Farm Update 24-May-2016

Land dispute and resolution:  While the 3.5 acre where we are experimenting with farming is intact with compound and windpump fed irrigation,  there is another 6 acre outside at a distance of 300 meters from the main land.  That piece doesnot have approach road and has been kept for a future expansion.     Few months back  problem came when someone claimed that a piece of that land belongs to him.   We asked for original document and he did show the piece in his document. There are no doubts.

What had happened was earlier when I was purchasing the joint holding, this guy was missed out by my seller. It is common that a each of the members will have small pieces, which when joined will become large. Originally the patriarch of the family would have divided his land among his siblings.   Out of the 6 members who owned by 6 acres, my seller had contacted and compensated only 5.  This guy had turned down the invitation at that time to come for registration office. Now he is claiming he owns his piece.  Whereas my seller should have compensated him, which he failed.

We said "take it".  "Just measure it and take your piece of land. We will fence the remaining land".

The guy wouldn't do it for few weeks. For he has to spend money to invite surveyor. He dont' want to spend money. But he badly needed money.  So we sat and negotiated with him for a settlement.

Now the options is of compensating him and registering his property as mine.  But he was unwilling to spend money for registration either.  It will be 12% of value.  So finally after few months we decided we will pay him and get his signature on stamp paper. His wife, himself and his Son had signed a stamp paper from notary such that he will not seek any more compensation.

All these was done by Subbu only. He has the sufficient knowledge in dealing with land records. Moreover the guy cited above is not so polite and Subbu did not want me to talk to him directly. In villages when someone gets an upper hand, he/she would talk too many things unnecessarily.

Meanwhile the original land is already on my name in Patta records (Government revenue records). Therefore there is no issues of him claiming in future. This settlement was done only on moral grounds.  Villagers generally abide by these.

My visit to farm :  My children are having holidays. I am taking them for a vacation and after few tourist places,  reaching my villages in first week of June.  Will be visiting the farm in person.  I may have just two days in all to meet my mother visit native place and see the farm.

New Borewell : After  many arguments my wife is half convinced on my proposal to go for a new borewell. This will be in addition to what windpump is installed on.  I hope this new borewell will be able to supply more water to complete the irrigation needs of my farm. Presently there is water shortage. With windpump giving between 1000 to 5000 liters of water per day, is not sufficient to start any new crop.

Tentatively decided to put a bore for 300 feet come what may.  The place is also decided approximately through local knowledge.  We expect to bore somewhere near the electricity tower which is diametrically opposite to a large water catchment on the other side of the road. ie., i am expecting ground water on account of the large pond (which will be dry for most part of the year).  Moreover the neighboring well at a distance of 500 meters is also in the same line of sight. that has adequate water.

The new borewell which should cost around 12K  and will be installed with some old diesel slow pump (around 25K) and a compressor. (around 16K).  We need to look for them after boring.  This will be temporary arrangement. My dream is to replace them with Concentrated Solar Energy apparatus which is currently being designed by me (albeit slowly. Because in the balcony of my apartment I cannot make huge noise with my angle grinder and drilling machine).

Unhappy Spouse : Meanwhile my wife continues to be unhappy at the sight of do-nothing farming. I have asked Subbu to till the land to clear of the weeds and make it neat so that when we visit in first week, some useful work can be started.  He is waiting for one wet rain.  It is marketing time for me now.

Survey and Fencing - Part 2

Waiting for the surveyor to come had become an endless wait.  So many execuses everytime i call my broker or farm supervisor. Meanwhile time is running and seasons are changing. I cannot keep endlessly waiting for the sequence of events to happen. The sequence and hence the constraint is as follows;

If you want to do farming, you need fence and fencing require survey to happen.
Survey require all registration to be complete and surveyor to be in place along with VAO. Since this is physical group activity, waiting for everyone's convenience is wasting time.
 

This is how the land looked with top soil with sand and salt.


In order to keep myself busy and the team, i decided to press on levelling the ground, come what may. Removing thorns, levelling and ploughing twice are the targets set for the team.  I am going to do very minimal or nil ploughing subsequenlty in the farm after organic cultivation starts. Therefore i want to complete the activity now and re-kindle the soil.  I also had the curiosity to see what does the bottom soil looks like.  As you can see in the below pictures it is not bad. Strokes are following tractor proves, there is life in soil.

 


JCB pulling down the thorny bushes (Burma weeds)



Having started the activity, the resource was consumed continuously.  Nothing can be stopped. Around 600/- to 800/- per hour for JCB and Bulldoser each and depending on area and complexity they must be run for 2 to 3 days for 8 hours per day.  We also had adventures like JCB bucket failing, the joint getting broken. Spares used to be obtained form nearby town Tirunelveli with downtime of around 3 days.

After all that you get satisfaction to see a vast expense of your land devoid of thorns, bushes and exposing the red earth.



Finally the levelled ground

Then on a fine day, the surveyor and VAO were invited as per their convenience.  This second visit also cost me more, but gave a satisfaction that atleast something is getting completed.  In farming activity, you are so pushed to the corner (like a waiting patient in Govt. Hospital taking the token) sometimes that you start accepting everything as Gods gift.

Farm got surveyed and borders identified.  Now I have to depend on the guy who got the briefing from the surveyor and some of the markings on the ground we had made with pebbles.  If there is any land dispute, that has to be settled on the way.  So far as the guy to the east who created dispute, we thought of giving some buffer zone while fencing.  We can sort out this later. This decision was taken so that we proceed with rest of the activities.

On the north, I asked my guys to leave about 12 Feet distance for any lorry or vehicle to pass through. Even I wanted to have the main gate towards north.  Ahead of my land was alread a plot whose ends were irregular. Moreover my land was being used by villagers as road for long time. Therefore I did not want to block anyone's access to go inside.  Sacrificing 12 feet for a length of around 200 feet made sense.

Next is west.  There is a main road at an elevation (Tank bund). Already there is some buffer space for road widening. Otherwise I have no issues on finding the border.

Finally the south. Here is the catch. I was told there is a worshipping stone in this area. Now to allow it inside or leave it outside is the question. I took a call to leave it outside so that those who workship (Once a year, i believe someone comes to workship the deity) donot disturb farm activity. Presently this consists of few broken stones (Someone attempted to make some pillars ages ago). It could be some demi-God of village or a family deity or even a samathi of a saint. I donot know. I allowed around 25 cents outside and planned to fence not disturbing the spot.  Over a period of time, planning to plant some trees over there.

Otherwise south is full of small land holdings with paddy cultivation going on whenever there is water.

Thus border identification is completed. next to plan for actual fence.