Hope and Way forward with Jasmine

It has been several months now that from Remote, I felt helpless for not being able to control the farm.  My onground employees Subbu and Kandan were seem dodging my calls or followup. I had no clue of what is happening because there was no proper communication.  There were tons of excuse why something did not happen. But no good news anytime

There were failures of windpump tower, loosning of screws, falling of bolts, lack of attendance, crop drying up, floods, drought, high electricity bill, faulty generator and so on..... I almost lost hope.

But somewhere I was holding on to hope. Was never using hard words. Kept inner calm. Allowed time to pass.  Subbu also felt very embarrassing to take my calls. He avoided.  Later i learn, he cannot communicate on ground situation. He is used to communicating good news or no news.  But i wanted bad News also. After all I am a solutions Manager by profession. ( In IT).

Now things are looking better.  Jasmine has given hope. All hardwork is giving dividents.

Today also as a routine called him and spoke heart out.  He was but very happy and sounded better.  The fact is all these days, he was feeling guilty for not being productive.  Not his fault though.  Jasmine has given hope now.

Jasmine is selling at around Rs. 400/- to 600/- per KG.  But i believe local labor is asking Rs. 350/- as wage.  This is not affordable. Therefore he brings his wife and plucks flowes in hot Sun. She gets some 250 grams of flowers to take home.  Which lady is not fond of flowers ?

My jasmine flowers are of very high quality.  The scent is mesmerizing.  I never expected (Nor Subbu) that it will start flowering so soon and so much . 

I wanted to do an experiment of asking Subbu to send the flowers by flight, I receive it here in Pune and sell it at Rs. 1000/- Kg. Why not ?  Need to explore...............

Farm Status Feb 2020

It is very refreshing to learn several things that are now falling in place.   Subbu has brought his new camera phone. That means a lot. We can get clear photos any time.  The windpump amplifier again has been put into operation after a full long year.    Rest in visuals.

This was the state of Jasmine plants 2 months back.
Subbu had done pedicure to the jasmine. This snap is given here for comparison to see what it is looking now (below)

The same patch now All the plants are having fresh tender leaves.  Jasmine seems to be growing really well
in this soil and climate.  It was a wise decision to go for Jasmine. Only  that we could not make much money till now.
Hopefully this year, we must.

Same jasmine in another patch. Good and refreshing to see that it is being cared for by Kandan and Subbu.

Closeup of how the sprout happens. If I were there, i could not have dared to do this.

Some Bird Nest and eggs.  I have seen these birds in our farm never bother to build a nest.
They just lay eggs on the floor. Really wild

Citron plant is yielding.  Subbu said he had taken it to market last week. Must have fetched 500/-.
He will always ask for bank account No again and again but will never deposit.  :-)

The single lonley mango plant. Already flowering. Last year the mangoes were plucked by visitors. this year
we must be strict.

Already....

Not bad. The hybrid variety has grown. The coconut water is not that tasty. It is too tender now.

After a lot of followup, mistakes, repeat work, once again my indigenous make - water amplifier below the wind pump
tower is being installed.  The below concrete base took so many days, besides other works on the tower itself. The frame was
just kept aside. Subbu did not have motivation to install this. He perhaps doesnot know the magic it is going to create.

Installation going On.

And finally water being pumped out of the windpump.  Really good to see so much of water.
But this is only the starting. The device that I have made has some adjustments, by which the water can be
amplified.  However let it run for few weeks. Then I will take that call. because any wrong step (adjustment) may spoil / break
the foot valve or bearing on the windpump tower.

Farm Update 19-Feb-2018 - All is not well

It has been a quite a long gap this time in updating this.  The main reason for this is overwhelming information.   Yes. in this age of connectivity and always online, the communication gap is at the highest.  That is the paradox. Same applies to blog posts also.

When some story is developing, you wait till it completes.  When the story keeps taking twist and turn with new issues and solutions, you also keep postponing writing. That way days, weeks and even months pass.

Following are the updates.

a) The relationship with Subbu was not all that well. I had to firmly talk to him and impress upon him that nothing is happening at the farm.  The same paradox that was explained above works here also. Farm now has adequate water and other resources. But agriculture activity has halted. Long back when the farm was having acute scarcity, we were growing several things. Today everything is there and the output is abysmally nil.   One of the reason is attention diversion, lazyness, gross mistakes, not having enough motivation etc.  But nothing can explain or justify the money that is being spent to up-keep the farm. People have to work.  No choice.

b) Kandan had been absent for several days. I am not clear about his attendance.  He is not communicative. Basically good guy. But lazy.  Last rains, he was taking care of his own farm, I was told.  He even asked for extra money (loan) which I refused.  Later he fell seriously ill. He always refused to do any extra work and confined his scope only to watering existing trees.  I had to pay another person in his absence to survive the plants without cutting his salary also.  I was patient all through. I wanted Subbu to pass on this message that he will to be fired from job if he continues to be absent. I have no choice.

c)  For several days Subbu will be unavailable.   His phone was not picked up or he was not reachable for days together.   Later I learnt he was building his mother in law's house.   He also said that his customers (Household village ladies) from his cable TV business where pestering him with complaints. So he had to keep the phone switched off.   (There have been recently change in delivery of cable TV with an on ground technology change which operators like him found cumbersome to train foot soldiers to implement)  

However what upset me most was his continuous absence to the farm.   His father is a professional farmer and a very rare visitor to our farm.   He seems to have scolded him why he is keeping the farm so dirty.   Subbu called me promptly ordered for tractor and ploughed the fields without any purpose.

d) Subbu suddenly came with an idea of building a poultry farm on the empty half constructed place. He wanted to use the casurina poles for that. He wanted to keep country hen and said this will bind Kandan to the farm and ensure his attendance.  He also said the profit will be ploughed back to paying salary to Kandan and himself.  All right I said, but it is upto you. I donot encourage farm at this stage.  

Later one day he called for workers, bricks and ordered for sheets.  As usual he started ranting the plan hinting that I have to foot the bill. I refused. I scolded him saying anything should be started simple with available material. Why build a big room for a poultry which may or may not be success. how can we trust Kandan. or for that matter yourself ? Who will give injection, feed etc. What expense?  Why get me into more trouble, when we have not been able to grow even small quantity vegetables  ?  I asked several questions like this and perhaps a longest conversation that I had in recent times clocking around 1.5 hours.  He said he is dropping that idea.

e)  He called to say he is mentally upset. I left it at that. Let him sink the feeling. I did not defend him. I only advised him to go out to Thovalai and watch the flower market. I urged him to watch others, how they are doing business. He indeed went to Tirunelveli to a nursary. That is his beauty. He will never do what we ask.

f) Presently he seems to have realised.  That means more planting, more expenses and more activity. That is fine.  This includes getting JCB to dig around 100 holes for fresh Jasmine plot.  He had identified Jasmine nursary in Tirunelveli costing Rs. 6/- per plant. Had ordered. I also felt we must expand Jasmine as a commodity for sure / future

(Will continue)

Farm Update 24-Sep-18 (partly visual)

Subbu is in a mood to go to Tirupati. His annual pilgrimage. He was saying he did not get proper tickets.  I did not want to therefore load with any other major work.

Finally 3 Phase current is sanctioned. After several sorties, Subbu had obtained the new meter. Now the Eb has to come and give connection from the pole. Upto the pole they seem to have drawn the required extra wiring.  I asked Subbu to call a local contractor to do rest of intra-farm wiring. No compromise should be there in quality as more current is going to come.  Meanwhile Subbu hit upon an idea of making indigenous electric post using 2" pipes to save on cost.  Electric poles are costing very heavy if purchased. (above 7K per pole).

Windmill was fixed and is working fine. However after 3 months suddenly it has unlocked itself. The reason was found to be a silly mistake by Kandan. Earlier Kandan had unwound the rods without holding the lower rod with left hand. This is like trying to open a lid without holding bottle.  the Result is it has loosened a screw somewhere deep inside the well.  Such behavior of people is what makes us develop more idiot proof things in due course.

I spoke to Subbu about what we can do further in agriculture. Presently he claimed he has cleaned the banana patch.  Kandan and his accomplice (One man who has been appointed as body guard to Kandan for a fee. Kandan feels threatened after he hit a thief few weeks back) were given some job. Left alone they would confine themselves to watering the trees and keep quite. I was upset on this and hence Subbu had some work delegated.

I am writing about sustainable farming as a series of articles in Face book in vernacular Tamil.  It has been a long pending due to write something in Tamil for my friends. I started writing about sustainability especially focusing on farm power.  (Wind, CSP etc).  looks like people like it.

There is other reason for writing now.  ABS company called me and told they have a windmill ready and it is occupying space in their factory. They are into bolting business and keep high value items. They want to sell this off quickly to make room for themselves. I promised I will contact some of my agriculture farmer friends. This article of mine has indeed generated interested. Hope it will mature into orders.  If more orders come, I myself want to get involved into design improvements along with ABS.

Meanwhile I am silently working on my low cost verticle windmill project. I just gave order for fresh wings to a workshop. My other project - mechanical amplifier is also taking good shape.

Below are some of the farm pictures as it stands. These are inspiring.

View from behind the windpump rotor blade.

Recently the fuse had burned. This is dangerous. It happens because whatever said, they donot propelry
use rated fuse wires. They tend to use copper wires. I must be strict on this.

Just a random View

Mature coconut

Amla

Sapota patch. Note the climate has started Drying.

Sapota

Jasmine. Nice to see it is bushy. But it lacks manure.

The one and only surviving vegetable. White Brinjal

Need to make pickles out of this. Subbu is not listening.

Jasmine patch

One rod from the well. I wanted subbu to take photo of its tip with pencil.
This is how we exchange information. This picture will allow me
to guage how much is the thickness of the rod.
This is required for me here to fabricate one.  Since he is not having vernier calipher, this idea.
This picture says the rod is 12mm in diameter.

Farm Update 11th May, 2018

It is easier said than done.  Everything in a farm is like that.

a) To reverse the blades of windpump rotor we need to construct a bamboo tower upto that. It must be safe and comfortable to work on top of that stage. Subbu has asked his known person to visit the farm and give a quote. This is a season of temple festivals. They are busy.  Anyway we have to do this job to extrat more from the windpump.  (Refer my last post).

b) The sprinklers (3 Nos.) have been give to Valliyoor for welding the tripod stand. Subbu is yet to take delivery of the same.

c) Subbu was busy plucking the jasmine flowers morning. It will otherwise go waste. He has tied with some local small vendor. This time we have the electronic weighing machine and a notebook to note down the daily yield.

Vettiver at the farm.  One row is not enough. But it is surviving
in the hot Sun

d) I need to think a lot more about the windpump. Now that the water is secured, I am planning to do all possible things to increase the water output. That will amount to purchasing a new foot valve (plunger) which would cost estimated 16K

e) The vegetable plot where the sprinkler is being tried, is growing slow. I have hopes on this.

f). While on the visit to the farm, I was particular to inspect the vettiver that I asked Subbu to plant around the pond to prevent soil erosion. Earlier the vettiver was sown and got spread around the wind pump tower. This was attracting snakes and rabbits. It was destroyed. Some stalks were supposed to be replanted and watered daily. As expected that was not done, except for my compulsion.

g).  But whatever vettiver has been planted, was satisfactory. Not enough, but satisfying that the concept is good. Now If i need to deepen the pond further, I must employ manual labor and not JCB.

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.

Farm Update 29-Feb-2016

1.   Business as usual.   Just watering activity on the farm.  No new initiative.  The construction of sitting place and repair of green house is pending as Paramu has accepted some civil works and is away.  The farm is waiting for him.

2. Meanwhile the sand required for mixing concrete for the seats are being gathered by the lady staff from adjacent places.   Sand is everywhere around the farm, where top soil is eroded due to rains.  One has to just bring it.  I am happy we are just using the resources from around and not purchasing everytime.

3. I discussed with Subbu on farming activities and future.  My long standing dream is to grow many different varities of palatable vegetables and make it available to small vendors.  The small vendors - mostly ladies who carry vegetables on their head in a basket will go to nook and corner of villages and sell them.  I hope I can equip them with produce early in the morning. By noon they should sell out everything and earn 50 to 100/-.  They must have lunch in my farm.  It must be simple lunch with lentils and Dal (pulses) with rice.  They can go for 2nd sortie if possible in the evening or retire.  I hope we are somewhere 40% in this journey.

4.  Onion will be ready for harvest in a month.

5. The malligai (Jasmine) has started yielding. I believe a vendor is purchasing this every day @ 50/- per day.  That is good news.  Every day the jasmine is plucked and hung near the gate. The vendor will collect them and pay money.  This has been happening for the past 4 days.  Let me see......

6.  The reamaining plot where rain destroyed jasmine will also be planted with more jasmine.  I believe even the ones thought gone-case has sprouted.  That means Jasmine best-fits in my farm

7. I was discussing with Subbu to construct a 2nd water tank for the Windpump.  Presently we are getting more water, which is drained into the mud pond.  what if I store them high above in another water tank so that we irrigate vegetable plots from there. This 2nd one will be around 100 to 150 meters from the wind pump and will be at 15" high.  It must be in the same height of the earlier one so that when interconnected they share water.  Subbu said he wants to construct in the cheapest manner possible.  Something like putting a plastic tank atop a concrete single pillar.  Hmmmm... let us study some models around.

************

Farm Activities and Planning- 14-Dec-2015

Banana 1 : The "Tholuvam" banana variety (a country organic variety of banana which can grow well in our farm) re-installation is complete.  On either side of the windpump tower, the banana siblings (suckers) have been replanted.   Earlier on one portion I had planted Red Banana obtained from a friend near Coimbatore.  That crop did not come well. Added to that there was no water to sustain them at that time.  They were removed. Only 10 of them are left out.  Balance space are filled only with Tholuvam which is time tested.

Banana 2 : From adjacent to wind tower there were "Andhra Nadan", another variety that was earlier starving for water. They had under growth. The mother plants have dried. But the dwarf ones and the suckers are growing.  That is not a fertail piece.  It is just left to grow. No changes.

Paddy: Near the high tension power tower,  Subbu had experimented with a small patch of Paddy last week. We will be expanding in the complete area now as that area is a marsh and water logging one.  That patch was thick with grass so far.


Jasmine:  Due to recent incessant and untimely continuous rains, the newly laid jasmine plants have got destroyed. Loss of time and money. The leaves have turned brown and could not survive the stagnant water. Only the old ones are ok. We are back to square one.

Onion, Potato :  For the past two days there is no rain. The ground is drying and is good time for running tractor.  Today Subbu will rent tractor to make some raised mud bars for Onion and sweet potato in a small piece of land which so far we have not tried anything.

Sugarcane:  I asked Subbu to try few sugarcane.  In January when the festival of Pongal comes, people buy sugar cane from far off places. Last year I planned but did not materialise. This year it is too late. But on experimental basis few can be tried. He said the juice centres are closed due to rains. Today/tomorrow one or two must open and he must get some.  The cane sugar can be cut into pieces and installed.

Coconut:  Coconut tree is growing well. It is time we go for some more. So also sapota.

Cow Grass: I asked Subbu to start growing some cow grass. we need to create conducive environment for a cow to stay. Targetting for month of May, we must get a cow.

****

Farm Update 26-Oct-2015 - Fragrance everywhere in the farm

Looking the success of Jasmine plant growth even in drought conditions,  It was decided earlier to expand the jasmine plot.  The other reason is, the existing 50 odd plants are giving only 200 to 400 grams of flower per day. This quantity is not sufficient for taking to market. Presently it is going waste.

Presently there is enough rain in the farm. Windpump is also giving more water. There is no scarcity and there is excess water.  Now is the time to plan all activities.

jasmine plant at Farm

Subbu had ventured to the town of Rameshwaram, the birth place of Dr. Abdul Kalam to get the Jasmine saplings.  This jasmine variety I am told is very special.  He had brought 500 of them @ Rs. 5/- each along with a companion in Bus. He had to stay overnight.

Today with help of JCB, another 75 holes have been dug.  Each hole will hold 4 saplings togather to create a bush.  Earlier we made a mistake of plating just one plant per pit.  Someone had advised to plant 4 at a time. It makes sense.  Jasmine is a bush variety.

Already the plantation has started with help of temperory workers.

FarmYard Manure Purchased earlier was waiting
for this season. Some quantity
will be put in each of the holes.

Subbu is going to Thirumala on pilgrimage for 4 days this week end. All other activities will be postponed for his arrival. He is taking Paramu and Kandan along with him for pilgrimage. The main event will be tonsure for his son.  On his coming back we need to do the following

a) Purchase additional 15 coconut saplings and plant them near the mud pond.  The coconut is growing well. Boosted by Panjagavya, it is the best plant suited for the soill

b) We also need to plant some more fruit trees, say 10 more

The existing Stock.  Not a bad growth with good care.

c) The space around the cement tank is not fertail. The banana crop has failed. I asked to clear that place and put navadhanya (9 grains) for fertility. But subbu has other plans. He has some assignment to be given to the lady workers  who will take charge in his absence. That includes planting bitter gourd, snake gourd, cucumber and onion around the water tank.

d) meanwhile I want the ladies to plant Ponnanganni Spinach (Alternanthera sessilis, Dwarf Copperleaf) around the resting place to prevent soil erosion.  We have seen this spinach grows faster and needs very less care. It will also be nutritious and is idle for arresting soil erosion. I hope so.

e) On the windpump experiments on fixing the new gadget on experimental basis to pump more water, I asked him to hold till he completes his tour. Let it be BAU activity for now.

***

Farm update 17-October-2015 - Innovation at Farm

I guess Paramu's device
must look like this. This should amplify
the strokes

Innovation at the Farm :  More Water 
The water harvest using Wind pump is more than satisfactory.  With slight wind, there is more water that is getting pumped. The new foot valve or increased pipe diameter or a combination of all has done wonders.

Not stopping at this, we want to further experiment more.  This time, Subbu and Paramu has gone  ahead with some design which they say will work.  We discussed this during our visit to the farm. We were on a bus to Palaymkottai when I sketched the Figure 1 to explain my mind.  Now Subbu and Paramu claims to have distilled a thought and has visted a workshop in Valliyoor to fabricate.  I sent some money for expenses.  Subbu says, the design is ready and they will try tomorrow.

My guess is they must have designed as in Figure 2.  the deviation from verticle will be handled by a ball bearing that they say have been purchased.  Let me wait for results...

Cropping

Meanwhile I reminded Subbu that we must do farming !.   Well there is some slight drizzle in the farm which has made the climate cool. However it is not sufficient to plough the field. Neverthless we need to prepare ourselves for coming season.

a) I have asked him to prepare the land for Groundnut sowing
b) We need to purchase Jasmine Samplings from Rameshwaram as was discussed earlier.  Subbu will travel there in few days time to bring about 100 of them in the Bus.
c) I also wanted him to look for some grown up trees instead of small saplings to speed up the fence tree plantation
d) We also need some coconut trees and Subbu has already identified where it should go in the farm.

My guess is that if it starts raining, the water will be sufficient to go for next 3 to 4 months. meanwhile windmill should produce excess water that will be stored and sustained for another 6 months.  By which time I must come with some Solar Concentrator apparatus.

***

Farm Update - 27th July, 2015

My mood was upbeat last few days.  I hear many farming activities going all over the country like tilling the soil, seeding etc in preparation for the season to come.  In my farm, the weather is still dry, but I do hope that rains will come soon.  Weatherman has predicated that there will be rains from 12th of August near Tirunelveli.  Let me prepare myself for the same.

Called Subbu and had a long chat on the planning ahead for Aadi Pattam.  We covered all topics including one of my proposal to purchase a house in my native place for later settlement.

1. Windpump is working normal.  Currently only 4 pipes are connected (40 feet). We will connect more as and when required.  I asked the extra pipes to be kept in proper order.  Earlier I had asked him to purchase/make in the welding workshop something of the shape of    'Y' in iron. The idea is two Y--------------Y  can hold the iron pipes off the ground.  Subbu mentioned it will be vulnarable for theft. But anyway it has to be kept in open.  Perhaps we can tie with a chain and lock.

2.  Wanted to increase the size of the rainwater pond. Currently it is 30 feet x 30 feet. Perhaps we need to double the size.  Tomorrow JCB is coming. That could be 2 days of work for JCB and may cost (Rs. 700 x 8 x 2) + 600.

3.  We need to dig pits for jasmine flower saplings. Planning to expand jasmine flowers as it is giving good yield. Currently about 1/2 kg is coming per day. That is not enough for market. Ladies are adoring them.  with additional plants we can reach around 1 KG per day. Then it makes sense to sell.

4.  The first thing before digging the mud pond would be to save the bottom mud which is now full of nutrients because earlier fish had been there.  This fertail mud will be used for jasmine pits.  The saplings will be purchased in Nagarcoil nursary.

5.  There is a litigation with my plot of land that I had earlier purchased (Not part of this main farm, but at a walk-able distance. This is yet to be fenced. There is no road for this).  Someone is claiming a piece of that land belongs to himself. We are verifying the EC.  If his claim is true, then I may have to pay some money to him.  Let's see.  This plot is important for me as in near future I am planning to do my experiments on Concentrated Solar Power. I want to solve this issue asap.

6. Assuming there will be rains, I want to grow some regular crops this time, taking risk with rains.  Finalised.   we will go for one little millet and one green gram in a small available patch.

7.  Cowdung 2nd lot has come. Subbu has already made panjagavya. It will be put to jasmine plants, sapota, guva trees.  I asked him to buy neem cakes and keep them ready.

8. Some of the Red-banana is not growing well. Without wasting time, Subbu want to replace them with local country variety.  In this experiment it appears Red Banana is not suitable for our climate.

9. I urged him to put some creeper variety vegertable. For this a small "pandal" need to be constructed.  Creeper vegetables like bitter guard will give good yield. But there is no space. We will manage somewhere.

Visual Update on Jasmine, Banana, coconut and sweet potato planting Nov, 2014

The Nursary Plants are picked at Ramji Nursary in Nagarcoil.  This includes around 35 coconut saplings of 4 varieties.

Our purchase is normally a mix of everything to create a genetically diversity natural farm. Hope I will not end up creating a nursary instead of a farm.

Mallikai - Jasmine Plants are first to go. These are Nagapattinam variety

Jasmine baby

Jasmine being planted after tilling.

Jasmine is mulched with local nochi weeds. Sufficient space is provided so that there can be an inter crop later

Banana 2nd Round.  The roots are procured from the nearby farm. Details covered already.

Banana tubers

Banana is planted just after a rain

Another view of Banana in place

Coconut is mostly planted at the fence side.

The young one inside the pit. Some red soil is added to increase quality. Also some pith. and natural fertiliser

Coconut lined up as 2nd row from a fence

Sweet Potato is a vein. We obtained this from neighbours farm through Subbu Contact for a small price.  But the land preparation is a very delicate thing as can be seen. It cost 2 labor days.

The raised bars prepared for sweet potato and  planted

Planting in progress

Farm Update 27 October, 2014

After a week of Diwali festival, the entire country is settling down to work. I called Subbu to take an update and discuss this week plans.

a) Rains have stopped for the time being. Still the mud is heavily soaked in water and hence tractor cannot plough the ground. We have planned to plough two square plots of around 25 cents each to be used for multipurpose, mainly experimenting.  Subbu's brother is owing a tractor. So it is convenient to call him whenever we want.  We need to invite tractor tomorrow. There is heavy sunshine today. 
Moral : Have a handy contact in hand always for every work.

b) There is no wind. Not even the anemometer is rotating. If this continues, we may have to use the reserve water. Currently water is available in full at the ground level rain water pit. Strangely, this  water is not soaking inside the mud layers. The bottom is already rock, so water has to escape sideways, but it is not. Therefore good news is we can use it to store for long time. And grow some fish as well.  Bad news is that ground will not get moistened for crops.

Half a tank of water is also available in the cement tank (30x20 feet) that can be filled only by surplus water from wind pump.
Moral : Be careful about water usage even during rainy season.

c) There was a slippage of ball bearing (SKF) on the wind pump. Wind rotor stopped working.  Subbu, had to set it right by climbing the tower top during Diwali when it was also raining. It required two more people to hold the Rod assembly, slowly rotate the crank and fix it.  The root cause was that these bearings are using Allen Key to tighten the screws in place. The engineer who installed the pump did not have all the Allen Keys (Kind of spanner for Allen screws). So he left it half fixed which has slipped during its up and down motion. I asked Subbu to purchase a set of screw drivers for permanent farm use.
Moral: Have a complete tool kit at every farm.

d) In next few days we will sow the following seeds.
a) Mappillai Samba Seeds
b) Vegetable seeds all in small quantities in a round robin fashion on a raised bed.  Grown mainly to produce seeds.
c) Sweet Potato and Jasmine flower saplings in alternate rows.

e) Subbu suggested we will sow some sweet potato. It seems neighbours are doing it. Let us copy the same. Then within these plots, jasmine saplings which are purchased will be planted as inter crop in raised beds.  I am of the opinion we need to mix as much as possible, so that we avoid mono cropping even at small level and invite various diseases.
Moral:  Copy and Improve the neighbourhood.

f) After a long wait and lot of discussion, I told Subbu to drop the plan of going to Parasalla to purchase coconut saplings or purchase from nearby Valliyoor who is not committed. We will stick to Ramji Nursary in Nagarcoil. We have experience with them. The gardners over there are friendly. We need to pickup 30 coconut and all different tree varities.
Moral : Don't attempt to buy small quantity from big or small unknown nursery.  Choose good nursery which is flexible and provides quality.

g) We planned to plant trees on the perimeter of our plot also outside wherever possible. Let us use this rainy season and increase greenery.  I have always wanted to start a social movement to make the area green. But that will involve thousands of saplings, and hundreds of hands.   Doing a social movement along with villlagers to plant thousands of trees - is a little far away. Presently let me start small, grow some green and invite more people.
Moral: Do something yourself before expecting social responsibility from others.

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