CHENNAI: The trip to Sholavaram in Attur village is an hour-long, arduous one. But once I enter FarmGuru, the green glory in front of me is an instant balm to my tired body. The scenery is something right out of a postcard. The lush paddy field glistens as the rays of the afternoon sun bounced off the leaves. In this serene setting, I hear the gurgling waterfalls and the birds chirping — all making my mind calm. Suddenly, I snap back to reality and I realise that I am experiencing all these in the city! But the only grace is that it is away from all the hustle, honking and humdrum of city life.
As I stroll along the field, I hear children laughing, some metres down the path. They are class 2 students from Lady Andal School, on a field trip to experience a day in the life of a farmer. Facilitating this is Sesha Sai, a man who wears many hats — an entrepreneur, a professor, and a diplomat in Seychelles, East Africa. His most recent venture is organic farming for which he returned to Chennai in 2016. His focus now is to give children an experience of being on the farm, and from what I see, he has got them excited about it. At FarmGuru, children enjoy themselves on the field — they plough, plant the paddy saplings, swiftly throw seeds and are finally rewarded with a waterfall bath at the farm.
A farm visit
“In organic farming, you cannot sustain for the first five years, so I started looking for alternative options like conducting yoga classes and so on during that time,” he begins. Surfing through these challenges, Sai remained enthusiastic as a farmer and a teacher which led him to teach many schools about farming during those five initial years. His captivating ways of explaining this field was an engaging experience for many students. And thus the farm trips began in 2016 when one child asked him if she could visit the place. “In Sankara School, Thiruvanmiyur, one child stood up and asked me if I could take her to the farm. So we took 50 children from that school. When they came here, we didn’t have any curriculum. I just gave her some paddy and she asked me “Where is the rice?” he shares. This sparked his interest in starting FarmGuru as a retreat to let the young minds experience, and teach them what farming is all about and how food is produced.
Sai believes that when children equip themselves with the basics of farming, they can help society. “Children will be conscious of not wasting food once they know how hard it is to produce one kilo of rice. They should understand how the farmers are finding it difficult to get into the field and produce food for an entire country. Through this farming experience, they go through an entire rice cycle. They learn to plough with bullocks, they transplant, they sow seeds and harvest and thresh, they pound and finally winnow and take out the rice,” explains Sai.
Apart from rice, there are other plantations like banana, brinjal, sunflower, coconut trees, jackfruit, lentils, corn and other leafy vegetables on the 19-acre farm. Sai has allocated a separate patch of land for students with disabilities for 10 weeks where the rice cycle is performed and by the end of the period, children get to take their produce home. “I tried this as an experiment for them. Their doctor had suggested that if they go to an open field, their condition will get better,” said Sai about contributing to the health aspect of children with disabilities through farming. Studies show that farming enables a child with disabilities to improve his sensory activities by engaging in the open field and enjoying the medical benefits, along with a boost in immunity, and positive mental and emotional well-being that farming provides, he notes.
Preparing through the pandemic
The pandemic was the time Sai took as an opportunity to connect with the farm more than usual. “I didn’t have anything else to do other than farming. So I became slightly knowledgeable about agriculture. I’m learning every day, but those two years I had the biggest opportunity to understand the soil, water management, irrigation facilities, and get into a lot of studies in terms of hybrid varieties,” he shares. During the lockdown, Sai planted 800 coconut trees based on the knowledge he gathered during that time.
FarmGuru employs 24 farmers of which seven farmers live at the farm while the rest live in the nearby villages. Economic stability is a matter of concern for farmers and Sai believes that unless the perception about farmers is changed there will be a continuous struggle for the farmers to be recognised and paid well. “When we got independence, a person who earned `100 would spend `60 for food. Nowadays, if a person earns `100 only `12 goes for food. Here, either the cost of food is less or the revenues have gone up which gives the urban space the freedom to spend more on other things. This imbalance creates instability in farmers’ income which is why farming is not considered a real profession. Nobody would be willing to give their daughter to a farmer’s son. That has to change,” he explains.
This is probably where Sai’s passion for teaching, especially about farming to kids, plays a major role. As a director for Youth Service in the Rotary Club of Madras, Sai has kept the proverbial doors open for children to come and learn all about the profession. “I make learning fun for kids and I am blessed with this passion which made it easier for me to pull this off well,” he says. “Every single person on earth is a farmer by heart. You need to kindle that thought. The moment you see a seed coming into a plant, that feeling is divine. People can take this up as a hobby and then maybe they can take it as a full-time profession. But that thought needs to be kindled,” he adds.
FarmGuru’s principle is simple — the earth is our mother and we are living in it. And when one visits this field, one takes a lot of learning and memories with you, just like I did.
Contact details of FarmGuru: 09940376766
Address - Attur Village , Karnodai, Sholavaram,
Tamil Nadu 600067