How One Veterinarian Rewrote a Satara Farm’s Story

At dawn in Mankarwadi village, near Gondavale in Maharashtra’s Satara district, the soil smells faintly sweet. Not of chemicals, but of cow dung, compost, and rain. Baburao Shivaji Gend bends to scoop a fistful of earth from his 2.5 acres. It crumbles easily, alive in his palm. “This,” he often tells visiting farmers, “is what health looks like.”

Fifteen years ago, health meant something else to him. A veterinary doctor by training, Baburao spent his days treating animals in a countryside addicted to fertilizers and pesticides. In 2008, he attended the Art of Living Happiness Program. His experience of Sudarshan Kriya, the powerful rhythmic breathing technique, and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s emphasis on going back to and living in harmony with nature stirred something deeper in him than professional curiosity. By 2010–11, he did the unthinkable in his village: he gave up chemical farming.

Resistance from villagers came fast. “Without chemicals, there was no profit,” they said. They did not see the merit in mulching and drip irrigation, nor did they have mentoring available to them. Instead of costly plastic sheets or wood chips, farmers could use natural mulch—crop residues, leaves, or straw—materials already lying on their fields. Drip systems in natural farming require less than one-fifth of the water compared to other methods. Even farmers with many cows refused to keep heifer calves, calling them an extra burden. Baburao learned that changing soil was easier than changing minds.

Gend personally began with sugarcane. He made jaggery without chemicals. The blocks were darker and heavier. In village kitchens, something unusual happened—milk in tea did not curdle. “Market jaggery may be processed organically, but the sugarcane itself is grown with chemicals,” Baburao explains. “My sugarcane is naturally grown, and the process is also chemical-free. That is why the jaggery behaves like food.” Soon, as word spread, 100–150 families began buying from him regularly.

Then came the accident that turned into evidence.

One season, Baburao planted onions. He owned two bulls. A neighbour borrowed one and fed it eggplants. When the bull returned, Baburao prepared Jeevamrut—a natural microbial culture made from indigenous cow dung—and spread it over the onion field. He did not know that eggplant seeds had travelled through the animal and into the soil.

Weeks later, young eggplant plants began sprouting between the onion rows. After the onions were harvested, the eggplants stayed. They grew in bunches, heavy and clustered, like grapes. People came directly to his field to collect them. “Nature showed us multiple cropping without a classroom,” said one farmer who watched the harvest come up. The onions from just one acre went to the Delhi market at Rs 5,000 per quintal, earning Baburao Rs 2.5 lakhs in a single season.

From 2.5 acres, he earned Rs 3–4 lakhs a year without chemical inputs. But the change was not only economic. His family ate only what they grew. During the COVID-19 pandemic, not one member of his household fell ill.

His next step was to take natural farming to more farmers who needed it. In western Maharashtra, most farmers keep cross-bred cows for milk. He does not oppose them. “If you have ten cross-breeds, keep at least one indigenous/desi cow,” he advises. Desi cow dung, he explains, is finer and more potent for soil. Cross-breed dung also works, but in a lower proportion.

When they refused to keep heifer calves, Baburao took them in and redistributed them to willing families. No money changed hands. “The farmer gives it for free. We also give it for free,” he says. Male calves are used for bullock carts and fodder cultivation. In this way, both farming and indigenous breeds survive. So far, 100–150 farmers have received indigenous calves through him.

The transition was not fearless. “At the beginning, doubts did come up,” Baburao admits. “Will this work? Will the crop fail?” But natural farming required no market dependence—no fertilizers, no pesticides. Inputs came from cows and the farm itself. When the first harvest succeeded and the jaggery sold well, Gend felt far more confident.

He trains farmers on his own land, not through screens. “Natural farming cannot be learned from YouTube. It must be practised,” he insists.

Having interacted with Gurudev on several occasions, he has been inspired by Gurudev’s relentless efforts in bringing the knowledge and science of natural farming to over 30 lakh Indian farmers, strengthening their physical, mental, spiritual, and financial well-being. He also offers his services as a veterinarian at the Sri Sri Gaushala in the The Art of Living Ashram in Bengaluru. “I got inspiration from Gurudev only,” he says. For him, farming, breath, and service are not separate paths.

From Satara to distant villages, farmers are rediscovering soil as a living being, cows as partners in cultivation, and breathing practices as tools for inner balance.