Pamayan
Bernard & Deepika
Auroville’s foremost stalwart of sustainable agriculture, Bernard has pioneered natural farming in South India since over four decades. Tamilnadu’s revered organic farming guru, Dr.Nammalvar, got his initial introduction to organic farming from Bernard and often acknowledged him as a guru. Deepika and Bernard are active throughout India teaching traditional seed conservation and promoting exchange of traditional seeds among farmers and establishing seed banks among farmers. Their farm, the ‘Pebble Garden’ is seen as one of the best examples of soil reclamation utilizing organic farming techniques in the country.
Lucal Dengal Dr
While serving as a medical doctor at the Auroville Health Centre in 1980s, Lucas took up environmental issues of public health concern. He started an organic farm and later two enterprises for promoting organic farming and of EM(Effective Microorganisms)technology, for trading of organic foods and EM, and for the ecological management of liquid and solid waste (EcoPro). A teacher and trainer in organic and biodynamic farming, Lucas was secretary of the Biodynamic Association of India (BDAI).
Krishna McKenzie
Long-time Aurovilian, steward and co-founder of Solitude organic farm and restaurant, permaculture teacher & promoter of ‘a food garden for every home and school’’, Krishna believes that local, organic food growing is essential for a healthy world and society. He has been providing the Community based Sustainable Agriculture as a course under SLI. Krishna is also a much sought after musician and part of the band Emergence’ which performs music promoting eco-conscious issues.
Baburam Mohapatra
Steward of the Matrikunj organic farm. Rooted in farming tradition, Baburam has known the intact system of a largely self-sufficient farming village. A tireless researcher, he has experience in a wide spectrum of organic farming approaches, and finds that science supports the intuition that ‘if we listen, the plants tell us perfectly what they need’.
Parthasharathy
A MBA graduate from Gandhigram Rural University, Partha has more than a decade of experience in rural livelihood programmes and particularly community based institutions and organizations. He has brought his experience in rural empowerment, natural resource management, and project manager of SEDAB (Sustainable Enterprise Development for the AV Bioregion) in designing and developing community based enterprises based programmes at SLI. Being a part of Gramonnati Trust, Partha has been handling 5 Acre Farm where they are developing Aquaponics and Organic Farm and train ex-servicemen, students and urban gardeners to promote organic farming practices.
Tomas
Steward since decades of Annapurna, Auroville’s largest farm and its rice- and millet basket, and South India’s first certified organic dairy farm, Tomas has helped establish the standards for organic dairy certification in India. Annapurna also processes millets and oil seeds from surrounding farmers and assists them through networking.
Selvam (Arachalur):
An ardent lover of earth, Arachalur Selvam has been fighting for the welfare of Indian farmers for over quarter century now. His contribution towards popularizing organic farming and creating an India of Non Genetically Modified Crops deserve to be hailed. Besides running a school for farmers, Selvam also creates awareness among college students on organic farming and conducts classes on the ill-effects of chemical fertilizers. Kaan Ula (Travel through the forests) was conceived by Selvam to acclimate school students to sounds and feels of nature.
Radhakrishnan
A follower of Nammazhvar. He is an Organic Farmer and trained more than 1000 farmers across state. He is belongs to SWASAM Producer Company, Villupuram where he conducts organic farming training on monthly basis and support farmers to covert to organic farming practices. He has vast experience in organic farming practices and its related bio inputs preparation. One of the prominent Seed savers of the region, he has saved rare varieties of paddy and conserve millets.
Jeff Goodchild
Trained as a teacher, Jeff is long-standing steward of Discipline farm, practicing integrated farming and researching the viability of a range of lesser-known crops. He also convenes the Auroville Farm group
Herbert
Herbert, one of the founders of Sadhanaa Forest located in the traditional rice-growing region surrounding the Irumbai water tank, is the steward and his aim is to convert the open fields into an integrated farm project, connected to bio dynamic farming. He envisions the farm to become a large-scale community supported project, growing a maximum of rice and grains for Auroville