HOW TO DEVELOP THE BARREN LAND
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| Barren Land - View of the farm in 1984 | Same Land - But in 1999 |
Not too long ago, manka simple life in harmony with nature. Modern lifestyles and the population explosion snatched that peace from us and left us trying to increase production. We invented new ways and came upon chemical agriculture. No doubt by using agricultural chemicals such as fertilizer, pesticides and so on, we solved our short term goal, but left a dangerous legacy for future generations. The soil became poisoned and the plants that grew in it were weak, low yielding and prone to disease. Marginal farmers despairing at successive crop failure, committed suicide by consuming the once "magical" pesticides. We decided to do whatever we could, in a very small way to help restore the balance. Accordingly in 1992 we finally opted out of the corporate world for a long planned involvement with sustainable rural development at the very edge of the Thar Desert. We now live in Alwar District on our 40-acre farm in eastern Rajasthan, 90 kilometers from Delhi where we demonstrate to farmers ways to maximize their yields by growing various combinations of fruit trees, crops and vegetables, organically. Fuel and fodder trees are planted as wind breaks. When we bought the farm in 1984 it was degraded sandy land, completely denuded with just a single Pipal tree. Today there are over 65,000 trees. Our philosophy of living with nature extends to the home we are building which is based on natural forms and materials, and is built without any steel or cement. |
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| First dome | Our home - A domed structure |
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