Farmville to volunteer

There is a certain charm to farming that even urban folk can’t seem to deny. While news of several youngsters across the country ditching their plush pay packets for agriculture has been doing the rounds, Bengalureans are now taking baby steps towards the same. In what is a rising trend, the ooru folk are encouraging their green thumbs by volunteering at farms in and outside the city. Whether this is to learn a thing or two about how to make their own nurseries, learn more about where their food comes from or to unwind with farm animals, this is their very own Farmville!

“I visited Hamsah Organic for a cob building workshop where we helped on the farm the whole morning. This was followed by a yum lunch of ragi mudde and red rice to fill a deserving tummy,” says Mayank Rungta. Staying in eco friendly mud houses, helping build wind turbines and working on vegetable patches, this 38-year-old has volunteered on several farms and believes that it’s a healthy trend. “If nothing else, we will at least be sensitised to what farmers do for us. We need to really become grateful to people responsible for the food to reach your table thrice a day and unfortunately we don’t,” he says. Thirty-year-old Mona Dsilva thinks that it’s important for everyone to be connected with nature and that this trend is a step closer to that.

“We’ve been put on this planet to make it a better place unlike what’s currently happening to our earth,” says the founder of Pretty Patio who has a small farm in the city on which she works on for five hours a day, growing everything from organic vegetables to exotic herbs. “The day isn’t far when everyone is a doctor or an engineer but there are no farmers – just like in Interstellar,” she says, drawing attention to the film’s reality.

Want to pick up a trick or two on plant identification, permaculture, soil conservation or how to rear a farm animal? These slices of rural life have got you covered. “We have about 10 people volunteering with us right now and I think they do it because it’s fun and they miss getting dirty in their city lives,” says John Fennessy who runs the Hamsah Organic Farm as he harvests peanuts and ragi. According to John, this is the peak season for volunteering on their farms as WWOOFers (people associated with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) come stay with them and work in exchange for accommodations and food. “For volunteers, it’s a fulfilling activity – especially for those who have probably never touched soil, let alone manure,” says Meera Rajesh, a Bengalurean who runs a farm in Wayanad that sees several friends volunteering. “It’s not just physically intensive activity, but volunteers also bring solutions to reduce effort, costs and channelise material the right way,” she says about her farm that’s an area for tree species conservation and organic farming.