Curated reading paths — follow one in order, or dip in anywhere. Each path threads articles from across the Field Guide into one journey.
The First 1000 Days
New to this? Start here. This path walks you from before you own land through your first seasons — the decisions, in the order you'll actually face them.
- Reading the land before you buy it: a walk-the-plot checklist for first-time farm buyers
- The weekend-farmer reality check: can you do this without quitting your job?
- Zoning Your Farm by How Often You Visit It: The Kitchen-Door-to-Far-Corner Method
- Your Farm's Water Budget: Litres In vs. Litres Out, Before You Plant
- Sizing a Farm Pond for 5 Acres (With the Actual Arithmetic)
- The Transition-Year Trap: Budgeting the Seasons Before Natural Farming Pays
- A Worked 5-Acre Layout: Putting Water, Trees, Crops, Animals, and Home in One Plan
- The Year-Round Plate: Designing a Plot So Something Is Always Harvestable
- What a failed first season teaches that a good one can't
Ask the Skeptic
Natural farming has its myths and its hype. These pieces weigh the evidence honestly — neither sales pitch nor takedown — so you can decide with clear eyes.
- Does Jeevamrut Actually Work? What the Science Says vs. What the Field Shows
- Should You Get Certified? Organic vs. PGS vs. Just Telling Your Story
- Can a Small Farm Sell Carbon or Biodiversity? An Honest Look at the Credit Hype
- The Five Ways a Small Farm Actually Makes Money (and Which Are Traps)
- The weekend-farmer reality check: can you do this without quitting your job?
- Bullock or Tractor? The Honest Math on a Small Holding
- Which Farm Apps Are Actually Worth It? A Skeptic's Tour for the Small Farmer
- Soil Cards, Drone Spraying, and the ₹-per-Acre Reality: What Pays on a Small Farm and What Doesn't
- The Zero-Input Dream, Examined: How Close Can a Farm Get to Self-Reliance?
The ₹0 Farm Lab
You don't need capital to start. These are the cheap and free experiments — test your soil, make your own inputs, save your own seed — that teach the most per rupee.
- Test Your Own Soil for ₹0: Field Tests for Texture, Infiltration, and Life
- Reading Soil-Test Reports Without an Agronomist: N-P-K, pH, Organic Carbon, EC
- The Neemastra / Brahmastra / Dashparni Shelf: Recipes, Timing, and Honest Limits
- A Home Seed Bank: Harvesting, Drying, and Storing Seed That Stays Viable
- Companion Planting & the Push-Pull Method: Plants That Protect Each Other
- Weather, Advisory, and Market Prices on a ₹0 Budget: The Government Tools Nobody Uses