Farm Guru is an agricultural farm developed by Sri. Sai at Athur, located near Karanodai, Red Hills around 25 km from Chennai. As soon you enter into Farm Guru, you are warmly received by Sri Sai, Managing Director of Farm Guru.
One should not miss the introductory lecture about the farming given by Sai. There will be some classes in between the visits of various locations inside the Farm Guru. He conducts a class on importance of farming to all children and parents assembled under the shadow of dense mango trees.
Sri. Sai teaches the visitors in detail about different stages of cultivating paddy viz., ploughing, seeding, transplanting, harvesting, threshing, winnowing and milling. He also discussed about water management like drip irrigation and latest techniques like mulching, green house farming, organic farming, vermiculture, etc.
When every visitor is taught practically how to plough with the support of bulls, you will be thrilled in the first stage itself. The farmer who support the ploughing explains how this ploughing helps the loosening up of soil and prepare it for cultivation.
All visitors are served with seeds of paddy for seeding on the ploughed field after loosening up the soil and some irrigation of water.
After seeding the visitors are guided to transplant the partially grown paddy and one can easily understand he need for weeding too practically. We can recollect the lesson taught in our school days and can realize that seeing is believing and involving in the task really helps one understanding the concept. This will surely makea a memorable experience to every one of us.
TThere is a great tamil poem by Avvaiyaar. When the ridges raises, there is a raise in water level. When there is plenty of water, there is raise in productivity of more crops. When the productivity of crops is more, the standard of living of the subjects raises. When there is good standards in the subjects, the quality of reign raises. Finally, when the quality of reign raises, the reputation of the King is raised to sky.
வரப்புயர நீர் உயரும் (Varappuyara Neer Uyarum)
நீர் உயர நெல் உயரும் (Neer Uyara Nel Uyarum)
நெல் உயரக் குடி உயரும் (Nel Uyara Kudi Uyarum)
குடி உயரக் கோல் உயரும் (Kudi Uyara Kol Uyarum)
கோல் உயரக் கோன் உயர்வான். (Kol uyara Kon Uyarvaan)
~ Avvaiyaar
The farmers neatly arrange the paddy in different rows and columns like a matrix and wait for the complete growth of the paddy. Our children learnt how to harvest after the paddy is fully grown up after transplantation.
We have a family doctor.
We have a family lawyer.
We have family friends.
We should have a family mentor!
We should have a family farmer!!
AFter the visit to Farm Guru, We can throughly understand how the farmers really struggle to get rice, starting from the first stage of preparation of earth.
It will be surely an amazing experience for anyone to have a handful of paddy after the different stages of cultivation.
Mr. Sai also explains about the need for bee culture and its role in pollination. There are three types of bees viz, queen bee, female worker bees, and male bees (drones) and showed a hive where around 3000 bees live together in a colony happily and narrated how they coordinate each other and also help in pollination of flowers.
One can learn the importance of drip irrigation as one of the important water management techniques.
There are more than 100 short hybrid variety of coconut trees. We can hand pick the coconuts from the tree just by standing on earth.
You can enjoy tractor riding as well as bullock cart riding. All can enjoy friendly environment at Farm Guru.
Sri. Sai also explains about green house farming and adds how the green roof protects the plants from strong wind, torrential raining and from insects.
Thank you Farm Guru for your silent services and envirocare!!