Many city inhabitants are curious about village living & organic farming. Dwellings built in the middle of the fields and traditional kutcha houses in the village are interesting and beautiful.
But today we're going to tell you about a farm in Maharashtra where visitors can directly interact with the farmers who live in the village and also enjoy living in a traditional house.
Rohan Sudhir Thackeray, a resident of Ainshet, a small village near Wada town in Maharashtra's Palghar district, shares his remarkable experience. On his 9-acre farm, he has constructed a conventional farm stay. He's also a farmer who practices organic farming.
Learned Organic Farming from Israel
Rohan was born into a farmer family. He traveled to Thane for studies in 2007. While still in the city, he studied security management and launched his own security firm. He collaborated with an Israeli technological firm and used to travel to the country frequently.
In his village, Rohan owned 1 acre of ancestral land. After learning about organic farming in Israel, Rohan purchased an additional 8 acres of property in 2018 and began cultivating watermelon, vada kolam, and a variety of other crops organically. Two more village farmers followed him and began practicing organic farming. Meanwhile, visitors from adjacent cities frequented his farm.
During last year's lockdown, he constructed home stays inside his farm that was completed in August. Following that, he launched a Facebook page called Farm 360.
Eco-Friendly Forest Cottage & Farmer House
Rohan has constructed a farm stay near Mumbai in a variety of ways. In their fields, he has built cottages. He designed Forest Cottage with a natural cooling system in mind. The Farmer House was constructed with bamboo, cow dung, and clay at the same time. He's currently working on another cottage, this one will be made of lime, wood, and clay.
"We developed it with minimum expense," Rohan said adding that local clay and villagers' wood, as well as repurposed doors and windows, were employed. "It's a 450-square-foot cabin”.
The farmer's house has a 3 feet earthen wall that was covered in cow manure. Even on hot summer days, there is a pleasant breeze.
Rohan told that the Forest Cottage has been built by Prithi Jai Narayan, who is an architect from South India. About this cottage, he says, “We have built it on the basis of a natural cooling system. It is made of red clay brick. In this, we have not used cement plaster. Also, have mesh ventilation, so that light and coolness are maintained. This cottage also has two rooms and two bathrooms. It cost Rs 6 lakh to make it.
Farm 360 Connects Agriculture & Rural Life
He has also built a canteen area on his farm, where the guests are served organic & simple food. He named this canteen Kibbutz. It is the name of a community in Israel that is associated with farming.
Rohan said on the farm, the food prepared is completely organic, which is served in banana leaves. A place like this works to connect you with nature completely.
He said that in the future, he plans to make a wine from Vada Kolam Rice & Watermelon at his farm. Thus, he wants to promote organic farming by making more & more by-products. Apart from this, he is building another cottage these days. He told that the third cottage is slightly bigger than the previous ones.
Hats Off to this great man and his great visions!!!!
