Annapurna Farm Auroville

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  • Cows | fodder | manure | Organic dairy
  • June 9, 2021
  • tomas

Starting the blog

Hi there,

A weekly blog to give you a glimpse of our reality at Annapurna farm.

It will sometimes be a bit more elaborate and philosophical, at times short, practical, and to the point.

Right now we are developing more land for green fodder cultivation for the dairy. Our aim is to slowly reduce the concentrate feed which we purchase and replace it with our own-grown nutritional greens.

Since the plot of 1.25 acre had many roots from the previous tree crop it needed a more powerful tractor to rip plow and open it up. We do not have such heavy tools so we got a contractor to do it.

Next, we will put on farm yard manure (fym) which will be plowed in after the next rain.

After this we will install an irrigation system, fence the land with an electrical fence against deer and pigs,  and prepare for the fodder crops.

At this point in time Annapurna’s dairy has several cows which are retired and two of them, Welli and Malli, are really getting old and can not  keep up with the herd anymore.

These cows were born here and served us their entire lives; we feel it will not be good to sell them to a butcher, which is a common practice.
We have been looking at the different sides of this reality and will continue to do so.
The discussion veers between economic repercussions, emotional attachment, practical reality, animal wellbeing, Indian cultural values and more. It’s not an easy deliberation, and we want to share it with you, in this small note, to give people who do support us in various ways, another understanding of the complexity of farming with our dilemmas, restrictions and possibilities.

In short, if we really want to eat food from happy and sustainable farms, which are managed more humane and are less economical oriented, this will have a serious impact on our lives. Can we, do we want to change our lives for this? What are we willing to do to cultivate such places?

Personally I think, looking at todays reality and taking into consideration public health and the earth’s ecological boundaries,  we actually have no choice.

On the ground we have been busy with the usual grain processing to fulfill the weekly incoming grain orders from Foodlink (Auroville’s farm distribution center) and individual communities, then we are bringing in fym to the rice fields for the new season to come, irrigating fodder and fruit crops, and cleaning up the nursery area for a new Gliricidea nursery and fence plants.