(New Mayapur is a devotee community in France)

by Arjuna dasa

Dear Shayamasundara prabhu, finally I’m sending you the AG report from NM. I was working in Paris last month, therefore this delay.

The report will concern mostly the gardens and vegetable production. I will not be so detailed about the goshala and the cows. If needed please write me and I will ask Jaladhuta prabhu for the goshala report.

1) Basically we started to be more focused on the AG project in Summer 2010. The idea is that all the AG departments work together: the Goshala, the Krsna Balaram garden and the grhastas involved ( Kutastha p., Vrshakriti p.,GiriGovardhan p.). I ( Arjuna das) was elected Agriculture minister to supervise the general development.

2) The departments are working independently, in teams, but the planning is done together. We divided the gardens and made a plan for each field. Some of the “big” works are done together with all the teams, like harvesting, potatoes planting etc. The goshala team is also taking care of all the plowing and working the big surfaces with the bulls.

3) The Krsna Balaram team is: Arjuna das, Kaushi p., Vrshakriti p.(flowers) If possible we engage the bhaktas, visitors and temple devotees

Goshala team: Jaladhuta p., RamGopal das, Dvijabara p. ( admin.), using actively one pair of bulls

Grhastas: GiriGovardhan p., roses and flowers, Kuthasta p. cooperating with the KB team, more as a counseller

4)The KB team is taking care of the KB garden (1,5Ha) and daily supply of the vegetables for the temple

The Goshala team take care of all the cows, bulls and goshala. The bulls are almost daily engaged in the farm work, working on big surfaces ( the wheat field 1 Ha, potatoes field ½ Ha, pumpkin field 1/3 Ha…) (Ed, note: Ha = hectare = 2.47 acres)

Vrshakriti p. and GiriGov p. are taking care of all flowers and roses, around 3/4 Ha in total

Some practical info from the year 2011:

a) we constructed a new plastic greenhouse 50×8 meters, half is used for the temple and half for Kutastha p. who financed the greenhouse.

b) in the greenhouse and in the KB gardens we produced more than 1 ton of tomatoes. Around 600 kg was used directly in the temple, from 400 kg was made 150 liters of tomato sauce for the winter

c) we started to use the garden vegetables from the end of May.
From June we were fully supplying the temple kitchens

d) this supply is going on until now and we have for min. 3 weeks more fresh veg. in the gardens. That means 6 months of total vegetable self-sufficiency

e) in total we produced more than 25 kinds of vegetables and grains

f) The next two months we will use the winter stock, which is 150 liters of tomato sauce, 1 tone of potatoes, 200 pieces of pumpkin of different sizes and types, apples, nuts, the winter veg. and leaves from garden, the grains. In total we will have our veg . for 8 months

g) during summer we were cooking for aprox. 30 devotees everyday. We had enough veg. even for the Summer festivals. Last months we are cooking for aprox. 15 devotees every day.

h) the goshala team planted the wheat on 1,5 Ha field. All the work was made with the bulls. We harvested around 1 tone of grains this year. We started to grind our own flour last week.

i) to harvest the grains we bought a big harvesting machine, it is working very well

j) the wheat for next year is already sowed

Other areas:

The forest: We had a great help for last 5 months from Anirudha p. and Craig p., they cut, split and bring from the forest around 150 m3 of dry wood for this year and around 80 m3 of live wood for drying. In total we have 150 m3 of dry wood and 150 m3 of wet wood. The dry wood should be enough for this year. The idea is to continue cutting the wet wood for next years. This system is more economic and practical.

The lake: Last week Nrsimhananda p. with other devotees repaired the dam of the lake. There was a big hole in the dam, therefore the lake was never full. If the repair will be successful next year we will clean the lake.

The Plan:

a) continue with the same surface and number of fields
b) continue renovating and cleaning the KB garden, improving the quality of the soil
c) 20 percent more production, principally of vegetables
d) looking for self-economy and internal economy
e) find better ways to conserve the fruits, veg. and grains during winter and spring
f) engage more devotees in AG work, make the village life part of the devotees spiritual life
g) use the agriculture , gardening and cows protection for preaching.
h) try to accomplish a few bigger projects for the NM community ( the lake, winter green house, wood saw, eco wood buildings..etc)

OK, this is a short report from NM farm community. If you have questions just write me. Feel free to use this report for the Farm ministry and your needs.

All the best
Hare Krishna
y.s. Arjuna das NM 23/10/2011