As part of the AHAR project (AgroHomeopathy for Sustainable Agriculture), a one-day Farmers Field School was organised for 23 farmers at AuroVanam (Environmental Education Centre of Sri Aurobindo Society) on July 31, 2023, from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm. These farmers are from Bahour, Soriyankuppam, Kuruvinatham, Manapet and Sulliyankuppam, cultivating vegetables in their farms. 

The training was conducted by ‘Seed traveller’ Salai Arun. He has travelled around 90000 km all over India, during which he has met more than 1000 farmers, and collected native seeds from them and shared the native seeds that he has carried with him.

During the training, Salai Arun discussed with the farmers on “The Story of the Seed,” where he shared his knowledge on Seasons, Seed Selection, Seed Treatment, Sowing, Crop protection, Intercropping, Harvest, Marketing, Seed storage and his travel experiences with the other fellow farmers.

At the end of the training, 20 varieties of native vegetable seeds were shared with the farmers, who have to be sown during this Aadi pattern (by mid-August). All the farmers who have received the seeds have promised that they will return the seeds to be shared with many other farmers after the harvest. The farmers said that the Farmers Field School was very helpful in understanding the importance of seeds and reviving the traditional knowledge on seed selection and storage.