More and more people are beginning to realise that the central solution of our food crises today is change of scale from large agro-industrial factory farming to smaller community-human scale farming which opens up the possibility for direct interaction between growers and consumers.
Market gardening is an emerging profession for both traditional and new farmers where the farmers work with natural cycles to produce food throughout the year, either directly for consumers or for the market. Since market gardening relies on growing in and in-between the seasons, it requires a good amount of design and planning both for the crops as well as the execution of work.
This model is also a possibility to challenge the ‘poor farmer’ narrative, and develop self-reliance through ethical and agroecological farming. This course is for people who are either already farmers or wanting to become farmers, and are interested in market gardening. The course will offer design tools and practical knowledge and experiences for the participants to start exploring their market garden projects. The program includes 13 online sessions and an optional 4-week residential practicum at AuroOrchard, a 57-year-old community farm in Auroville which produces a diversity of vegetables and fruits throughout the year.
Workshop dates: 5th November 2025 to 28th January 2026
Agriculture developed with domestication of animals like cows, goats, pigs, horses, chickens, bees and so on. They have been an integral part of the household farm where they become a part of the family, are cared for by the farmers and offer milk, eggs, meat, labour to the farmers. This relationship got severely disrupted with large-scale and industrialised farming, where animals became reserves and resources to be grown and harvested solely for human consumption. The cruelty of ‘animal farming’ has pushed us to the extreme of veganism. Is there a place for animals in agriculture? Is there a place for animal products in the human diet of the future? Are there ethical ways of working with animals on a farm?
This course will address these questions through practical examples and experiences and propose that there is a relationship that humans can create with animals in agriculture. The course will offer philosophical and design tools for farmers who already have animals, the ones who would like to start introducing animals in their garden/farm and the ones who are dealing with the dilemma of ethics involved with animals.
The program includes 13 online sessions and an optional 4-week residential practicum at AuroOrchard, a 57-year-old community farm in Auroville, Tamil Nadu where cows, chickens and bees are integral to its agriculture practice.
Workshop dates: February 2026 to April 2026
Despite its deep entanglement with human consciousness, psychology, and spirituality, agriculture has mostly been restricted to its material and social study—ecological sustainability, productivity, social organisation and so on. Yet, how has agriculture shaped human consciousness, and in turn, how has the evolution of consciousness influenced the way humans relate to land, body and food? This course aims to bridge this gap by examining agriculture as a psycho-spiritual (in addition to the ecological and social) phenomenon that both reflects and shapes human identity. The course will explore how agriculture can serve as a vehicle for human evolution—bridging material survival with deeper existential and spiritual aspirations. The framework in which this can be made possible is the philosophy of ‘Integral Agriculture’ which synthesises the ecological, social and psycho-spiritual dimensions into practices and attitudes that reflect the integrality of agriculture in all its forms, applications and experiences. This course is for farmers, aspiring farmers and educators who are seeking to explore a deeper dimension of agriculture and its relationship with the human, the non-human and the beyond human.
The program includes 13 online sessions and an optional 4-week residential practicum at AuroOrchard, a 57-year-old community farm in Auroville, Tamil Nadu where Integral Agriculture is being researched through practice.
Workshop dates: May 2026 to July 2026
In the last decades, agroforestry methods like food forests and multi-layer farming and their many formulations have captured the imagination of farmers seeking to balance agriculture and forest cultivation. However, these methodologies are restricted to managing only space (horizontal or vertical) in a farm. Syntropic agroforestry includes the dimension of time along with space to explore the full potential of ecological succession in creating mature forests. Syntropy suggests that there is a pull on the present from the future towards higher orders, as much as a push from the past foundations.The theory and practice of Syntropic Agroforestry comes from Swiss farmer and researcher Ernst Götsch, who developed this methodology on his farm in Brazil in the 1980s.
In this course, we will apply the principles of syntropic agroforestry to fruit cultivation and see how fruit orchards can be designed with diversity, density, fertility and resilience. This course is for farmers who either have orchards that they want to diversify or farmers want to plant new orchards of small or big sizes.
The program includes 13 online sessions and an optional 4-week residential practicum at AuroOrchard, a 57-year-old community farm in Auroville, Tamil Nadu where Syntropic Agroforestry is being practiced in new and existing orchards of Mango, Avocado, Lemon, Coconut, Jackfruit, Ramphal, Banana, Papaya, and Pineapple.
Workshop dates: August 2026 to October 2026
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AuroOrchard is certified organic by the Tamil Nadu Organic Certification (ORG/SC/1906/001683) Department accredited by APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority), New Delhi, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
