End of the Fiscal Year 2022-23

In the past few months, we have been busy harvesting paddy, including drying, cleaning and bagging the harvest. We also procured millets, paddy and pulses from Auroville as well as from bioregional organic farms. The procuring of products happens through our Foodlink Grains activity which is based at Annapurna Farm. Most farms have very limited storage capacity and no way to process the grains. For about 10 years Annapurna has been the grain basket for Auroville. We look at the needs of various dry goods in Auroville, procure where needed and possible, store, process and deliver to Foodlink in Auroville when there is demand for these products.

Image ID: drying varagu (kodu millet) at the granary, March 2023

Then there was the end of the financial year-end accounts including stock checking and updating! For 35 years Annapurna always kept accounts in an unofficial way; over the years self-developed a management account system that was based on trust and was sufficient to steer and oversee the farm. From 2022 we are asked to deliver accounts that are to the government standard and can be audited by the CAG. This was a lot of learning and asked much more time to deliver and lots of explaining to be done to the accountants about how it all works in reality on a farm.
We were also confronted with new rules of the FSSAI, the food safety organization of the government, which is making it more difficult for small players like us to stay alive. Then we saw a dramatic raise in millet prices, which in itself is great, but has repercussions for the farm which are quite challenging.
More about all that, and more, later.

Other Crops and Paddy Updates

We finished harvesting the first paddy (CO43) and the straw was put into bales. We had to rush the bales to the store because there were predictions for rain.
The next variety (called Annapurna – used for complete rice) is ripening and can be harvested soon. The last variety; our red rice “Poovan samba” is coming into the heading stage in the fields and will be harvested last.

As the paddy season passes; we have a sesame and mustard crop getting ready for harvest on the far out plot(id 373) which was sown in the newly planted gliricidia plantation. This crop was sown in the end of November as a post monsoon crop. These are rain fed crops and need little water only.

Here’s the new tractor implement – mulcher in action, preparing a field (plot 392BB south) to sow green gram + cowpea + ragi mix under irrigated conditions. This is an experimental plot where we work in alleys between Gliricidea rows with micro sprinklers. We hope to expand this type of cultivation in the years to come.