Taranya is a farm in Subraya Nagenahalli, Doddaballapura. Eucalyptus plantations had exhausted the land, and nothing grew on it. Samam's members and volunteers took it on. They mapped where the rain ran off, dug a pond and trenches to hold the water, and planted. Today the farm grows food, and people come to see it.
The same acre
One acre of exhausted farmland, adopted from its owner in July 2022 and rebuilt as a working model farm. The belt is semi-arid, planted over with eucalyptus, and had lost most of its topsoil. The point was never the acre. It was to have something nearby farmers could stand in and copy.
It has not been a straight line. Fire took the first year's mulch and green manure. Goats took what grew back. We fenced it, and kept going.
Year by year
- Jul 2022 Site mapped, soil tested. Bamboo and Jamaican cherry planted as living fence.
- Aug 2022 Contours mapped with an A-frame. Green manure broadcast after the first rain, ploughed in by bullock.
- Sep 2022 Farm pond excavated. Shallow aquifer struck at eleven feet.
- Nov 2022 Free public workshop on earthworks and water harvesting, held on the land.
- 2023 Stone fencing, gate, pathway, silt traps. Gliricidia, Mexican sunflower, jamun, mulberry, neem, coconut.
- Since A working food forest, and a farmer in the village who has taken up the method on his own land.
How it came back
The land as it was
Rain ran off the slope and cut into the soil. Little topsoil was left.
Reading the water
Before any digging, the plan: where the water runs, and where it can be held.
Holding the rain
What grew
Today
Come and see it
People come to see it, and to work on it. Groups, colleges and teams are welcome.