only have anything new or that has changed since then.
Just a reminder (for myself) of the long-term goals we set out for:1) Start organic farming in order to grow healthy food for ourselves.
2) Stay connected to nature
3) Prove that chemical-free farming can be sustainable, so that more people are encouraged to take it up. Be an example for the farmers in the vicinity.
4) Spread the knowledge of chemical-free farming among the locals and city-folks, school kids and families and sensitize them about what it takes to grow healthy food.
5) Generate some local employment and trigger a "reverse-migration" from cities.
6) Get integrated with the local village community and carry out activities that shall help them.
Here we go on the status/progress/achievements...
1) Our efforts with rain water harvesting are showing results now with improved groundwater level and one of the dried up borewells started functioning three years back. Even our rain water harvesting ponds are now turning into Natural Ponds with water staying almost through the year and we have started seeing guppies/fishes and turtles too, which have emerged in them naturally.
2) We can notice the change in the soil as it looks more carbon-rich now. We started with a carbon content of 0.8% and improved to 1.3% in seven years. Another soil test is pending now to confirm that it has further improved in last three years.
3) #GrowWhatYouEat has been our focus. We are reaching 85-90% self-sustenance in terms of food in the farm, as Paddy got added this year. When I say self-sustenance in food, it is not only for ourselves, but includes all our guests which is a significant number. Having Desi cows has helped us in this to a large extent.
4) Self sustenance in farming is one of the key things in Natural Farming. We bring only a few things like neem cake, traps, etc from outside. Other than that, there are no external inputs for farming. No external inputs like cowfeed too. We grow our own green grass and dry hay is from ragi and paddy. Our cows graze out in the field (controlled grazing) and therefore they are healthy too, without needing much attention to their health.
5) Further move towards sustainable living with domestic power completely on solar, hot water through solar geyser. Grey water filtering and recycling this water is also fully functional since four years.
6) Food-forest is functional and thriving with more than 40 varieties of fruit trees and many other forest trees. We have created a more bio-diverse farm now through multi-cropping which are mostly cultivated as inter-crops between the trees.
7) Local employment... we have 12 locals working in the farm full time and another 5 almost full time. Another 5-10 people work in our farm for at least 150 days in a year. These numbers exclude the indirect employment generated through our Agri-Tourism.
8) Agri-tourism and direct-selling are helping us achieve self-sufficiency in farming. With these, we are able to break-even consistently, which is a big achievement for any farmer.
9) We have touched close to 12000 people in these seven years including school kids, through our niche initiatives like experiential farm outings and stay, fruit picking, nature camps and star-gazing events. Schools have started noticing the value add from our educational farm tours and nature camps and they keep coming back, while new ones get added although it is difficult to make them understand in a crowded market of Resorts masked as Farms.
6) Food-forest is functional and thriving with more than 40 varieties of fruit trees and many other forest trees. We have created a more bio-diverse farm now through multi-cropping which are mostly cultivated as inter-crops between the trees.
7) Local employment... we have 12 locals working in the farm full time and another 5 almost full time. Another 5-10 people work in our farm for at least 150 days in a year. These numbers exclude the indirect employment generated through our Agri-Tourism.
8) Agri-tourism and direct-selling are helping us achieve self-sufficiency in farming. With these, we are able to break-even consistently, which is a big achievement for any farmer.
9) We have touched close to 12000 people in these seven years including school kids, through our niche initiatives like experiential farm outings and stay, fruit picking, nature camps and star-gazing events. Schools have started noticing the value add from our educational farm tours and nature camps and they keep coming back, while new ones get added although it is difficult to make them understand in a crowded market of Resorts masked as Farms.
We have consciously kept Agri-Tourism low-key so that it doesn't result in straining the natural resources and divert our focus from farming.
10) Sailed through the CoVID crisis which threw in big challenges of selling our produce apart from closing it for guests for extended period. It was difficult to survive. Thoughts had crossed our minds to quit farming and agri-tourism activities. There were attempts to sabotage us and pull us down, but our own passion kept us floating.
This also worked as a blessing for us as we were able to spend almost two years in the farm and get ourselves convinced that what we are doing is right and we really want to take this forward. We were also convinced that we can definitely settle down in the farm whenever we want without any hesitation.
11) Where alcoholism is rampant and ruining families in the surrounding villages, our "no-alcohol" policy has been driving home the ill-effects of alcoholism, without any preaching.
12) Many city folks have started farming (part-time or full-time) after visiting Chiguru Farm and these new farms are modeled after Chiguru Farm and they, together with us, form #ChiguruFarmCommunity.
12) Many city folks have started farming (part-time or full-time) after visiting Chiguru Farm and these new farms are modeled after Chiguru Farm and they, together with us, form #ChiguruFarmCommunity.
13) Started Farm Consultancy to help first-generation farmers to setup their own organic farms, starting with the design of the farm, based on our own experience of ten years.
14) Taken a bigger step in the past one year towards helping larger sections of the society. This includes active participation in the community initiative of setting up Kanakapura Organic Producer Company to encourage more farmers to take up organic farming and help them get direct access to the market at fair price. (Note: I have no intention of hijacking the enormous efforts put in by the youngsters who are driving this initiative. I would rather appreciate and support their efforts in whatever way I can). Also started participating in workshops across the state to help farmers to start their own Agri-Tourism projects.
Everything looks rosy? Why not? As long as it brings a lot of joy and satisfaction, everything IS rosy!!! Of course it takes a lot of commitment and determination, paired with passion. Added to that is the support from family, friends, well-wishers and many like-minded strangers.
Continuing the journey of self-sustenance... #AtmaNirbhar #VocalForLocal
