Integrated Farming
On a farm land of 1.5 acres, we run several projects that provide our community with food. We aim to be self-sustained through these initiatives.
Through experience, we learnt that agriculture provides a perfect education with great potential for employment. In a supportive and loving environment, our Sristi Village members learn how to manage and work in an eco-farm. With the aim to change the collective mindset towards disability, our team also involves all the members’ families and local people.
Farming is not only a therapeutic method to boost their confidence, but also has the potential to create self-reliant income opportunities for them.
Our sustainable farming practices are helping regenerate the environment. As the land grows more fertile, we are starting to feed ourselves. Post that, we plan on selling the farm output to help contribute significantly to our costs.
You can learn more about Sristi Farm and the members by watching one of our short documentaries below.
Sristi Village Documentary [TAMIL]
Sristi Village Documentary [ENGLISH]
Organic Vegetable Production
Pretty much everyone at Sristi is occupied in the cultivation of a variety of vegetables and fruits on our farm. Cultivation of organic food is a part of the school student’s curriculum as well as the member’s training program. Our methods are organic, so we ensure we grow healthy vegetables & fruits.
Tree plantation – Food Forest
Two acres of our land is dedicated to grow a massive amount of fruit trees for our community. A fruit platter adds diversity, the required nutrition and some colours to the daily meal. Additionally, tree planting has the potential to curb environmental degradation, reverse the loss of soil fertility and add to the bio-diversity. This project is currently on-going.
Agro-Forest
Inspired by Subhash Palekar’s 5-layer farming model, we are replicating the architecture of a forest on our land, where the trees form a canopy to protect other trees. The Agro forest will host bananas, papayas, jack-fruits, mangoes and other smaller plants such as onions.
Dairy Farming
We have built an in-house Dairy Farm, the milk from which is used for internal consumption by our community members. We plan to expand the animal husbandry unit to initiate dairy sale in the future.
Poultry Farming
We have constructed a semi-open shed to accommodate over 200 farm chickens, that will provide eggs for our community members.
Nursery
The village hosts a little nursery on the farm that proudly hosts saplings of baby tomatoes, chillies, aubergine, turmeric and a few herbs. Our nursery also functions as a Seed bank from time to time.