Bambalwad Organic Farmers

We are a group of folks working the land in the Bambalwad area. Our main spot is located at 93-6-10, right near the masjid in Chikodi. It is a rural place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. We decided to stick with organic ways of growing our crops because it just felt like the right thing for our soil. There is a lot of manual labor involved in this, like weeding the rows by hand and making our own compost from waste. We do not use those heavy chemicals you see on the big industrial farms. Our days start very early, usually before the sun is even up, especially during the planting or harvest seasons. Being near the masjid means we hear the calls to prayer throughout the day while we are out working in the fields. Chikodi is a good place for farming, but it can be really tough when the rains do not come on time. We pool our resources together to buy seeds or fix the irrigation pipes when they break. It is not a big corporate farm; it is just a bunch of us trying to do things the old way. We store our produce in a simple shed before it goes out to the market. Sometimes we have meetings under the trees to talk about what we should plant next. It is a slow process and you have to be patient with the earth. We do not have an office.