How am I going to sustain ?

Pipes loaded for re-threading work

It is meaningless and appearing as futile effort sometimes to think about what I am doing in the farm.  More than half of the crops shown in the previous post is going to vanish in few weeks.  Some are already dead and Subbu donot want to report that to me. I can guess. Symptoms of severe water scarcity has already started.

Last week I fell ill due to Virus and could not even have energy to type an SMS due to weakness. Virus fever last 7 days and there is no medicine. Doctor gave few medicines including one antibiotic, but they are nothing to do with curing. Today I am back. World has not changed in 1 week.

Pipe cut and mended properly.
Look at the mud choke

Subbu has already started sounding about water scarcity. It has completely occupied his mind, soul and body. I knew this would come, but did not expect this soon.  According to him entire neighborhood have gone dry. Crops almost ready for harvest are destroyed due to lack of essential water. Farmers who depend only on rain or pond water have no chance.  I asked Subbu to try and help others where possible. I guess he is already doing that. Sometimes he says Generator was running full night. That is good. Hope he takes fuel cost.

In our farm, i thought everything will be alright as we have now multiple energy sources as backup. No my assumption is wrong.  Water is being pumped through generator which gulps diesel. It consumes 1 ltr per hour. There is deficiency in watering and backlog is piling up every day. Borewell is not having enough output. You start sacrificing one by one as water level decreases.

My dream of vegetable growing and vending is slipping away......

Water flowing in channel.

Meanwhile Subbu himself decided (and I always insisted) that the windpump be fixed again to help. Currently that guy is happily rotating without any load.  He had kept this activity postponed due to over confidence on relying over Diseal power and electricity.  Plus this also requires some money spent and labor mobilized.  Both electricity motor and diesel genset have screwed up untill now.  Though genset is working, it is eating away into precious cost and efforts to keep the machine running. Subbu has to shuttle with petrol-can  every now and then on a bike to fetch fuel from 10 Km away.

So wind energy is back. Good old energy source which I always trust and wanted to keep running.  I wanted this to be kept in top shape, because I have distant plans of making this model site for others to see. I may also get into this business sometime in coming years.

Such a watering method will consume more
water. But they believe in this as it is easy to make and
shape furrows in cheap,
traditional way.

The borewell pipes of windpump and the connecting rods that had earlier rusted are now neatly cut on both ends and re-threaded in nearby lathe machine. Budget 6K.  Hope this will be fixed and windpump will start pumping its nominal water to help overcome the summer.

Meanwhile I asked him to weld the sprinkler on a stand and experiment with it. I want moisture above soil. Currently Subbu has resorted to flow water in channels in traditional way wasting a lot of it.  Villagers just don;t change ways.

Now purchasing a lot of laterals for drip would be costly. I donot want to keep spending money on crops that would never yield. Instead I wanted Subbu to weld the sprinkler on tripod and move it, use it where necessary.

Farm Status - 8th August, 2017

What you perceive from what I write about the activity that is happening in the farm is different from what actually is happening.  It is like you create an image in facebook for youself while your actual personality that your family knows about you is different.  It will be interesting and less stressful if both of these are kept in sync. i.e.,   write what you do.  But that is difficult.

Subbu was earlier assigned some duty to also be care-taker of my house in Palayamkottai. That became vacant recently and Subbu had cleaned it up with helpers, locked it. We decided we will wait for good tenants. Earlier experiences were not so good. Ultimately we ended up spending huge
money white-washing after the tenant vacated paying peanuts every month.  The wait was worth it.  A decent family had come and seen. Subbu went couple of times to Palayamkottai to show the house as key was with him. Hopefully the new tenant will shift-in by 15th of this month.

Meanwhile at the farm, there are a few developments. I was speaking to Subbu today who was resting after participating in a temple festival in his village.

1) Now that electricity is there, we wanted to buy a single phase electric deep borewell pump set. It should cost around 22K. Currently we are using a spare one from Subbu's family that is connected to the generator. I have to return this back.  But the sour point is the cost of wire. It will be more than this and therefore the total cost of ownership will be too much. No choice.  Subbu had been waiting for electricity for past 2 years. Now he is restless. He promises we can do full fledged farming once we get the pumpset. Hope so. He also added that he is on the look out for old pumps and good condition wire. These days many are giving up farming and it should be possible to get good ones. that will reduce the cost by half. Hope so we get something in coming days.

2) Wanted to refurbish the windpump properly and set it right so that it works for long time.  It is because of the windpump that we are surviving. It is because of this that tomorrow also we will survive.

3) Subbu is fully convinced that pouring oil (dieseal) and running the show is costly.  Now a days he doesnot even start the generator.  This is good news.  Even to my conciousness I was feeling guilty that I am deviating from natural resources to oil and power.  But that is not to be.

The good old windpump is more adorable. It is proving to be champion. I can say this with authority, because now I have tried dieseal generator and electricity.  The electric power however will be cheaper if it comes through subsidy. personally i will try to reduce its consumption in near future as I know that it is coming from nuclear power.  I must replace this with indigineous concentrated solar power generator. My experiments on that is shelved for time being because of domestic issues. My wife is against me spending time on it as my son is appearing for his SSLC exam this year.....She wants no distraction if not my attention.

4) My alternate business - I have asked Subbu to visit Valliyoor and prepare sprinkler stand. Asked him to prepare a small plot to experiment with few lentils.  He has forgotton what i said few days back. This area needs more work from me.  I visited my own website and found it is not working. I blocked it long back and keep renewing it. But I have to develop a website for advertisement of farm produce. Long term plan. But shortly I need to do something....

5)    I have spent lot of money on purchasing the nursary trees and growing them. But how many of survived and what types ?  I remember sapota, jasmine, citrus trees are growing well.  we need to repeat them only.  In terms of marketable lot what is that i have ?  Only Sapota and jasmine.  Others I have to grow.  I have to try my hands on millets to begin with.

Farm in Visuals 18-Apr-2017

Now that the water is available atleast through diesal generator, the farm is now relieved temperorily from starvation. People are visibly happy.  We must have burned atleast 30 liters by now at INR 55/liter, but satisfied. Atleast works out much cheaper than water tanker.

Land is getting prepared in patches for cultivation. The cement tank that was not used for all these days is now filled with water.  Paramu I was told was swimming in the tank. Good.

Kandan is scared to go near the Generator. That is his problem. He fears technology. he will not start the generator himself through the starter handle. He fears the noise, current and vibration.  Sometime he even fears Jeep, officers and strangers. Some time back when Electricity board officials visited he ran away from the farm (ha ha...) Subbu has tough time.

Subbu would go on leave for a week in first week of May to drop his family in in-laws place. I booked ticket for him. I will be visiting the farm same time with my family. Perhaps we may meet on last day 7th.

Today an awesome experiment was done. The redbanana bunch of 7.5 KG was packed and sent to Chennai - "Restore" an Organic Store. Earlier i wanted it to be sent to myself in Pune. But changed plans. Let me sell it in a professional store. This store is run by Ananta Sayanan and team. He introduced to Gopi who is coordinating for transport of vegetables from organic farmers.  Yesterday I set a concall with Subbu and Gopi. We agreed we will send this by courier @ 45/- kg to Chennai on experimental basis. It works out to be Rs. 350 for 30 Red bananas.  Comes out Rs. 10/- per banana for transport and is very costly. But worth experimenting. Next time around Gopi advised us to send by public transport - state bus and promised he will collect it at Koyambedu bus stand twice a week.

Rest in pictures that Subbu sent.  He has installed whats'up on his smart phone. But donot know how to handle it. Just installed.

Jasmine

JCB at work to dig hole for planting the nursary purchase that we did 2 months back.
Due to water scarcity this was in safe keeping away from farm.

Sapota trees have grown in size

Well, the generator that is saving us now. Pretty used one. But good condition.

Jasmine not flowering enough. Total 200 grams only. Due to water scarcity.
Now we need to increase the yield.

Subbu had imported mud from nearby pond for preparing pits for planting 

The panel board that Subbu had prepared.  The ammeter is important. After starting
the generator they have to wait for current to attain high.

The cement tank is getting filled.

What is the construction behind ? I am surprised.  It must be the half finished multipurpose
nursary, workshop and workplace.

Farm Update 07-April-2017

There had been many eventful days in the past 2 weeks since the time we decided to bring the Generator to the farm.

1. Subbu had accomplished the movement of machine from Perumalanji a small hamlet 10 Kms away into the farm. The generator is kept on farm over 2 car tyres.  It required some more work in getting the starter customised, fuse, panel and other setups using the local technician. In this summer the pump technicians are very busy.
   
2. Last week when the generator was started, I believe it was a great moment to see the ampere meter reaching 7.5 KV.   The temporary 5 HP submersible pump of Subbu's farm that was brought here seemed to have chocked because of long gap in using it.   Then it was repaired in moolakaraipatti where such pumps are overhauled.
   
3. Presently water is gushing with high pressure.  First day they ran for 1 hour, 2nd day 3 hours and so on.    So far they have burnt around 10 liters of diseal.
   
4. The parched land that did not see water for 2.5 years is now sucking water.  Everyone are happy to irrigate all the plants that was asking water all these days. I guess the atmosphere is charged at the farm.
   
5. Subbu is making arrangements to plant the saplings that we brought in Ramji Nursery two month ago when I was there in person.  Those saplings had been kept aside for want of adequate water.  JCB had been called for digging pits for coconut planting.  Fresh karandai soil from nearby pond had been brought along with some manure.
   
6. Today workers are arranged to plant them - around 200 plants in all.
   
7. The team will continue to work near the windpump tower to re-plant the red-banana suckers.  That soil had been wetted by water in the past 2 days.
   
8. Subbu told yesterday he would want to plant "nendran" variety of banana. This variety is used for making chips and is a wild variety native to Kerala. We must get the banana plants from nursery in kalakkadu.
   
9. The Jasmine is not yielding properly due to lack of water. Now with right amount of irrigation it should start showing results hopefully.

Subbu told the price of Jasmine is down in the market. I did not like that tone.  Every crop that we are going to grow will finally under-estimated by the market brokers. We cannot allow that to happen. So  I have instructed him to do two experiments.

a) Pack the red banana in small bunchers in carton box and send to Pune - a distance of 800 Kms through courier. Let me see how it arrives here. I want to give the exprience to Subbu on how to pack and forward to long distance.

b) Pack and send the Jasmine flowers in banana leave to Chennai city. I will arrange for its sale through some organic store.  Normally farmers are spraying toxic chemicals even for jasmine.  Whereas we are growing without any chemicals, I hope the smell must be much better and buyers must be able to buy at a cost.

Bottomline:    We have water now. We can start doing professional and careful farming.  We need to find innovative was to produce and sell.

The windpump can now be subjected to R&D. I want Subbu to dismantle the central rod system and replace with Steel cables that I had already planned and procured. After that we will do something to increase the water output.  Gradually we need to reduce the usage of Generator.