Thursday 19 February 2015

First Sweet Potato Harvest is a Flop !

"Sir, we got only 2.5 bags of Sweet Potato, I was expecting 4 to 5 bags."  Subbu was disappointed.

So net net, from around 16 cents, we have got 2.5 bags. that is equivalent to 170 KG.  Each KG of sweet potato was sold at 10/-.  It seems the going rate at the market was only 6/-. but this was of good quality (organic) and shining.  Hence it fetched Rs.10/-.  That is great.

I wasn't surprised hearing this.  For me the complete learning experience would include failure and not success. While I was a bit disappointed that I will not be able to pay bonus or anything to anyone, I was only happy that things did not work out. This will give ample of opportunity to introspect and improve.

"Don't worry, what could be the reason ? " I asked.

"Sir the ground is like rock solid."  I understood, our earth is like the hardened cement bag. Too touch for the tubers to swell.  Earlier also even when you want to punch a hole using earth auguer, we have seen it just rotating not penetrating. We had to use manual crowbar.

"What else?"  "I have employed tracktor only as it would be waste of money to put on labours. I also asked the pickup lorry to come here. I am not going to Tirunelveli for this small quantity."  It doesnot make sense to hire a private vehicle for this. Let us go with the wind.  There are someone who pickup the produce from different farms and go to market.

The following are learnings from this lesson;
a) We should attempt tubers only on loose soil.
b) Plenty of water was required. It is not enough to keep the plants green.
c) Next time we should put only crops. I have decided brinjal

The following were advantages gained over this exercise
a) Soil has become more soft. The leftover roots would definitely add biomass.
b) Now we have a working patch.
c) It is not all that failure. We have made atleast 40% of money




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