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By: HG Guna Avatar Das
This month is the beginning of rainy season in Cambodia. The farm, rice field and grazing area at our land Yashodapura Eco Village have started looking green again. People around the area including some of the families who help us in farming activities have also started with planting. The farmers go to the field daily helping each other in sowing rice. There are three different ways of growing rice prevalent here. First, by sowing rice in a dry field, second by broadcasting the seeds in a wet rice field before the rains and the third, by transplanting the rice shoots to the wet land. In the beginning of the season, there may not be so much of water in the field, but after a few months especially in September and October almost everyday it rains very heavily. The rain is so much so that all the fields get flooded.
This season there are five families growing rice at Yashodapura Eco Village. According to the agreement they are entitled for 15% share of the yearly yield. The paddy already looks green and nice.
Beside the paddy field we are also growing elephant grass for the cows. The cows need continuous supply of grass round the year, especially in summer when there is no green grass.
We prepared land measuring about 20m x 80m for growing elephant grass and a few varieties of vegetables, such as sponge gourd etc.
The family at the farm is also helping us wire fence around this plot. This fencing will stop the neighbouring cows or buffaloes transgress into our fields. We got the grass for planting from our friend Mr. Sing’s farm at Bantey Srey district.
Currently we have two mother cows- Yashoda and Devaki, accompanied by two grown calves named Subhadra and Ekadasi. Happily now those two mother cows are pregnant again, so next year we will have more calves.
We also have been thinking about increasing our grazing area, on the lines of shift grazing plot system as in India. In order to ready this grazing area, we need to build fencing for every hectare of the field. So, by next year we plan to extend the cow grazing area by at least two hectares.
We also have been discussing this subject with one of our Indian Community members in Siem Reap, Mr Amajit, who is interested in joining hands with us in the development of the farm.
In order to improve the soil fertility cows play a very important role we plan to shift grazing plots and move the cows into the plot on a rotational basis. We already have two plots for grazing.
In Yashodapura Eco Village, dry land of about 12 hectares is made with forest and bushes; while around 10 hectares is of agricultural land. The primary crop here is cassava and corn, but we facing problem of excessive weeds because we don’t use herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We are manually clearing weeds, but don’t know how we will overcome this problem with limited manpower. We are afraid that they should not return the land to our management and stop growing. This has already happened earlier, and then we had used the land for cow grazing and introduced them to the Vedic way of building soil fertility. Hopefully we get some help for fencing around the cow grazing area; we need wires and poles to hold the fence for every hectare of plot.
There are about 10 families which are connected to our agricultural land, based on two types of agreements. One is 15% share on the production and second in kind for taking care of cows and the forest. Two families are available almost all the time at the farm. These two families have therefore been with our project right from the beginning. They also chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra and extend help for our village programs whenever they can.
Honestly, this project is run only by the funds from the production share, which is in the form of the production and also laksmi. We use this lakshmi for meeting the daily farm expenses. For meeting the goshala needs, we have only one regular donor from Phnom Phen. And sometimes devotees from Malaysia also pitch in. We are thankful to all the devotees who have been supporting the Yashodapura Eco Village and the Goshala.
By the mercy of Guru and Krishna we have also started the construction of kutir at the new project, Vedic Culture Education Center (VCEC) in the nearby village.
So in the future, those guests or devotee volunteers who cannot stay in YEV because of the restriction which does not allow a foreigner to stay in the forest far from the community, will now have a facility to stay.
At the end, I would like to thank all the devotees and friends who have been helpful and supportive of our projects in Cambodia. We appreciate your contributions in every form and request you to kindly continue to help us in whatever convenient way you can. Even a small monthly support will help the Prabhupada’s mission in Cambodia.
For more details, you may contact the following project leaders:
Siem Reap Preaching Center & Food for Life Cambodia:
+855972801649 (Kumudaksa Dasa)
VedaBooks translation:
+91 86952 70152 (HG Kala Das ACBSP)
Vedic Culture Education Center:
+91 86952 70152 ( HG Vishnurata Dasa )
Yashodapura Eco Village:
+85511368114 (HG Gunaavatara Dasa)
Chub Village Basecamp:
+855 88 433 2900 (Bhakta Khear)
Anybody interested to support these projects, can contact at the above contact details.
Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna!
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