Farm update 30th June, 2015

1.     Subbu mentioned that the 25 odd Jasmine plants are giving daily around 250 grams of flowers.  But there is no means to take them to market. Presently it is consumed by workers.  Therefore we have decided to now go for 50 more plants so that we can get atleast 1 KG of jasmine daily. That will fetch Rs. 100/- daily income.  Hope so.....   As next step we need to dig large pits using JCB for planting new saplings (which has to be procured ofcourse from a nursary)

2.  Strange and surprise, there are no fishes in the large fish tank.  Finally only 5 KG of fish was harvested which was shared between the families of workers (Subbu, Paramu and two women workers).  what happened to all the fishes is a mystry.  Have they eaten one another.  Subbu says it should have escaped long back when there was rains and we had an outlet that was not closed overnight.  We could not see and count them thereafter as the water is too muddy.

We need to expand the water tank using JCB next week. Now that rainwater harvesting is a success and excess rains are there during rains, we need to now store them properly.  Therefore expanding the pond is the only option.  Will cost some money (Rs. 700/- per hour and Rs. 400/- per day (Driver Bata).)

3. Fertility of soil using cowdung manure is pending. So far only one vehicle load has been purchased. I asked him to go for few more loads. That will be done shortly.  The soil requires manure. Especially where we have harvested banana, the new banana baby plant may require nutrient.

4. The few banana bunches auctioned in Sirumalinji market has fetched Rs. 300, 270 or 250 depending on size.  Not bad. Not bad at all.  This gives encouragement to go for more banana crops in future. But they are water intensive.

5. Currently we have reached zero-sum-game on windmill water.   Daily 3 tanks are getting filled (3000 ltrs) and is getting consumed by existing crop.  No new experiments.

6. The new brinjal, tomato and lady's finger saplings are transplanted between the Red Banana trees.  They need to be watered regularly. Next posting may have photographs of the same.

*****

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), our next destination

These days I am in touch with Facebook and WhatsUP.  I meet many so called farmers who post good things of life. But none of them are practical in their advise when it comes to actual farming.  Most of them are having some other source of income and indulge in all extra activities other than farming. So there is nothing to learn from anyone as of now.

I have dedicated myself to next project - SOLAR THERMAL POWER  (or CSP as it is called Concentrated Solar Power).  I have started few posts in Facebook two weeks back and did not update the same. My next experiments are as follows;

a) Purchase a TV dish and create a solar basket to make a focal point.

b) Create parabolic reflector using sheet and create line of focus. Further experiments to heat tube filled with liquid.

c) A design prototype of how a large parabolic solar concentrator in cylinderical shape to be made to be sent across.

Subbu and Paramu are waiting for my education video which I promised on this subject. I need to educate them on how the whole thing would work.  The idea is that next irrigation should happen through CSP energy. Currently we have reached a zero-sum-game using one windpump. This gives 3000 liters of water and is just enough for current vegetation. I am unable to expand the farm.  We have done all things possible now like replacing 1.25" dia pipe with 1.75",  smoothening the windpump through design improvements, grease,  conservation of water through drip irrigation etc.  But there is definitely a quantity of water required for banana crops which cannot be drawn with current setup.

Then using some of the facebook friends to sponsor, should start fabricating the same.

Have already spoken to Rajkot factory for say 2 HP Steam engine.  That is ready.

I see great potential in this project which is clean, green and no mess.

****

Meanwhile at the farm........

I have been out of action for the past few weeks.  I was shifting my house from X to Y within the Pune City.  Earlier just 3 months back I shifted. But the current house was not good in multiple ways. Therefore one more shift was inevitable. But with experience, this house shift  was smooth. However the normal routine went out of gear.  There is no internet connection as of now at home and it will take a few more days.

Meanwhile at the farm........

Banana at Chirumalanji market for auction

The Bananas are coming for fruitition in small quantities.   Few trees at a time.  We had earlier sold the banana on the farm for Rs. 175 a bunch for a temple festival.  That was 19 numbers.  After that Subbu had sold 10 bunches in a market near the Farm called Chirumalinji market.   This is very much approachable. But this market is control by buyers from Kerala and donot fetch good prices. However luckily we got 300/- per bunch during auction.  That is good news.

Yesterday and Today Kandan and Subbu were busy collecting some more banana bunches to be sent to Chirumalanji market.  It will be given to agents for auction. They will give bill.

Last 2 weeks also saw many visitors to the farm. (separate story on that).  They are attracted to see the windmill in action. The windmill is running fine as of now.  We are getting 3 tanks of water minimum (3000 liters).

The Water scarcity and windpump happy rotating without load

It is becoming increasingly clear that Water is damn essential input for agriculture.  Whatever said and done....  At the end, it is water that decides everything.   It is indeed becoming a challenge to face in this dry land..........

a) Hot air,
b) Bright Sun
c) No Rain
d) Less Water

This is limiting our cultivation and crop diversification every day.   Whenever I call Subbu with 10 Ideas, I drop down atleast 8 of them by the time we finish our conversation.   We only speak about water  and hang up.

Recently there was no wind for many days. When the wind started (This is the monsoon season), it is flying at erratic directions.  The wind pump started working very fast in the beginning, but suddenly due to rotational movement (sideways in a swival)  of the Rotor assembly,  the  connected assembly rods tends to dislocate itself.  This is not supposed to happen.  The team had applied grease to remove rust etc at the neck.  But 2nd time,  3rd time it has repeated.

Everytime it dislodges, it is a laborious work. To stop the windpump,  lift the assembly and connect it...

The issue is when load is not there, the windpump fan starts rotating very fast. Not even 4 people can catch it and stop.  It has huge power.  We have to wait patiently for the natural wind to die-down.

Subbu was at the farm during middle of night to catch a moment when he can stop the Windpump Propellers to set it right.  That was not to happen. Today morning they tamed the rotor and set the rods properly.  Let us hope and see....

Meanwhile I reported the problem to the ABS company, our friendly engineer Chaitanya.  He has asked for few snaps and said he will study the issue.  At first it looks like the rods are unscrewing itself due to some vibration. .....

Only when there is constant pumping of water that we can expect to expand the crop area.  Presently there is only Banana.  The vegetables are waiting in nursary.

Farm Update 07-June-2015 - Time to build market

Things are just not moving.

This is a dull period with no activity.  Team over there is busy, but no useful work is happening.

a)  There is complete dryness in the climate.  Here and there there are symptoms of rain. But nowhere rain is to be seen, eventhough this is time for Monsoon. Therefore water stock has reached scary levels.  Subbu has borrowed water from neighbourhood well.  He brought new collapsable rubber hose pipe 2 bundles for Rs. 1500/- each.

b) There is no wind either.  In Subbu's words " Zero Watt wind "

c) We screwed up the windpump by replacing 1.25" pipe with 1.75" pipe with greediness to get more water.  But since the time it was replaced, one day of operation showed we are getting less water.  Perhaps it was suspected that Subbu had attached a filter at the end of pump, which might be the cause. Again the entire pipe assembly had to be removed out and the filter removed.

I told him to test in a tub before inserting in to the borewell. They did and found no difference between having filter and not having it.  Anyway took chance and inserted the entire assembly into the borewell without filter.  But since there is no wind for the past 3 days, its working cannot be confirmed.

d) Today there is a workshop in nearby town. I had asked subbu to visit that place.  It is supposed to happen in a Natural Farm called "Nallamuthu Natural Farm and Research Centre, Chidambaram Nagar, Tirunelveli".   It is supposed to be vegetable growing.  I told subbu to participate and increase the network. He is in there today.

e)  Some more bananas have come.  A market survey by Subbu shows that the selling rate is very less in Tirunelveli market.  They donot differentiate between organically grown and otherwise.  We have to compete with inorganic banana.  Hmmm....   The time has come to build some marketing network now.

I need to develop my website and invite customers.

Farm Update 31-May-2015

a) Last week was without any event.  There is heavy sunshine at the farm even today. This is the hottest part of the yea known locally as Agni Nakshatram ("fiery star") or as Kathiri Veyyil, with maximum temperatures around 38–42 °C (100–108 °F). Though there was a prediction that there will be monsoon rain, it is getting delayed by about 10 days.

b) Subbu had to pump water from neighbouring well as usual. There is zero wind for 3 days and hence no production of water from windpump.

c) We wanted to change the 1.25" pipe to 1.75" inch pipe in the boring.  This is to get more water and prevent friction between the central rod and pipe for windmill to operate smoothly and without noise.  That was finally done.  Ordered for TATA pipes @ around Rs.600 per 10 feet. Total length 100 feet. Also purchased a large drum for panjagavya and some accessories.  Alas after replacing the pipe there was no wind to test its working for atlest 3 days. I donot know if today there was wind.

d) The windpump pipes were replaced by own team. The new pully was put to good use. I was told it made the job easy of lifting the pipe assembly which should have weighed 130 KG.  only two ladies could life the assembly while the men replaced the pipes.

e) The nursary has been started with seeds of Brinjal, tomato and one more I donot remember.   A modest 50 polythene bags that was purchased 2 months back had been prepared with mud, cowdung. I heared the seeds have germinated too in about a week.

f) The only target now is to enrich the soil. We have to catchup on what we lost.  The soil is not fertile and we have not cared for;

1) Ordered two tracktor loads of cowdung. That came in about 10 days from neighbourhood. Cost Rs. 2000/-.  This cowdung will be used to prepare panjagavya, gana jeevamrudam, apply on soil directly and the compost pit topping.

2) Considering the demand, I asked subbu to go for more cowdung. I need to confirm tomorrow.

3) "Sanappu" or garlic was planted between the newly laid red banana roots. they have germinated. It will be manually mashed to soil to add enrichment to soil.  We need to repeat this steps.  Though opportunity for spreading multi grains exist, subbu is still not in for that idea.  Sanappu is ok for now.

g) The week ahead should see activity planning for trying one more crop. I want to put groundnut. For want of water, we kept it aside. If monsoon comes, we will go for it. Otherwise we have to run the show.

h) Subbu wanted to harvest the fishs. Enough he said. We need to maintain that tank properly. It is silting with mud.  Now they have to workout how to catch the fishes. Perhaps some fishes will be saved in another tank for future.

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.

My Farm visit experience - May, 2015 - Part 2

A train journey helps you consolidate your thoughts.....

A farm visit would always begin with one thing in mind and end with doing something else. This is akin to visiting a mall where you go to buy something important and end up shopping a bagful of garbage, omitting the main item.

Repairing the Green Shade House was a top priority.  What i saw was that one of the corner supporting pole was seen fallen down and hence the entire tent had collapsed.

Added to that due to recent rains, the raised mud floor had developed pot holes making the floor

Green shade collapsed due to wind / Rain

uneven. Erosion of mud was seen on the periphery. The green shade net was not useful to start a nursery. This is very important for me to plan the future.  Therefore started mending the same with the team.

Doing is not easy as thinking and saying......

It was very hot and bring Sun.  This time we wanted to anchor the poles firmly and  time some cross poles so that structural stability is achieve

A strong foundation for one corner pole

Pole in place. An empty fertiliser
bag was worn like socks under
ground to extend life of pole.

d.  Earlier the poles were standing on their own with very weak links between them.  Luckily we had earlier purchased some extra casurina poles at 500/- per stick.

We did a re-plan.  The roof should be made flat and tight so that it is more laminar without sagging when there is heavy wind.  The edges of net were rolled to strengthen and stretch them to make it tout.  While structure has to be strong, the aesthetics was also achieved by creating even border around.

The ends of the net to be rolled onto the poles and the tied.

or tying the poles, we used rope, nylon ribbon and thin wire as appropriate.  First the skeletal structure was tied with all the available poles. Then the net was spread and tied.

Finally done and ready.  The mud has to be spread properly.

At the end, the job looked neat.  As of today (23.05.2015) the nursary bags are in place and they had been filled with help of women workers.  Brinjal, tomato and chilly seeds have been put 2 to 3 per bag totalling around 100 bags only.  Wanted to see if we can maintain them with available resources.

There is a small gap in the bottom. That can be either covered or left open depending on need. The idea is if there is hot wind we can cover otherwise some amount of wind is necessary for nursary plants.

Once the tent was finished, the climate inside became so pleasant.

This green shade will be my important experimental ground.  Planning to load the space with more plants in coming days....

My Farm visit experience - May, 2015 - Part 1

There are many things that you need to do in parallel when you visit your farm occassionally. I had very little time to spend for myself.

Assorted things for the farm

a) What you envisage to do will never be done.  For example I carried a seed box. That was a collection of different seeds that i collected from road side trees.  It was so irrelevant in front of other issues in the farm that the seed box came back promptly with me.  I did not want to smear the seeds without due attention and focus.

The pully system to be installed

b) Immediate things catch your attention. And each one require long time. Therefore you end up doing things in hurry.  Some of the things that can be done quickly is a) Farm inspection and feedback  b) Motivation, distribution of gifts like T-shirt  c) A bonus if you wish.

c) I paid attention to equip them with more tools. I took Subbu to nearby town exclusively to explore the hadware stores and brought an assorted varity of things for Rs. 4000/- that I felt are needed for the farm.
That includes;
1) Two weed cutters (garden hoe)
2) Three hand forks (one for my mother)
3) A Taparia Screw Driver and a Star one.  Subbu alreay has a Ellenkey set

Excess Rope is secured.  The rope is
knotted at equal spaces for hand grip

4) A heavy duty saw
5) Hack-Saw blade frame
6) A good Wringe
7) 4 Nos of S-Hooks
8) A pully
9) Wire cutter
10) GI Wire of two thickness
11) A plumb line
12) A Hammer
13) Heavy duty cotton Rope

The Pully is in place

d) Climbed the windmill mast and secured the Pully and Rope with help of Kandan and Subbu. This arrangement now can be used to easily lift the Pipe assembly whenever there is repair.

e) Enquired about the pipe rates in hardware shops. Decided to replace the current 1.25 inch pipe with 1.75 inch pipes to get more water (hopefully). This will also allow more headroom for the central rod to push and pull

*********

So Finally Shade Roof to beat the summar

The farm had a shade which fell few months back. Since then after many months of waiting to purchase stone pillars failed, we decided to use scarp iron poles to build a new one.  I left it to Subbu on the design part.  Only this time we wanted to raise the flooring.

This is what I sort of planned many months back and drew
on a piece of paper.

The following material goes into making a large shade roofing.

1. 6 Iron Pipes,  4 of 6 feet and 2 of 12 Feet height costing 45/- Kg of iron totalling Rs. 4500
2. 400 Nos Coconut tree leaves knitted  at 6/- each totalling 2400
3. Skilled Labor for 2 days @ 500 each person total 2 persons = 2000
4. Concrete for iron pillars and preparing the ground = 1000

The roofing is made of knitted dry coconut leafs. flooring is sand on raised pit.  It can host around 10 people comfortably or 15 people sitting.  It has come out little smaller than expected, but is cute and just enough considering many other aspects.  There is one issue, that is soil erosion on the sides. Have no idea how to contain that.  I also may need to arrange some solar lantern and a wire cot or bench.

And this is what achieved.  It is on a raised bed with Sand spread across.
There are bricks lined to decorte and hold the sand.
Originally i planned to spray cowdung. But that is not required now.

The roof inside

Kandan's Dog is the first soul to take rest.  Look at the relaxed posture.
He is enjoying his nap in hot Sun.

And my value addition. -  Hanging a mirror to a pole to groom oneself.

Farm Progress in Visuals April end, 2015

The first yield of Bananas are good.  One bunch was taken home and distributed
after offering to God.  In right time, there is a festival going ON in nanguneri.
There were 19 more that went ripe and was purchased @175/- per bunch for a local
temple festival

Water stagnated immediately after summer rain at April third week. It dried in 2 days.

water drops on Casurina plants. 

Children enjoying in the farm

Finally my home ladies inspecting the farm. There is a sense of approval. I can go ahead with
some more mischief projects like this I hope.  You never know, when the gear will reverse

My friend, farm supervisor Subbu posing with Banana

And Kandan, who grow these from zero.

They are searching for herbs and trying to identify. Many of these names are not known to
kandan and subbu. So it was a test.

The jasmine plant with drip pipe. The first attempt to drip.

Rainwater directed to the pond.

The fish tank is full of water.  Water is muddy. There are many frogs that were visible on the banks.
They jump inside with slight disturbance.  The banks have to be secured with vettiver. That project is a failure
as two people so far have not delivered as promised.

A healthy tree

Newly constructed shade place.  Subbu calls it as perai.
I want to name this later.  More story about this later

For recycling of waste.  Detailed story was covered earlier.
However I am disappointed to see it is not being used properly.
There is scarcity of cowdung. The owners of cow sheds are selling it to
people from kerala. So locally not available.
Panjakavya has virtually stopped. I want to take some drastic steps.

This luxury only during rains. In two days this was dry.

The majestic windpump working with no issues. However there was no wind.
Next month onwards there will plenty of wind.

Some insects are eating all citrus leaves.  Agni astram is not working as leaves are falling
so Team has left it.  I am waiting for some predator insects to develop.
Meanwhile neem would be good solution. Should spray some Neem extract over these.

Atlast our Sastha has got a roof for himself. Brand new roof. Story later......

The farm view from road side. Birds are freely visiting. There is more greenery now.

Kandan with his domastic dog.  He says this is his companion.

Drip pipes are drawn at will.

Unhealthy banana section. This piece of land is not fertile. Earlier I wanted to
plant kolingi and grow green manure. That failed due to lack of water.
Need to do something for this.

This is how the Pods develop in banana.  Note the big ants. They are here to suck the nectre.

Some bird has constructed nest and laid eggs inside banana bunch.

Farm Update 22-April-2015

There had been heavy rain for a day in the farm. today is very sunny as per Subbu.  I asked if we got enough water into "our pond".  He said the pond is full and fishes are not visible. They tried to catch them but with no success.  I told him to drag the net or buy a fishing rod.

Anyway I am happy. The farm must be rejuvenating with different life forms. I am scheduled to visit next week myself.  It must be visual treat.

Meanwhile Subbu is busy building the long pending shade roof for resting.  The earlier one which stood for 4 years had fallen few months back.  From then I have been planning to build a new one. Except for a small room near the gate, there is no shade for workers.

Finally the iron pipes have been purchased from Vailliyoor, a nearby town.  Costing Rs 45 to 60/- per KG of iron depending on thickness, the pipes were purchased with reasonable thickness to withstand weight. They are not new pipes.  To keep costs minimal he had gone for scarp pipes. That is good from environment recycling point.

Earlier we thought of going for stone pillars, but we could not get them as there is police raid going ON for many months in this part.  There is BAN on movement of any vehicle carrying stone, mud or sand.

The following material goes into making a large shade roofing.

6 Iron Pipes,  4 of 6 feet and 2 of 12 Feet height costing 45/- Kg of iron totalling Rs. 4500
400 Nos Coconut tree leaves knitted  at 6/- each totalling 2400
Skilled Labor for 2 days @ 500 each person total 2 persons = 2000
Concrete for iron pillars and preparing the ground = 1000

The entire focus is also put into cleaning the farm devoid of unwanted grass etc.  He has hired two ladies on part time for cutting weeds.   Subbu wants to make sure the farm look more tidy before I come.  I did want to intervene and draw other priorities, as I donot want to disturb the spirit and flow.

*****

Subbu's First fish feast

"Sir, we caught two fishes. I just wanted to check if the fishes are there.  They are 250 grams each"....  Subbu was narrating with much of hesistation, shyness in voice.

I understood, he wanted to eat fish.

I asked straight question.  Subbu, did you eat fish? How was it ?. He would'nt answer out of respect, as I am a vegetarian.

Then I said, don't worry, all fish is for you only. Enjoy every Sunday.

I am surprised the fishes have grown to 200 grams each. There must be hundreds of them in the mud pond which Subbu was safeguarding all these days with bare minimum water. He deserves some fun.

Farm Progress in Visual 09-Apr-2015

Few trees have come to fruition.  This will be ready for harvest in 2 weeks.  

A portion of Farm as it appears from Gate side.  Surprised to see complete change of landscape near the tower because of better care and water.

The water pipes of the windmill are extracted from the borewell and kept outside This week to reach a clog.
This was re-assembled with another pump at the end.

One of the unsent photos of February.  Shows the harvested Sweet Potato. Not bad at all.  They are looking healthy
At that time we fetched a market rate of Rs. 10/- as against going rate of 6/- due to the shining and juicy construct

Sacs of Banana roots just arrived

The healthy Juicy Red-banana roots.  To be sowed today/tomorrow.  It requires some preparation of the soil with 6 array and 12 array tracktor plough to break
the mud and create soil powder 

The 2nd batch of banana trees are growing well. I didnt expect this height.

Custom laid drop pipes by Subbu to cover fence and coconut plants

Another Segment of Drop pipes circling the jasmine plants

The tapping for Drop segments from the underground pipe coming from overhead tank.
Total 3 segments going to three different directions.

Special mention about the layout :  I had an argument with Subbu about why he has laid the pipes in long linear fashion rather than the typical one to many configuration of drop laterals.  He gave a satisfactory answer.  If we split more pipes from a common pipe, the pressure to each will reduce. Since we donot have pressure (But enough volume), he has made a long pipe winding across the farm.  So far as water reaches the last point that is good.   And It does reach.