Opened in May 2009 at Buddha garden, the Centre for Sustainable Farming is a centre for information and research about sustainable/organic agriculture for Aurovilian and local farmers/food growers.
Our activities include:
Education; We have a weekly ‘Introduction to Sustainable Farming’ workshop and are able to create courses tailored to a wide range of participants from individuals wanting to grow some of their own food at home to professional farmers and researchers. We also host school and student groups.
Research; With the help of local and international university students we are carrying out a number of research projects which include:
Sustainable water use
In collaboration with Auroannam Farm research on optimum ways of growing cashews.
Seed development
Development of sustainability parameters so that the sustainability of farms can be accurately assessed.
Data base: We have set up a web site which will eventually include a data base of best practice for sustainable farming. We call it the Lucksted data base in memory of John Lucksted who, before his untimely death in July of this year, was the secretary of the Auroville Farm group. He was always interested in how best to obtain and then used information that would help farmers in their day to day farm management. He set up a website where farmers could easily enter information about their daily activities and which, over time, would provide insights into how they were managing their farms. We are very pleased to continue his work.
