Farm Update in Visuals 04-Jan-2018

The new year is good. Nothing great, nothing worse.  Subbu is doing his best. I am doing mine. Here is the update of farm as it stands now.
Rice is planted now. It is growing. Now today the tilling and bar will be constructed for vegetables. Subbu is determined to put good quantity of vegetable seeds. It is boring now to do anything in small quantity.

For strange reasons unknown, Subbu is refusing any money other than salary. how his is managing wages for work and tilling I know not. Perhaps he has taken as challenge.

Recently at a point of time none of the instruments were working.  We are out of that. But it is important to document that.

a) The new boring pump jammed. The motor is fine, but pump is chocked. It is in Valliyoor workshop.

b) Subbu's standby 5Hp (3phase) pump did not work more than 2 hours. Got chocked too. Seems some mud is there inside borewell due to recent rains.

c) Generator did not start. The belt cut off.  Subbu brought this in Tnly and replaced. Now working fine. In fact farm is now running on generator

d) Windpump was disconnected earlier for painting, never restored yet. Not focusing on that.

e) The mini kerosene pump is not working. I guess it was in peak usage. Recently it was helpful to a marriage party to pump stagnant water from road ( whew,,  Subbu us rotating it to known circle !. I have no comments. We must help people. But they must return with care).

Towards the pond

Sapota tree

Doesnot look healthy. The plant to the left near the fence is one of the oldest batches.
I know not why it is not growing.  

The gate from inside

Paddy growing

Not so fertile patch. This one. Let us wait.

My classic mini water tank. This was the oldest one near the windpump.  Yes the front ones are
red bananas.

Another side of windmill. Look at the stay wire of windmill.

One side of tower. Note there is a peacock dead opposite standing.

This portion was infertile earlier. Now we will know after so much efforts.

Banana growing like a forest along with other plants. I donot want clean shave. Let it be this way.

Farm Update with Visuals 04-Nov-2017

This is water collection and water way leading to the pond. The spot from where
this photo was taken is the bank of the pond. 

There are a myriad of farm activities that are pending.  Subbu is alone and the gravity of work weights on him. There is heavy rain in the farm and adjoining areas. Right time for sowing But we cannot keep inviting labor for everything. It costs a lot of money. Each day per person would be Rs. 300 to 500.

Kandan is sick. He is becoming sick often. Subbu complaints his wife is not cooking properly. That could be true. In a natural farm what else other than insufficient food will be an issue ?  That too for a hard working person ?.    His wife spends on unnecessary things is the main complaint.  This is the trend in villages. They are attracted by things that are shown in TV or consumed by their relatives in cities.   Anyway I asked Subbu to give him a warning.  Kandan had not been regular for several days now.  He also doesnot care to report back if not coming or is trying to be routine.  Therefore Subbu is alone.  The sales activities have stopped. There is rain. The resting room needs the roof replacement.  The knitted coconut leaves that were purchased to replace are kept aside. The skilled artisan has not come.

There is heavy thunder showers and lightning and it is risky to talk over phone.

The more you speak to Subbu and give assignments, the more it creates mess. Saying is easy. Doing is not.  The following are my regular conversation topics with subbu.

a)  Windpump needs attention. In the recent heavy thunder strom, the wind pump rotor had twisted itself at right angles to the tail. This is an emergency safety feature in-built into the wind pump mechanism to save the rotor from rotating very fast in a cyclone.  This has happened when Subbu was away to Tirupati. This need to be put back. I asked Subbu to take this opportunity to build a stair way upto tower and paint the galvanised steel blades and tail with aluminium paint. Also the nuts and bolts to be checked. We were waiting for water to be available so that we can overhaul the windpump. Now that current and electric pumpset is operational, we can lay our hands on windpump.

b)  A permanent structure to be designed to solve the issue of foot valve getting disconnected often when there is frequent change of wind direction. More on this later.... But currently I have asked Subbu to put our old hand pump above the borewell.  I want to disconnect transmission of power from top of wind tower directly to bottom of borewell through rods.  The handpump in between will isolate this. Then we will find a mechanism to move the hand of the handpump up and down using windpump. This is a long pending re-engineering work.  This way I want to use the capacity of foot valve fully.

c) Vegetables are far and few. Not enough. Next month aunty will come and we have to start organic shop. There are no vegetables as of now to promise and commit.  Subbu said he has sowed further more seeds in a specially prepared bed. Yesterday. I am waiting for photos. But even if, the quantity will not be sufficient. It takes many hours to convince Subbu to think big.

Am I really doing Farming ?

Sometimes you start doubting fundamentals. People around you start asking pertinent questions and expect obvious answers.

They ask "What is that you are cultivating?".

Well Yerrr... really nothing, no we are growing onions... in small patch... then some sweet potatoes,... yes we have some fish... No actually we are not focusing on cultivation, we are growing trees, some 40 coconut, may be we need to plant more. actually there is no space ......

One of the issue with Corporate trained morons like us doing agriculture is that we spend more time on infra structure buildup.  We are exited by "projects" on the farm, like digging holes, welding rods or pumping water and blowing money. We cannot connect our investment with output because timelines are large.

You keep pumping resources, you donot get intended results, but you get something else - an eco system gets built around which is self sustaining and reliable. Next time around you stop supply, but it keeps going.. These are not tangible benefits.

It was running in my mind when I called on Subbu, I told him "Let's talk only about cultivation for the next 30 minutes."  He agreed and so we spoke.  It was fruitful.

Am I doing agriculture ?  What is my end result ?

My end result will be to supply continuous variety of vegetables to small vendors who would visit the farm.

Here "continuous" means in succession.  For this we need a proper nursery. Instead of building nursery we are building dining table.

Well Subbu caught what was in my mind and he was quick to pitch in.  After all,  all these years of conversation has worked his mind.

He said he also thought to grow vegetables and started rattling names... Some of which he had already started, but did not convey to me for fear of failure.

a) Chilli plants are growing success after third attempt.  First two were failures. Now it is fine. Subbu advocates growing seeds on a small patch and then transplanting instead of nursery. He doesnot like the nursery concept, because he says it is difficult to grow them in bags and discard them later. (Bugger should have told me long back).  That explains why nursery has not shaped properly inspite of pumping money.  (oh No infra talk now).

He prefers to cover with Palm Leaves for mulching so they protect the seedlings and sprouts from birds

b) Brinjal is also growing well in a patch, waiting for transporting. But now the problem of Water has started. The Farm is getting hotter by the day.  If we re-plant the brinjal with more space, we need more water. (Moreon water later).

c) Jasmine is growing fine. Even the new ones are fine. I can see the satisfaction in Subbu's voice of having accomplished something useful.

d) Ridge Gourd and Snake Guard : Are raised at ground level. I had earlier advocated "pandal". But as per Village practice, they are grown at ground level. It is ok so far the rain doesnot come.

e) Sweet Potato, Some Papaya, Turmeric add to variety.

f) Casurina has grown very tall. They also need water every week.

g) Sapota and Amla shrubs have become more mature into small trees. That is good news.

h). The coconut has escaped attack of the pest. Thanks to a concotion of "Kolinji" and "Thumbai", both common plants whose juice is applied on bore holes of pest in Coconut tree. They are gone.

i) Subbu also named "Kodukkapuli" tree has become big. They are enjoying its fruits... and started laughing.   Employee pride and owner's envy.

Well was satisfied with the agriculture activity that we are attempting...

Farm Update 30-Dec-2015

Tilling:  Entire pieces of land have been tilled with tractor.  The tractor is owned by Subbu's brother. With half cage wheel, they have completed the job.  Half cage means attaching a cage wheel to the tyres so that it can run on marsh soil without getting submerged.

Paddy :  Subbu  and Sumathi (temperory lady staff) have completed planting of Ambi-16 variety of Paddy on remaining patch of land.  He could get around 60 Nos of 24 day old rice saplings in around 24 cents of land. The crop will come to maturity in 90 days.  Though I have reservation in planting anything other than country variety, this time let it go with hybrid. After all we are testing the ground for the first time.

The paddy has been laid with adequate spacing between them in what is called as System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

Vegetables:  Over the tractor tilled soil, the mud bars have been constructed using 3 man power. This is for vegetables.  Presently Sweet potato, Onion, tomato, chilli, brinjal have been planted.  The seeds will sprout in a week.  Apart from this bottle gourd and ridge guard also planned in few quantities.  I am missing the farm now.

Nursary :  We discussed and decided to remove the existing nursary and re-do the same with iron pipes, perhaps little smaller in size.  There will be ceiling at 7 Feet. There will be no side covers. That was causing wind to shake the pandal.  this activity ofcourse can be done after 10 days.

Plantain (Banana) :  Near the wind tower, the banana plants have rooted properly. It requires de-weeding and cleaning.

Sugar Cane:  Has come to market.  Subbu will buy few and try this time.

Vettiver :  The vettiver that survived near the tower has grown very well. They need to be re-planted near the mud pond to arrest soil erosion. That was the original plan.

Coconut : Each of the new coconut saplings in polythene bags (with mud) has cost Rs. 150/- each.  10 of them have been planted.

Some Morning Thoughts on the Farm

Whenever there is a "break" in the "routine", it takes a long time to catch-up with work.  The team in the farm had a picnic last month. But still they have not come to a routine.   We have been waiting for rains for the past 7 months. Now plenty of rain and water is there. But the following is preventing brisk work;

a)  Labor is not available.  All are busy with their own fields or working on some other projects. It is difficult to get farm labors as everyone are doing some activity.

b) There is water logging.  water must drain otherwise it will kill small plants.

c)  Grass/ weeds is growing faster than expected.  Recently we had ploughed a plot of land near the cement tank with tracktor.  But weeds have grown immediatly.  In the words of subbu "They are very happy".  Initially he suggested we re-plough the land. But after seeing the looseness of soil, did not want to spoil that.  Therefore decided to go for manual de-weeding.

d) There is no focus with the staff.   They are attempting to do something which is obvious and easy to do.  I expressed my displeasure to Subbu that work is not happening at all.  Kandan has gone to look after his own farm.  After rain, every day is precious.  But team out there had planned only for planting Onions and sweet potato besides re-planting bananas.  That is not enough for me.

I wanted more and more vegetables to be tried, even in small quantity.  Otherwise we cannot achieve a sustenance level and invite small peddlers, or vendors to sell them.  Growing large quantity of mono crop is a loss if market conditions are poor during harvesting season. But growing small number of many things will definitely help fetch money if not atleast satisfaction.

I told Subbu that we must try all vegetables - Brinjal, Lady's finger, tomato, chillies, onion, pumpkin etc. He said he will buy vegetable seeds in valliyoor and try it out right away.  No waiting for labor. Do it yourself as we have now everything - we have nursary shade, polythene bags,  space, water etc.

Meanwhile the photographs that i asked yesterday is yet to come. I believe the browsing centre was closed yesterday.  today I hope to get them. Meanwhile I advised Subbu to install whatsup in his phone to instantly exchange photos.  Earlier it was not possible. Now I have given my used smart phones. There is also sufficient data coverage in the farm.

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