What Did AuroOrchard Produce & Where It Went
This is an overview of the distribution of food from AuroOrchard during April 2024 to March 2025 and its comparison to the previous years. Despite multiple challenges, the farm continues to grow and progress on its vision to provide food for the community. Home » Blog » What Did Auroorchard Produce & Where It Went What Did Auroorchard Produce & Where It Went An analysis from April 2024 to March 2025 · AuroOrchard This is an overview of the distribution of food from AuroOrchard during April 2024 to March 2025 and its comparison to the previous years. Despite multiple challenges, the farm continues to grow and progress on its vision to provide food for the community. The financial year 2024-25 was particularly challenging as the farm lost 16 acres of cultivated land out of which 14 acres were orchards- Avocado, Soursop, Ramphal, Jackfruit, Lime, Banana, Papaya, Pomelo, Coconuts, Cashews and 2 acres were intensively cultivated vegetable gardens. We also lost a lot of Bananas and Papayas during Cyclone Fengal in December 2024. We are grateful to have received some financial support from Auroville International USA, France and Germany which allowed us to invest in expanding our cultivation during last year which helped in dealing with these losses in production. Over the last seven years, the farm production is rising significantly (see charts below) and despite the shocks of 2024-25, the overall production has risen for both vegetables and fruits. The following analysis outlines our major production and distribution trends. Vegetables, Fruits & Nuts The vegetable, fruit and nut production has been increasing on the farm on average since 2017. Every year, we are adding more land under more dense and diverse cultivation. At the moment, we are not considering adding more areas under vegetable cultivation and will only be more focussed on orchards. Even then, there is a huge scope to increase vegetable production through better management of existing gardens. The largest potential for AuroOrchard lies in fruit production. With around 18 acres of already existing fruit orchards, the production is still quite low. By careful pruning of some older trees, adding new trees and making the orchards more dense, we can grow a lot of fruit for the community, for which there is also a growing demand. Eggs In the last few years, we have been consistently experimenting with the poultry to find what is the best solution for highest ethical standards, quality as well as viable economics in providing eggs consistently to the community. In these years, we tried starting birds of di`erent ages, reorganised the free range area and finally replaced all the white birds for a variety of birds called ‘hyline-brown’. The dips in production between 2018 and 2020 were perhaps due to bad planning and a long gap between flocks. The dip in production in 2024-25 is due to health issues of the white birds and the complete transition to brown birds. With 1500 birds, we are expecting an average of around 900-1000 eggs per day this year. This would perhaps be the highest that we can imagine to distribute given the limited market in Auroville for free-range eggs that cost more. The cost of these eggs in outside markets are even more so we do not have a solution where these eggs are being sold at much less. Eventually, the cost of these eggs can be brought down significantly if Auroville has its own feed milling activity. It will also ensure better, rich and diverse food for the chickens. For the farm, the focus for the coming year is to continue developing the poultry practice and enhance the quality of the lives of the chickens and that of the eggs even more. Distribution The majority of the food produced went to PTDC followed by Foodlink and Aurovilians, Newcomers and volunteers. 99% of the food produced is distributed within Auroville. The remaining 1% is distributed around Auroville in the Bioregion and in Pondicherry to individuals and mainly Grinde store. With the share from some Auroville units going down and the farm expanding its cultivation, we will need more distribution options within and outside of Auroville. Financial sustainability Currently, more than half of the farm income comes from the eggs. Vegetables, fruits and nute despite their share of almost three quarters in production weight cover less than half of income. Within vegetable and fruits, vegetables are even less financially rewarding and the income from the eggs subsidises the cost of vegetable production. As our fruits cultivation expands, we are hoping to increase the income share from the fruits. The farm has also started selling seeds, saplings, and simple processed goods within Auroville, which has also created a new, though small for now, income stream. Previous ArticleNext Article Featured Articles Monthly Updatesㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 19 Sep 2025 Abundance Product of the Month 18 Sep 2025 Recipe Alert!ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 22 Sep 2025 Food and Agriculture in Auroville, India 18 Sep 2025
The hydrological cost of growing our food
In my last note, I shared about the economic paradigm that is taking us towards a ‘world without agriculture.’ I would like to explore this economic paradigm a little more by isolating the costs of the food that we grow. Let’s take water as the first one. As per several studies, agriculture accounts for about 70% of all freshwater use globally. This number is more than 80% in a country like India where over 50% of the population is still engaged in agriculture. Within Auroville, farms (perhaps along with Matrimandir) are the biggest users of freshwater. The challenges of groundwater depletion, rampant use of free electricity borewells in the bioregion for non-edible crops like casuarina and other fast-growing timber, the beginnings of salination of groundwater and so on offer an opportunity to us to reflect on the hydrological cost of growing food and how can we not only reduce our water consumption but, perhaps what I think is more important to focus on, optimize the use of water in agriculture. Home » Blog » The hydrological cost of growing our food The hydrological cost of growing our food Mar 11, 2025 · Anshul Aggarwal In my last note, I shared about the economic paradigm that is taking us towards a ‘world without agriculture.’ I would like to explore this economic paradigm a little more by isolating the costs of the food that we grow. Let’s take water as the first one. As per several studies, agriculture accounts for about 70% of all freshwater use globally. This number is more than 80% in a country like India where over 50% of the population is still engaged in agriculture. Within Auroville, farms (perhaps along with Matrimandir) are the biggest users of freshwater. The challenges of groundwater depletion, rampant use of free electricity borewells in the bioregion for non-edible crops like casuarina and other fast-growing timber, the beginnings of salination of groundwater and so on offer an opportunity to us to reflect on the hydrological cost of growing food and how can we not only reduce our water consumption but, perhaps what I think is more important to focus on, optimize the use of water in agriculture. There are different ways of thinking about what we should grow and what we can grow depending on people’s preference and the weightage we can give to the ecological and social costs of growing food. Should something be grown only because it’s easier to grow, or because it is more water efficient, or because people really ask for it, or it is less labour intensive and so on. The answer to these questions is never black and white and they change from situation to situation and from time to time. For instance, farmers cannot impose water efficiency over people’s preference for a certain kind of food. At the same time farmers cannot simply chase what the market demands, prioritizing it over its ecological costs. Flood irrigation Flowering Avocado tree A classic case for this is Avocado. It is common knowledge that Avocado is a water guzzling crop. AuroOrchard received its first Avocado seeds from the Mother herself in the early 70s. These we now call the Mother trees. From these trees, many more trees have been planted at AuroOrchard as well as outside. These Avocados are some of the best that we can find in the region, some would say anywhere. There is a huge demand for these Avocados in Auroville and also the Ashram community. Should we be planting more Avocado knowing that we can grow them well? Or should we turn our heads and let people buy Avocados from Pondy market which are nowhere near as good and definitely have a higher ecological cost. Again, the answer is not straightforward and we need to find a balance. We have planted more Avocado trees in the last year but we are exploring how Avocados can be grown with other fruit crops so that water can be used optimally. In such a scenario, the hydrological cost of Avocado gets distributed to many other crops that are growing with it. However, such a solution would then add to the management costs of the system and perhaps the management is even more costly since water for the moment is free. Therefore, if farmers are delegated with the responsibility of conserving our natural resources while farming, there are costs associated with conservation as well and these are to be borne collectively. The hydrological costs of water must not be seen only as the cost of water used to grow food but also the cost to the farmer to be water-wise, to protect the water-source, to optimise farming within the water resource they are entrusted with. Avocados growing with Papayas Previous ArticleNext Article Featured Articles Abundance Product of the Month 22 Oct 2025 Monthly Updatesㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 22 Oct 2025 Lessons from Auroville Farm Assessment 2023 22 Oct 2025 Recipe Alert!ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 22 Sep 2025
Experiments in the Mango orchard
During the last month, our birds contracted a virus and fell terribly sick. The egg production came down drastically with almost no eggs. The little eggs that we got from the sick birds were discarded. With intensive care and help from the entire team, the birds are now doing well. The fourth batch of birds (one-day old chicks) will arrive in two weeks! This will replace the oldest flock which will complete two years at the end of the year. Home » Blog » Experiments in the Mango Orchard Experiments in the Mango Orchard Jan 31, 2025 · Pictures by Ami Grossman For over two years, we have been trying different crops in the Mango orchard to address the gaps of diversity and optimum land utilisation in this more than 80 year old orchard of over 400 mango trees. In 2023, we pruned the mangoes in one section heavily to rejuvenate them. As the space in between was now open to the Sun, we started planting turmeric, pumpkin and brinjal. Ash and Neem leaves are added around the young Pumpkin plants to protect them from Red-gourd-beetle. Sunflowers are being planted in the hedges for diversity and for more food for the bees. Turmeric planted in between the mango trees in May 2024 is now ready for harvest. Pumpkin seeds saved from the farm being sown Channels being irrigated in preparation for Pumpkin planting Next Article Featured Articles Monthly Updatesㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 19 Sep 2025 Abundance Product of the Month 18 Sep 2025 Recipe Alert!ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 22 Sep 2025 Food and Agriculture in Auroville, India 18 Sep 2025
