Managing Farm Inputs

Managing the Farm from remote (1800 Kms away) is always a challange and fun.  Having planted few hundred saplings, I now need to think about bringing some biomass to the soil.

My soil is not so good. It is a worn-out sandy clay soil. Silted over a period of time due to non cultivation, running surface water and non-cultivation the soil is appearing coarse.  Already, whereever there is a sapling to be planted, I had asked my team to put red soil which was imported from else where in small quantity. Soil +

Pseudomonos Bacteria 
I liked this color so I have put the picture here.



coconut coir waste + cowdung was mixed and filled into the pit. Kannan, my worker is already a farmer and knows about it.  I added further value by sending my team to nearby KVK (80 Kms away) to purchase Psudamonos viridi and i think rhizobium.  Initially the team said they have nothing in stock. But such things are not in front desk and you need to ask specifically. Upon questioning one coordinator came in line and explained what he has. I asked him to impress upon my team how to use it.  Then onwards the saplings were treated before re-planting and they now have a hang of it.

Now coming to fertilizer.  I had dreamt of creating some vermi compost units with mechanisation before anything else - some mixer, grinder, chopper, conveyor belt, composting areas, storage area, filtering machines etc.  But you see dreaming is different from putting to action.  We can dream endlessly, but everything costs money and fancy processes to be developed. It cannot be done just lik that.

The cheapest thing for me to do now is to import cow dung. Which I have done in the past one week. 1 tracktor load of cowdung costs Rs. 1200/-.  I understand loads are going to kerala from here at 1500/- per load. I need to be now careful to grab my share from the cow shed owners. Should think of how to reduce the cost.. Easiest thing is to keep my own cows... but is some time away..

So cow dung is here.  Next is adding value.  Panjakavya. Subbu had brought a blue drum for it and was asking how to make panjakavya without Cow Urine. !.. Because cow dung is easy to get and not cow urine.  The cow Urine will just go waste running on the mud floor of the cow sheds. Because there is no means to collect it. The floors are not concrete.  I had given him an idea

(You see that is the problem with IT guys. We have solutions for everything irrespective of wheather you like it or not).   Take a PVC pipe of 6 inches diameter and one feet length or more. Plug that deep inside the soil after digging a proper verticle hole such that entire pipe is submerged. This has to be down where there is natural tendancy of water to get collected in low level.  See the picture to right.  On the top put one lid having small holes.  Now when cow will urinate, the urine will drain normally and get into this PVC pipe and get collected. Later we can pump this out using simple kerosene pump into another container. Simple isnt it. ? But our guys will not do it. I have reserved its implementation for another day.

Meanwhile without using cow Urine or using very little we can prepare Gana Jeevamrutham (Solid Fertiliser). Mix cowdung 10kg with 2 KG of spoiled jaggery and 1 KG of beasan powder, Cow Urine and some water. Allow it to cool for 3 days and apply on the roots. - This is the prescription i have given now. Hope it works.....

The other development is that the anemometer has reached by courier to the farm. Now it has to be mounted on a pole. My guys were asking if they can purchase 3 Sticks instead of one. The idea is to construct a kind of ladder so that they can climb up and take readings. I said ok go ahead.  I suggested buying a bamboo ladder and two poles. But due to cost (Even Rs. 1000/- is not to be wasted. They are sensitive about cost and i must respect that.) it was given up. Hope anemometer will be up and running in a couple of days....I am not sure how they will mount on top of 3 poles using a wooden plank. I must wait for the ingenuity and enterpreneruship of rural folks and carpenter over there to show up...