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.

Hot Summer misery has started already !. Need to dive deep into the issue

It is just April, and already it looks like peak summer.

Subbu had been mentioning that it is too hot over there. Water is very scarce. No wind and hence no production.  Neighborhood ponds have dried. We have to keep the farm going.

One rain would bring some relief.  It did indeed rain yesterday some 7 km away from the farm. Now there are no clouds even. They had purchased water yesterday.

Worse days are ahead.  Hmmm  Let me think......

The overall scene in India is not that great.   All rivers are dry. The sand is being looted by organised crime with help of state for construction.  The water holding capacity of many of the rivers and ponds are Nil. Ponds and lakes are occupied, not maintained or encroached.

There is draught like situation in every state.  In Maharashtra for getting a bucket of water, people stand in long queues. Govt is thinking of getting water in train.  There is riot and 144 in place in few districts.  Same situation in Andhra.  People are migrating to Delhi. Agriculture had been ignored by present government from the beginning.

This summer is not going to be easy !

On the topic of further on expanding the crop variety, Subbu has the following constraints.

a) "Sir, already the heat has started. This year we received heavy rain and all plants got used to ample of water. Now with the absence of that, past one month they are drooping. Let them settle down and get used scarce water. So I am going to 'train' them"

Satellite picture always shows clear sky these days.

b) Windpump is working absolutely fine. It gives plenty of water. However there is no wind for most of the day. (I referred to old anemometer recordings and found March-April are dull days).  But even though there is no wind,  even on windless days we get minimum one drum (1000 liters), thanks to the new foot valve that we changed few months back.  Windpump is working like well oiled machine. (indeed it is well greased)

Because more plants are there now compared to last year there is a demand for water.  But hope we can manage. Only I cannot expand my dream further of adding more varieties.

c) Presently the water that is pumped by windpump is just sufficient for all existing plants. "We feed water in round-robin fashion. We have the burden of sustaining all existing crops, having protected them with hardwork all these days", says Subbu.  He and Kandan had seen them growing from seeds. They know the pain of loosing crops in drought.

c) Casurina is still drinking water even though it has grown into adult tree and even started fruting.  If there is no water applied, the (Crown of) tree is showing its face down. Once a week is mandatory.

d) "Banana needs water too. There are around 200 trees. Let us not waste our money on purchasing Drip tubes. We just pour water from tank every alternate days through hose"

e) Jasmine to be watered. Though they consume less water. So also other plants like Sapota, lemon, guava and tamarind.  They are fed through drip irrigation.

f) Previously excess water was let into fish tank. Now the water is just sufficient.  With Sun soaring water level is coming down in the pond. This is exposing the fishes. A lot of birds (lot of them) are visiting our farm from all around.  Subbu says he cannot even identify the variety. So many of them.  Luck he.  I am missing the farm.  They are coming here for water and to eat fish.

Just an Illustration (Not to scale.)

I told Subbu to eat the fishes. It may be around 500 to 1000 of them. But he said let it be. want to see how big it grows. He wants me to come and see. But I told, just keep 40 and eat the balance. He wouldn't listen to. He has fallen in love with Fish.  He says it is a joy to see the fish playing. We can see them in clear waters.

g) Rice has come for harvesting. he wants to cut through rotovator (machine). I asked why not manually. He said it is better to cut through machine in one show. We have no manpower and it is cheap. Around Rs. 1000/- per hour is the rent. Don't know what is right thing to do. Anyway this time it was a demo for rice growing. Next time I will intervene.

h) For vegetable plots, Subbu advised let us not put Drip. Drip is useful only when space is more between the plants. In the case of Vegetables like brinjal, he is planning just 10 inches between.  So sprinkler is best.  He surprised me by saying that sprinkler is working even with the pressure of overhead tank. It is spraying few feet radius. That is enough. we can shift and manage it to cover all area.

So Sprinkler using gravitational force as planned. No motor. No electricity.  100% natural forces at work.

If this is not sustainable farming what is ?

My Farm visit experience - May, 2015 - Part 3

Banana Under growth.

The biggest issue now is how to make the soil uniformly fertile?  There could be quick answers like remove the top soil, add red soil, add fertilizer, grow green manure and so on.... All of these cost tons of money. With natural farming techniques and available resources doing this is a challenge.

These trees are healthy and near the tower......

Especially when your team has still not quite understood the workings of panjagavya, jeevamrudam or any natural techniques or when the ground facilities donot permit that.

For example when there is no water the staff keep thinking only about it. They dread growing anything like green manure.  When water is occupying your head.......

Panaroma of same Banana Patch all planted 5 months back.
Note the unhealthy growth on the left slowly graduating to healthy one on the right

The above picture shows banana trees planted at the same time.  Some areas have dwarf growth whereas in others there is full growth.  Non availability of biomass in soil could be a reason. But I feel not watering them properly could also be a reason, which Subbu doesnot agree with me.

I have a reason to think so.  Look at the dwarf trees. They are looking healthy. Perhaps because water conditions have improved. Perhaps because of few days of rain that preceded. That means if we had watered it must have grown.  You never know......

Well to improve the soil I advocated atleast twice in the past of sowing multi grain mixture.  It was promptly done and got dried without sprouting in few days. Such is the intensity of heat and dryness. Subbu fears if we plan anything, we need to water them. That (water resource) is scarce. How do you then add fertility to soil.

One idea is to wait till rains and sow the seeds. But the moisture will dry in few days. After that ?

Recently It has been decided we will apply manure prepared else where.  It requires more cowdung.  I have ordered for two tracktor loads of cow dung which is expected in few days. We will prepare liquid panjagavya and solid gana jeevarmidam and apply. Perhaps that will improve.