Exploiting the sunshine - Plan is ready for next year

The enthusiasm at the farm is low. Energy levels are low because of continuous sunshine with blue sky. With less and less water, people are unable to think of anything but their basic needs. Luckily some wind is blowing and the team of 2 are managing to survive the existing greenary.

So I told Subbu, don't worry. Rain will come on 15th October with a firmness of a soothsayer. He acknowledged. Let us keep doing something till then. He always likes me talking encouraging words. I told about Masanobu Fukouoka's rice clay balls. He listened with awe. Then he dismissed saying "Fukuoka should come to our farm. With zero water how will the plants grow?. Sir, he must be farming near some hill station". Subbu is not totally wrong. I must ask next time the natural farming guys how we can farm in a zero water and dry wind land.

I had already made enquiries for 35 Nos of saplings of Coconut to be procured from the nursary called Athma Nilayam, Parassala, Kerala. I used my malalayam speaking friend to get some information. This place is near Marthandam. They have 4 varieties of coconut DxT, TxD, Lakshwadeep, Malasia.  For coconut water it is Gauliyatra, Pathiinettapatta and andhra variety. I guess we need to go for country variety long standing cocunut crop.  Each should cost around Rs. 50/-. The guy said they have sapling with single leaf only. That means they donot keep stock, fast selling.

Well Subbu did not buy the idea of procuring anything now. If we get it now, we need to water them and look after. Better let it be in nursary only till we get atleast one shower. The land should become little more cool.

Meanwhile I mentioned we must make a fence for the open rainwater pit. Lest someone will fall inside if there is heavy rains. My idea was to install stumps cut from casurina trees upto 4 feet and put a chain around. Well let it wait, not a priority now.

Thinking of the brilliant bright Sun, I told subbu can we monitise this sunshine ? Atleast next year, we must not be wasting the sunlight. We can utilise the sun shine to make pappads.  So we made a plan like this.

a) We will sow the black lentil (Urad Dal) in an acre or two. I guess this will grow well going by our experience of green gram.

b) Harvest lentil, dry and powder them.

c) Make Organic pappadam using local women folk, sun dried.

d) Market them to known network and unknown stores.
Additionally we can buy basic machines from Coimbatore in case we need to create a small factory.

Thus, we were satisfied atleast on our theoritical venture plan.

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Farm Update 30th June, 2014

It is sometimes required to pause, re-collect all pending things and list down them as action items.  Today I had a long telephone call to Subbu and passed on the following. I read that twice to him so that he remembers. Moreover the points were delivered in such a way that we start discussing from one end of the farm and traverse to the other end. So that while looking at that part of the farm, he remembers the action item.  So we start from a corner....

1. Already the 50 Nos of  Andhra special variety Banana plants that were laid near the windmill is sprouting. Now as per our original plan, we were supposed to buy Karpuravalli banana. Subbu told we will go for 250 Nos to begin with. Presently banana samplings are rounded with mud and water is poured through hose from windmill. The bunding will be done later once it attains a height.

2. The windmill boring pipe has been extended by another 30 feet  totalling 130 feet. That involved removing entire length of the pipe including central rod from borewell and then re-fitting again with extended length with pump at the 130th feet. This was a full day activity and was done on Friday. There was a risk that if not done properly they may loose the train of pipe and it will fall down to 300 feet never to be retrieved along with pump. Anyway our guys were careful and experienced.   After this and some adjustments, the windmill is making no noise at all. It is having smooth operation. Presently the water outlet has been raised to 15 feet below  above the ground level. That means water is flowing like a shower and everyday our guys are taking bath in that shower. Great.

3. Water tank of 1000 liter capacity is being planned. It will be ready-made plastic tank to be purchased for around Rs. 6000/-.  The iron stand for that has been ordered in Valliyoor welding workshop with a simple design with 4 angle pillars. That will be 10 feet height Costing around Rs. 10000/-. Iron costs around 56 per KG.  This stand will be mounted on a cement foundation of 3 feet height totaling around 14 feet.  That must build water pressure in the hose for a gravity assisted irrigation. Our experiments that we did earlier is coming handy to take such decisions.

I must mention here that One of our friends had earlier suggested experimenting with Cement pipe to be used as raiser stand to water tank as a cheaper alternative. Mounting the pipe vertically up like a pillar can be done over concrete base. But after that placing a platform slab of 5 ft by 5 ft will be a challenge. That platform will have a water tank. There is no way such a platform can be balanced at the tip of cement pipe unless a clamp is done. Moreover cement pipes are not manufactured properly with quality cement. It cannot be safe. I guess.  But still this experiment is open and need to try later.

4. Subject to pressure, small sprinklers will be setup. Basically I told to buy two brass sprinkler guns and weld them to a tripod stand. So that it can be moved.  There will be some vegetable raised beds will be made adjascent to the tower. This is for seed multiplication only. So many varities as we collect in small place under supervision.

5. It is time now to visit Nursery at Parassala, Way to Trivandrum from Nagarcoil.  Need to buy 30 Coconut saplings and other trees. This time we want to buy useful fruit trees and few outdoor trees for roadside planting during Rainy season in July.  The neighbourhood Sastha temple will get renovated soon. It  will be good to have some trees there too.

6. We need to now put proper road inside the farm. A modest one with a width of  5 feet is enough for small tracktor and carting.  I donot know if we need to bring mud from outside to raise the path.  If we donot do this now, due to rain, there will be too much slush created making it difficult everyday to move around.

7. Need to put a dustbin inside the farm. Day by day polythene covers are getting accumulated.  They are simply thrown down by workers to be carried by wind. They are landing here and there and are also spoiling the neighbouring farms.  I asked subbu to by fence mesh and bend it and make a round shaped open holding area where people can throw all plastic bottles and bags. We can decide what we do later.

8. We will be implementing "Point Forest" Soon. I communicated what it is to Subbu. And asked him to buy concrete rings from Parappadi town.  Basically I told him it is for growing small wild bush to attract and grow spiders and other insects to act as predators for worms which will affect crops.

9. Need to plan and buy Co4 Grass cuttings. We need to grow cow-grass in one place.

10. Swale cutting and cutting of a small fish pond should be done quickly. I have explained where and how. Just need to execute. We cannot do this after rain comes. Moreoever we need to catch the rain water.

11. It was decided to put 3 stay wires to the windmill tower for additional safety.

12. I asked Subbu to plan for a main metal pipe underground from Tower to far end.  We will take lateral pipes as and we require. Presently two lateral pipes are planned one to reach near Gate and another the opposite end. The pipes if laid should look like a Cross.

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Farm Status and Micro Planning for a week ahead

Around 300 saplings of Casuarina (Savukku) is still in polythene bags.  Subbu said it has already grown upto a feet and the roots are piercing out of the bag.  No more can they be contained and they need to be rooted at once. Earlier this decision was stalled owing to the fact that watering the saplings after it is installed on the ground would be difficult manually for Kannan using hand pump. Now that the routine in the farm is settled, Kannan gained more confidence he can handle this.. But alas!

The ground is as strong as a rock. spade/hoe is not going in. Subbu is to call a JCB tomorrow (Rs. 650/- per hour and Rs. 300 bata for driver) and cut a narrow furrow next to the fence to put the saplings on the ground. I think a couple of hours of work is enough. I asked him to make further furrows on east fence also so that we buy more of the saplings and plant them. One more helping hand for pumping water and we will be comfortable.

Last month we found a good nursery to purchase plants. The village is called Parassala in Kerala near Kaliyakavilai.  That is close to my native at about 2 hours driving. I sent Subbu and party over there for a picnic to find whats up. They said it will take a full day to see the entire nursery. So many plants. Rates are not cheap, but quality and volume is assured. I will buy remaining set of plants that I missed last time. Some of them are very obvious and I wonder why I missed them. By the way am I going to make a botanical garden or a farm ?

Common Name	Tamil Name
Teak	Teak
Coconut	Thennai
Hibiscus	Sembaruthi
Spanish cherry	Magizham
coral Jasmine	Pavazhamalli / Parijatam
	Kattu Karuvepillai
Bael	Vilvam
Pongamia	Pungai
Mahua	Illupai
Rain Tree	ToonguMoonji
Rose wood	Thodhagathi
Arjuna	Neer Marudhu
Portia Tree	Poovarasu
Rudhraksh	Rudhraksham
pambu kala chedi	Sarpagandha / Nava Konji
Singapore Cherry	Then Chittu
Galangal	Chittarattai
Indian cork tree	Mara Malli
Kaim	Neer Kadambai
Hill Mango	Kiluvai
Anjan	Aachi, Malai Athi
Wild Lime	Kattu Kichili

With such a hard surface (which had been tilled 6 months back), I wonder how I will make the soil pliable and soft.  I guess the answer lies in putting more cow dung and adding organic humus.  They must act on the soil and increase moisture content.  Bringing foreign soil and mixing is costly. I donot want to do that.  Presently cow dung is available from nearby farm (a truck load 1200/-).  Hmm.. I must buy a bullock cart - long pending one. I had advertised in forums with no reply for past 7 months. I think I must buy a trailer with 4 tyres that can be pulled by one or two bullocks. I donot like two wheeled ones as they will stress the animal if too much load or too little is present. Perhaps two trailers are required to be purchased.  One can be used permanently for fetching cow dung from nearby cow sheds and another for other uses. Last time how did they load and unload cowdung. They used hands and hoe. I wouldn't appreciate that. I must buy gum boots, hoe and plastic trays for compartmentalizing cow dung loading and handling.  Need to study this logistics aspect to make this work more interesting.

Kannan has not yet prepared the Gana Jeevamruthuam that I prescribed to Subbu last week.  Atleast the raw cow dung is being applied.  At this stage concepts like Zero budget farming, Natural farming, Permaculture etc are far far away. I need to dilute them and create stories and deliver somehow. If only I had some volunteers who can visit the farm and impart these knowledge I will be grateful. I can pay some honorarium. Otherwise I will have to act fast and courier diagrams and CDs and keep following over phone.

But the grass growth is seen dense after tilling the land last time.  The grass should act as mulch and protect the soil hopefully until it is opened for use later for cultivation. I feel once the border plants grow with watering by Kannan, they must create a micro climate and preserve the moisture for long time in soil. When I was touring in North west India recently I saw that many of the fields got their water only from the frost or dew. The plants were as healthy as if they had been watered. I am talking about desert climate.

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