Natural farming

CODE: RC-MTV-AGR-8/24

Work:

With this initiative we aim to educate and train farmers in nearby communities by acting as a resource and demonstration centre for sharing good practices among farmers.
The volunteers are required to assist us in following areas:
• daily maintenance of farm and make natural/organic sprays, pesticide and produce chemical free products.
• Actively assist our team to realise our dream to be self sufficient by producing majority of fruits, vegetable that we consume.
• Introduce or reinforce good farming practices and grow off season and low water consuming vegetable.
• Assist in installing a low cost hydroponics system at campus.

Accomodation and food

Basic, simple, safe & clean accommodation will be provided either at host family or RUCHI campus on sharing basis (Twin or triple) with common toilets and bath.

Food offered will be simple authentic Indian vegetarian and freshly cooked. Three meals a day will be served. Assistance while cooking is desired and self cooking can be organized by volunteers.

Location and leisure

Ruchi campus is located near Bandh village. It is 30 km from Kalka and 60 km from Chandigarh. Bandh village is small located in interior mountainous area and the volunteers will have a unique opportunity to live with nature in a peaceful environment. RUCHI campus is one km. from the village.

Self organized city tours and excursions. Old Sikh and Hindu temples in the near vicinity can be visited. Nearby Kasauli town is another hill station as a tourist attraction. A visit to Shimla will offer an opportunity to see high Himalayan Mountains.

Project hosted by

RUCHI, a not-for-profit organization working since 1983, is affiliated with international and national voluntary service networks. RUCHI is a member of Network of Voluntary Development in Asia (NVDA), full member of Coordinating Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and a candidate member of Alliance of European Voluntary service Organization (ALLIANCE).

Directions to meeting point

Kalka

Additional comments

Himachal Pradesh is a mountainous area where the economy is pre-dominantly agriculture based. However, due to shortage of water and small terraces on sloppy land the agriculture is unsustainable and farm output is not sufficient keeping in mind economic value it gets. Also due to steep terrain and small terraces automated machines have limited usage here. As a result we fear food security problem in the future as many people are losing interest in agriculture.

In order to sustain interest of people not only in agriculture but to enhance their farm production through natural faming, we give high importance to this project. At our campus, we have already demonstrated successfully making and uses of various form of natural composting, Kitchen Gardening, Agroforestry, floriculture, off season vegetables, orchard development here. At present we are preparing to install hydroponics system at our campus for demonstration, training and self sufficiency. In due course we would like to serve as demonstration centre for farmers.