Your investment will go toward establishing an Urvarasa farmer’s farm. To achieve that goal:

1. The project will commence by planting a food forest with 300 fruit trees on the Urvarasa farmers’ land for the following reasons:
   • Trees enhance the biodiversity of the farm and improve water-holding capacity of the land as well as adding nutrients in the soil.
   • This effectively improves the organic composition of the soil, the soil texture, stops soil erosion and thus enhances the fertility of the soil which enables healthy growth of crops on the farm and achieves good quality yield without any external inputs like chemical-based fertilisers.
   • Trees, in the way of a food forest, create thriving ecosystems providing habitats to local animal life and insects which play a vital role in pollination and keeping a check on infestation by pests.
   • Fruit trees will provide a perennial income for the farmer.

2. The selection of fruit trees takes into consideration the climatic conditions, soil conditions and water availability specific to the region. Based on these parameters the following trees have been selected:
   – Pomegranate
   – Desi Banana
   – Guava
   – Papaya
   – Fig
   – Gooseberry
   – Chikoo/Sapota
   – Custard Apple

3. There will be intercropping of food grains between the fruit trees. This makes intelligent use of the space available while the trees grow in height and size. It also creates a symbiotic relationship because crops thrive on the nutrients trees fix into the soil, spurring their growth, and both trees and soil benefit from the green manure (from crop residue) produced at harvest time. Food grains will be harvested about 5-6 months after the time of plantations.

4. Fruit from the fruit trees will only be able to be harvested about a year following plantations, which means that investors will likely not receive fruit (unless mature fruit trees exist on the farm already).

5. Investors will receive the value of their investment approximately six months after plantations.

6. For this pilot program, due to logistics, the produce will be available in Pandharpur and Pune only. If an investor is located elsewhere, alternate arrangements can be made. Please contact us to find out what we can do to satisfy you.

7. At this point in time, we are unable to give you specific details about the crops that will be grown and distributed to our investors. Though we cannot assure a large variety of produce, we can promise you that your investment will be used to create ethical, thriving and sustainable agricultural practices to produce healthy and nutritious food for today and the future.