I am not Martin Luther or M K Gandhi. But I can deliver a simple lecture which can motivate at-least two persons. And I did...
Dear Subbu:
I know that you are sad because there is no water. Apparently all activities have stopped and you are constantly thinking only about water. Your mind is not working..
First of all feel proud that we have chosen a barren land, a dry land, a rain-shadow region to be developed into a green patch. And we are already doing that. It is no big deal to do agriculture in a land where there is plenty of water supplied from a dam, a river or a canal and being pumped from a tube-well through free electricity.
That is no big deal !. That is not agriculture. That is only business. For such people who have all facilities are only abusing their land. They are growing only commercial crops over there with poisonous chemicals like insecticides, herbicides and various salts to get more yield and are exporting it to far off countries. I heard someone near Madurai is growing genetically modified cucumber brought from Israel which is not palatable to humans. He is exporting them. That is harmful to local ecosystem.
Be proud that our district which is so backward in agriculture compared to other northern districts has been in existence for thousands of years. There were great leaders and patriots from this region. Our ancestors hail from this region. How did they survive? What did they do without water ? There is hardly two months of rain here.
Bank on me. I have noticed through the window in my extensive air travel across India, that we have more rain-fed regions like our farm than well irrigated lands from rivers. Entire India is having agriculture activities which are dependent only on rain. For hundreds of years, everything was going smooth. The minute people started cultivating commercial crops out of greediness like cotton, the suicides have started. Poverty has started. I have seen that people who are struck to traditional farming have survived. They have not made that much money. Money is not important. Well-Being is very important. That is available in many places.
Therefore let us copy from them. Let us grow Bajra, millet's, kodugu, finer millet and other drought resistant varieties. Let us use our intelligence, squeeze our brain and find out solutions. That is why we are here.
Subbu, there is actually more water. Let us face it straight. I am not going to dig any more well. we are not going to puncture once more for another bore-well. This is the water and it is pumped through wind. That is it. Let us accept the limitation. Lets move ON.
I guess we are wasting water. We should not have done canal irrigation to Sweet potato and Banana. We are pouring water to casurina trees on the fence. There is no irrigation required for the fence trees. Only moisture is enough. By pouring water on soil, expecting it to spread is not going to happen. Even if you leave a draining hose pipe overnight on the ground, only one patch of round shape will be wet in the morning. Water would have seeped into the soil, rather than spreading far and wide. Then why are we irrigating.?
Let us adopt drip irrigation. It is a good technology. We must quickly bring it to the farm. We will not ask anyone to set it up. We are not going to use filters which will require pumping. We are not going to pump. we will use gravitational force. We will do it ourselves. We have to make funny connections, criss crosses and bring water to all corners. Let us buy bundles of pipes and connectors right away and start. There are only two connectors. 'T' junction and 'connectors'. There will be terminators. They are cheap. Don't worry.
You will be surprised for entire fence, we can have few pipes with punctured holes running around. No more hassle of irrigating with hose pipes like in a fire fighting. Let us feed water every day little by little instead of pouring the water in the channel. We will have water surplus at the end left in the tank. Let us put vegetables near the wind tower and connect with dripping pipes. Let us grow all kinds of vegetables. No more wastage of water. This was my dream when I started. Let us implement the same now.
We will be a model farmer. People from all drought areas will come to see our farm. No electricity, no water, people are growing bananas, brinjal, greens, fruits, nuts and flowers. Sooner or later a cow also will come. Then more cows will come. Then we will not have space left to accommodate them. Let us prepare ourselves for that.
Subbu was happy after hearing this. he is going to purchase some Hay for future as harvesting is ON in the neighborhood.
First priority was to construct the resting shade. As restriction on transporting of stone pillars would have eased, he will start that work. Next week we are expecting some visitors to the farm. We need to construct this before that. currently team is using the green shade net for resting. But that will be a hod-house. we need complete covered roofing to wade through the hot summer.
The second priority would be to experiment on drip irrigation low cost, customer made. That is the way to go. Subbu will go to Tirunelveli town and purchase entire kit of plastic pipes and connectors.
Dear Subbu:
I know that you are sad because there is no water. Apparently all activities have stopped and you are constantly thinking only about water. Your mind is not working..
First of all feel proud that we have chosen a barren land, a dry land, a rain-shadow region to be developed into a green patch. And we are already doing that. It is no big deal to do agriculture in a land where there is plenty of water supplied from a dam, a river or a canal and being pumped from a tube-well through free electricity.
That is no big deal !. That is not agriculture. That is only business. For such people who have all facilities are only abusing their land. They are growing only commercial crops over there with poisonous chemicals like insecticides, herbicides and various salts to get more yield and are exporting it to far off countries. I heard someone near Madurai is growing genetically modified cucumber brought from Israel which is not palatable to humans. He is exporting them. That is harmful to local ecosystem.
Be proud that our district which is so backward in agriculture compared to other northern districts has been in existence for thousands of years. There were great leaders and patriots from this region. Our ancestors hail from this region. How did they survive? What did they do without water ? There is hardly two months of rain here.
Bank on me. I have noticed through the window in my extensive air travel across India, that we have more rain-fed regions like our farm than well irrigated lands from rivers. Entire India is having agriculture activities which are dependent only on rain. For hundreds of years, everything was going smooth. The minute people started cultivating commercial crops out of greediness like cotton, the suicides have started. Poverty has started. I have seen that people who are struck to traditional farming have survived. They have not made that much money. Money is not important. Well-Being is very important. That is available in many places.
Therefore let us copy from them. Let us grow Bajra, millet's, kodugu, finer millet and other drought resistant varieties. Let us use our intelligence, squeeze our brain and find out solutions. That is why we are here.
Subbu, there is actually more water. Let us face it straight. I am not going to dig any more well. we are not going to puncture once more for another bore-well. This is the water and it is pumped through wind. That is it. Let us accept the limitation. Lets move ON.
I guess we are wasting water. We should not have done canal irrigation to Sweet potato and Banana. We are pouring water to casurina trees on the fence. There is no irrigation required for the fence trees. Only moisture is enough. By pouring water on soil, expecting it to spread is not going to happen. Even if you leave a draining hose pipe overnight on the ground, only one patch of round shape will be wet in the morning. Water would have seeped into the soil, rather than spreading far and wide. Then why are we irrigating.?
Let us adopt drip irrigation. It is a good technology. We must quickly bring it to the farm. We will not ask anyone to set it up. We are not going to use filters which will require pumping. We are not going to pump. we will use gravitational force. We will do it ourselves. We have to make funny connections, criss crosses and bring water to all corners. Let us buy bundles of pipes and connectors right away and start. There are only two connectors. 'T' junction and 'connectors'. There will be terminators. They are cheap. Don't worry.
You will be surprised for entire fence, we can have few pipes with punctured holes running around. No more hassle of irrigating with hose pipes like in a fire fighting. Let us feed water every day little by little instead of pouring the water in the channel. We will have water surplus at the end left in the tank. Let us put vegetables near the wind tower and connect with dripping pipes. Let us grow all kinds of vegetables. No more wastage of water. This was my dream when I started. Let us implement the same now.
We will be a model farmer. People from all drought areas will come to see our farm. No electricity, no water, people are growing bananas, brinjal, greens, fruits, nuts and flowers. Sooner or later a cow also will come. Then more cows will come. Then we will not have space left to accommodate them. Let us prepare ourselves for that.
Subbu was happy after hearing this. he is going to purchase some Hay for future as harvesting is ON in the neighborhood.
First priority was to construct the resting shade. As restriction on transporting of stone pillars would have eased, he will start that work. Next week we are expecting some visitors to the farm. We need to construct this before that. currently team is using the green shade net for resting. But that will be a hod-house. we need complete covered roofing to wade through the hot summer.
The second priority would be to experiment on drip irrigation low cost, customer made. That is the way to go. Subbu will go to Tirunelveli town and purchase entire kit of plastic pipes and connectors.
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