Issue Nº310

Jeff has been managing Discipline Farm for the past 23 years. He is also a coordinator of the Auroville Farm Group. Here he talks about the particularity of Auroville farming, the challenges facing our farmers and how they can be overcome.

“All of the issues are interconnected,” says Krishna on a sultry summer afternoon, when asked about Solitude Farm’s Circle Garden Project. “The issue of water, the issue of land use, the question of why there is a stockpile of Auroville-grown rice sitting at Annapurna Farm, the question of our relationship to food and where it comes from.

Recently, a survey was made of the various home garden projects in Auroville. The authors were Katt Grant, Segar Duraikannu, Vimal Bhojraj and Martin Scherfler.

Murthy has been running Ayarpadi Farm in Auroville for the last 15 years. He talks to Auroville Today about the challenges and rewards.

Climbing the steps to the roof at Maitreye through a maze of white tiles, one would not expect the lush, verdant explosion at the top. On my first visit in December, there was green everywhere: lettuce seedlings bursting from their small containers, melon plants cascading from horizontal pipes, even a small papaya proudly pushing the other plants out of the way.

Have you walked behind the Town Hall lately? You might be surprised by what you see. Nestled in that dense urban area, surrounded on all sides by buildings, you can find young banana plants, bountiful bougainvillea, creepers climbing up the walls of Citadines, a robust vegetable garden, and a drip irrigation system supplying water to young fruit trees.

One of the highlights of the Auroville Festival in Chennai was the sound of Chandra’s haunting flute which concluded the inauguration. But such mastery does not come easily.

“I have tried to explain the meaning of some words and phrases and images that might be difficult to understand … to assist those who aspire to take some first steps towards experiencing the inexhaustible magic and richness and power of Sri Aurobindo’s incomparable poetry”, writes Shraddhavan in The English of Savitri.

As part of its efforts to highlight alternative and sustainable solutions for an urban future, Auroville Green Practices has launched the colourful publication My Pumpkin Roof.

Auroville’s college scholarship initiative for village students, Reach for the Stars, is now in its fifth year and has supported 56 students to date.

Each day in a different school in a rural, semi-tribal area of Gujarat, village children lined up for their first ever dental checkup. There were tears for a few, but in the end new smiles for all, thanks to a dedicated team of Aurovilians.