Farming in the Nilgiris

I had visited an NGO couple of years back---a nice farm in a tribal village. They practise biodynamic farming. I liked the fact that they use organic methods of farming....a green house full of beans plants laden with beans and not a leaf that was eaten by predatory insects.
However, the biodynamic method involves the zodiac signs in some manner I did not quite understand. It also involves killing a deer and using its rumen/stomach/or some such organ for producing an inoculate with which the cowdung mixture is fermented. None of this I understood completely from what my guide told me and made me sorry for the deer.
In the same NGO's office, I met one of their people who told me about their work. They dry herbs grown in the villages and then package and sell them. They were also training the local people in traditional farming practices. I was surprised by this. I would have thought the local villagers were the experts!