paddy production - an indicator

in the previous 2 posts - ruin after rain - part 1 and part 2 i had indicated a surge in paddy production.
here is some evidence to back this.
the state govt (parallel to the center (via the food corp of india)) procures paddy for the public distribution via ration shops (PDS), aanganwadis (ICDS), mid-day meal scheme in government schools and the amma canteens.

the surge in production has meant a surge in procurement and thus what you see below.

in this location, the supervisor indicated a total inventory of around 8000 tons of paddy.
from the time of taking these photos additional rows had been added. there is certainly one more such location in the vicinity and may be more in the overall district.
this is apparently a common sight in thanjavur - the main rice growing area of tamilnadu. and the entire crew is from there.
the stacking is highly artistic and the rain protection is superb. each sack is 40 kgs and each stack has 2992 sacks -> each stack has around 120 tons of  paddy. phew...

to answer a common query - this production surge is not likely to see any impact in the price of rice in retail. these economics are beyond us for now!

watermelon - watch ur melon

as briefly touched in previous post, watermelon (WM) has been a money spinner to farmers this year.
one of the obvious reasons has been the relentless heat right from Jan 2016 onwards, keeping the demand high through this year's 3 odd months.

it is also a fact that WM has not been this big a hit since 2011.  so it could just be an one-in-five year blip.

WM growing and economics - circa 2009 - from the TamilNadu Agriculture University (tnau) website, gives a complete breakdown of growing/chemicals used/yields/revenue-expenses-profit calculations.
careful reading of the above, clearly shows the regularity and intensity of use of chemicals over the 65-75 day growing period.
and the costs of these chemicals is approx Rs. 25000 out of a total of Rs 45000.
the farmer misses out on seed cost which is pretty high.
this year farmers in our area have made a profit of around Rs.50000-75000/acre. these kind of figures are impossible with regular-joe crops like grains/millets/oilseeds.

WM growing fields used to be a classic ridge-furrow system with flood-watering in the furrows once a week or so.
since the advent and growing popularity of drip irrigation and plastic sheet mulching, most WM growing is now by this system.
just image search for "watermelon sheet mulch" to get a sense of how WM field looks like.
and the drip irrigation ensures that all the growth-promoting chemicals are delivered right at the root zone of the plant.

this type of mulching lasts for 2 crops (i.e., 5 months) on an average and then is gathered and burnt and the process is repeated the next season.
hence there is a slow but steady influx of plastic particles into the soil.

that the final WM fruit is riddled with multiple chemicals is a undeniable fact. it is also true that the WM farmers barely eat their own output. even the local villagers are now wise to the fact of these WMs ill effects. it is not uncommon to see fields strewn with "off-spec" WM (misshapen, too small, etc.) and no takers for them, not even cattle.

we avoid WM unless we grow them.
readers are advised to be careful, very careful when it comes to eating this fruit.

regular readers may recall - watermelon bonanza from 2011.

ruin after the rain - part II

it was forecast to be a poor farming season early march.

looking at predictions vs actuals:
Pr: "it is only around 90 days since the rains stopped and already the well levels have dropped alarmingly. the lakes/tanks of the area will barely be able to cover one cropping season (till april end or so)."
Act: tanks dried up early april itself. wells were brought into service and those without that facility had to pay for it.

Pr: "paddy crop seems relatively less affected but due to oversupply offtake prices are likely to be depressed for paddy." as if this was not adequate misery, the farm lease rates and the daily agri labour rates had also gone up by 25-50%.

Act: last year paddy price was Rs 1000-925 (max-min) for 80 kgs. this year it was Rs 900-700. in fact as of today, there are no buyers even for rock bottom rates.
had last year's rates held, the farmer would have made Rs 5000/acre profit (best case - maybe 2% of the farmers) but at the prevailing off take prices now the average farmer would have  made a loss of Rs 5000/acre. a farmer who took a nearby 2.5 acre farm on lease took home a loss of 20k for his work from dec to march! makes us wonder why farmers bother to grow paddy at all.
a high level local trader was lamenting that his stock levels was not moving to the next stage (rice mills) and was likely to make serious losses!!

another statement: "in our 6 years, we have never seen pesticide sprays on groundnut crop (no. 1 cash crop of this area). already farmers (with cash) have resorted to 3 sprayings, and everyone at least 1. and this has barely had any effect."
Act: groundnut prices are better than last year. before you rejoice, the yields have dropped dramatically - by almost 50% on an average. and so is the case with pigeon pea, black gram and green gram. almost certainly entirely attributable to the pest attack.
so again the farmer gets rogered.

wait. some farmers did have it good this season. the watermelon growers. it was not just good, it was a bonanza for them. with scorching heat right from early march and no rain in the season, there was no shortage of demand. prices and yields were good throughout. average profits were almost Rs 1 lac/acre. more about this in another post.

net result: the season has been an unmitigated disaster. taking a crop holiday and earning as agri labour would have been the best option.

the ruin after the rain

the deluge in november 2015 and the floods of dec 2015 seem to be a distant memory now.

with this excess water, cropping area nearly tripled and the farming community looked for a prosperous and bountiful farming year.

but alas.....
it is only around 90 days since the rains stopped and already the well levels have dropped alarmingly. the lakes/tanks of the area will barely be able to cover one cropping season (till april end or so).

added to this misery, the pest levels are at astronomical levels. we have lost over 100s tomato/cauliflower/chilly plants, amongst losses of over 25% (estimated) in field crops of legumes/oil seeds.
in our 6 years, we have never seen pesticide sprays on groundnut crop (no. 1 cash crop of this area). already farmers (with cash) have resorted to 3 sprayings, and everyone at least 1. and this has barely had any effect.

paddy crop seems relatively less affected but due to oversupply offtake prices are likely to be depressed for paddy. 

as if this was not adequate misery, the farm lease rates and the daily agri labour rates had also gone up by 25-50%.

but agricultural labour never had it so good. employment was plentiful and labour rates were high. being election year mnrega allocation was in full swing and 'occupied' the time of most agri labour for better part of everyday. with mnrega taking away the 'need' for anyone to work for a living few were willing to work on agri fields. with lesser hands and hours for agri work, labour rates shot up and a lot of argi work (like field prep and de-weeding) were either not done or done very poorly with very stretched few hands.

sight from here is not pretty. pest and grass ridden fields with lone woman here and there fighting a losing battle against weeds and pests.

so in net result, it is scary to think what the farmer will be able to take home for all their efforts from this 'best growing season' of the year.

november rain

around 80 cms of rain over 30 days has metamorphosed the neignbourhood, and really the entire state.
this relentless intensity of steady rain over such a vast area over such a long time has been spellbinding.

but of course, cities are paying the price for their unrestrained construction.

in october, things looked bleak after another year of poor SW monsoon rains (since 2012). everywhere, wells were drying up and indicators were for another year of low scale/marginal level agri operations.

and a month later, there is water EVERYWHERE. this means that paddy will be the only possible crop for the local farmers. no groundnut, pulses, sesame, etc.

we have around 1.5 acres of standing rice crops.
once the rains ease/abate and the correct seasons approach, we shall be able to do more crops over the next 6 months.

2014-15 season update

following a learning-filled  and moderately productive 2013-14 season, the planning for the current season started in july 2014.

as the july-aug SW monsoon was a failure, we undertook paddy planting in  staggered steps. we have planted almost the same varieties as the previous year.
the NE monsoon was a further disappointment. we recorded 35 cms between oct-dec 2014 as against a typical average of 55 cms. this happens to be the third successive year of deficit rainfall. the dry lakes in our area are an indicator of tougher times ahead.
the neighbouring farmers who would have planted their rice by mid oct, could only do so by late nov. and most of them are struggling.
the poor NE rains also meant that the paddy did not take off with the same vigour and insect afflictions were higher. it is said that the oxygen dissolved in the rain water invigorates the crop.

we have  planted around 100 nos mixed varieties of bananas. it is a very low cost crop and if the experiment goes well and we are able to sell without wastage, we could expand acreage in the coming years.

additionally we have groundnut, blackgram, greengram, cow-pea, sesame and mustard growing.

we wish readers a happy new year, pongal and more.

2013-2014 production at TF

2013- 14 agri season - produce data

1. Paddy - 3000 kgs -> 1800 kgs of Rice.
Varieties: Kaivirai Samba, Mappilai Samba, Sura Kuruvai (sample fields - first experimental season) Vaikunta, Thuyamalli and  White Ponni (second season - own seeds).
Average yield - 950-1000 kgs of paddy per acre. Neighbours get around 1600 kgs paddy per acre. We expect that with more experience and better soil recovery, we could bridge the gap.
We have tried the SRI system as well as the conventional system. we are likely to use the latter more often than the former as we are unable to see much benefits.

2. Groundnut - 600 kgs of nuts. Majority converted to oil. Here our yields we comparable to neighbours.

3. Sesame - 50 kgs

4. Blackgram - 120 kgs

5. Greengram - 30 kgs

6. Ragi - 120 kgs

items 1 and 2 have thus far been the main crops for us - a reflection of the fact that it is the main crops in the neighbourhood.

we have extensively used the local workforce. we use tractors/machinery whenever other manual options are not available/feasible.

we have turned in a moderate profit overall.

along with the house building and all that, last season was quite something.

samba wheat experiment

most of you should be familiar with dhalia or broken samba wheat (Emmer or Khapli wheat (Triticum dicoccum) ) that makes great upma. we have had it in the form of kanji (drinkable porridge) in our childhood. it is supposed to have a higher fiber content than normal wheat and a lower glycemic index. we picked up a kilo at nilgiris and was shocked to see the price listed at Rs.100/kg.

so, we thought why not try to grow it ourselves. it is reported to be grown in some parts of tamil nadu but we could not get reliable information on any particular place or season. we got a kg of seeds from a herbal medicine shop in maduranthakam. the friendly shop owner sells whole samba wheat and managed to get seeds from his supplier. sweet!


















this is our lucky ragi field which as been under mulch from last year. you can see the dried ragi stalks + weeds over grown. we sickled a part of the field to the ground.
















then broadcasted the seeds and covered them with a thin layer of mulch.

Ragi - take 3 - bumper produce

yes, ragi t3 has beaten the earlier record produce.

take 3 was planted adopting the SRI methodology.
we raised the nursery in early july and transplanted the saplings when they were 10-11 days old, one sapling at a time, with a spacing of about 8 inches. the saplings were under 2 inches tall looked quite delicate to be transplanted. we noticed the roots were also about 2 inches long.

transplanting younger helps better root development and avoids damage to the root structure while transplanting. the spacing ensures they have enough room to spread. better root growth & spread will translate in better tillering.

well, all of the above worked beautifully. the saplings grew tall and strong. they put out an average of about 10 tillers within a month. we harvested from the top in two phases as we saw more crowns appearing as the earlier crowns had matured.

we got 23kgs in 4 cents and could not contain our excitement. this field has been under mulch for over 18 months now.

ragi mudde has been added to our regular menu.

monsanto - more monstrous than before

monsanto is scary.
the extent to which they will go to dominate world food production, thus annihilating anyone who stands in their path is documented beautifully in "the world according to monsanto".

read the review here and watch the video here.

monsanto's all pervasiveness in our lives is highlighted in april davila's daring 'month without monsanto'.

ananthoo and his friends are on a Monsanto-Quit India campaign.

aadi - mega planting bash

this is THE month.
the tamil month of Aadi. mid july to mid august. the saying goes 'aadi pattam, theydi vithai' - in the season of aadi, just plant anything.

we had chosen the well at the place of future 'acre-sized' farming. and in that location, we had cleared up around 1/3rd of an acre (approx).
we got it ploughed and ready. this was in addition to the other fields that we have used earlier for groundnuts, ragi, varagu, etc.

here is the list.
1. foxtail millet - thinai (2 varieties - yellow and red)
2. pearl millet - kambu (bajra) - 2 varieties (hybrid and native)
3. sorghum - chozham (jowar) - 2 varieties - white and red
4. rice - 2 native varieties - wadan samba and maduvu muzhangi
5. little millet - samai
6. ragi
7. kodo millet - varagu 
8. groundnut

and they were interplanted with
9. cow pea - karamani
10. toor dal - tuvarai
11. gongura - pulicha keerai
12. horse gram - kollu

totally rain-fed only.
like a charm it rained 2 days and 10 days (yesterday) after planting. one more in the next 20 days should be enough to take it through. 

and tons of veggie varieties too.
and trees are still waiting for their turn. gotta go.

ragi - take 3

our obsessive affection towards ragi must be quite apparent to the regulars.
1. ragi - take 1 was planted in april 2010 and harvested in sept/oct 2010. it was a long duration, tall variety from karnataka.
2. ragi - take 2 was planted in jan 2010 and harvested in april 2010. it was a short duration (kulla kar - short variety) sourced from the local village.
both were transplanted in the field which has not been ploughed since we came here in jan 2010 and has been under constant mulch/cover since then.

time for take 3. and quite different from the previous takes.
using the kulla kar short variety, the chosen method was SRI - sytem of rice intensification. for us it was system of ragi intensification.
the concept is simple and has been shown to deliver good results for rice as well as ragi.
the 3 key elements were:
1. transplant young. we did it on the 10th and 11th day.
2. wide spacing. we spaced the saplings at over 8 inches.
3. single sapling only.
these elements allow a high level of tillering and hence a high output for lesser input.

with help from ananthu, sumathi and veda, we completed the transplanting in pretty quick time.
and just as we completed transplanting, it rained.
very nice.

groundnut harvest

from our effort last year with the groundnut harvest with the neighbours, we were inspired to grow our own.
and late december 2010, we planted around 1500 sq feet. it is a 100+ days crop and requires a decent amount of watering (moisture especially is very critical during the nut development stage) and a couple of de-weeding efforts to ensure that the root space is free from encroachment.
after 100 days, the field is ready for harvest.

a closer look at the plant. it is said that when the leaves acquire black spots, it is ready for harvest.
we just pulled out a couple toward the end of  the 100 days to verify.

the field will need to be deeply watered on the previous evening to allow easy pull out.

unlike last time, we resorted to manually plucking method to remove the nuts from the roots.

the nut loot was around 17 kgs. and just the nuts will be 10 kgs.

spread out for drying for at least 4 days and then it is ready for storage.

overall the yield was much lower than than our neighbours.
our yield was 445 kgs per acre.
neighbouring yields this year are around 720 kgs per acre.
expected normal standard yields are around 1050 kgs per acre.
market rate is Rs 38/kg.

our nuts tasted sweeter and looked healthier than those of our next-field neighbours. but that could just be our bias...!
plan to convert most of the nuts to cooking oil.

p.s. - we also harvested around 4 kgs of sesame this year, up from 3 kgs of last year.
and much less ado than the previous time. but the quality of last year was better.

rice 2 - finis

expt no. 2, which was proceeding reasonably well as per this update, has been terminated with nil output.
rats got whatever little was growing and as we waited for the grains to form and dry in the stalk, we noticed them 'disappearing'.
it was also an issue of low fertility of the soil .

so we will wait till july-aug 2011 for the next experiment to kick off.

rice in pond - washed out

our first rice experiment....the sequence is as below:
planting
submersion
recovery and growth

almost through the entire length of oct, nov and dec, the pond has around 3 feet of standing water, i.e., the rice stalks were submerged continuously for this period.
during this time, their height was good enough and the stalks strong enough to keep their heads dry and above water.
as the water receded, the stalks started drooping and the heads were all in the slush.


we think we have a decent sense of what went wrong.
so the first rice attempt has been closed on the same note as the varagu.
rice is our current staple and varagu was planned to be our new staple.

varagu - down and out

we planted in early august and saw it do decent upto a couple of months later.
but since december, we were quite in doubt over it.
one - there was a certain lack of height and colour in the stalk.
two - very few stalks had let out the grain crowns.

so, we have as of today,cleared the field entirely after bidding a quick good bye.

it left us with some questions to answer.

so, there was a lack of something which caused this debacle.
it was certainly not water (though one hypothesis could be excess water!!).
the seeds could have been poor quality, but this is a low factor as the early stages showed promise.
so, we are hypothesising that it was a lack of fertility in the soil.
this assumes greater chances as even the weed growth in the field was sporadic to low.

to continue the flow, we covered the field with manure and ploughed it and plan to try our regular and classic january crop - yellu/sesame/til.
and we will not be able to follow any of the 5 improvements planned from last year as we have changed the field :-)
so much for advance planning...

and dear readers - happy new year and all that.

scaling up grains

you may have seen our plans on scaling up vegetables.
it came about as a sidelight to our planning on expanding our grains production.
with a few experiments under our belts with ragi, rice, varagu, tenai...we were ready for more.

a 100 ft by 100 ft plot was cleared up (by hand) and ploughed once in october.
the initial idea was to cover this area up with green manure crops and let them provide cover and nutrition and we would plant grain for the 2011 adi pattam (july-aug).
but while ploughing, we realised that this plot seemed to have some fertility.
topographically, the area we selected was towards the eastern side of pR which was the downward end of the slope. so it could have been at the receiving end of the runoff from the western sides and hence the fertile look.
see this map for a visual depiction of the above paragraph. we are talking here about the parrot green part.


note - we have modified our tree planting to a north-south pattern between the swales as against the blocks mentioned in the map.

so realsing that we could use the inherent fertility for a early shot at scaling up, we went ahead with a combination plan.
1. half of this field was sown with pachai payir/green gram/moong. this was the correct season and with the current market rates, it was a no-brainer.
2. quarter of the field was sown with kambu/horsegram/bajra.
3. the final quarter was with karamani/cowpea/chowli beans.
items 2 and 3, could give us some output, or could just remain as ground cover.
4. to respect the original thought of green manuring this plot, we have planted tuvarai/pigeon pea/toor and velvet beans along the edges, cholam/sorghum/jowar along with the cowpea and sanapai/sunnhemp in 2 rows in the moong plot.

i forgot...this plot will not be irrigated.
we expect the soil to have enough moisture from all the rains to provide the crops with their requirements.
well, lets see :-)

tamilnadu farmers - disturbing trend

sainath comes hammer and tongs at many establishments in his latest salvo - "of luxury cars and lowly tractors."

the data point that concerns me is reflected in the title:

Tamil Nadu showed the biggest increase of all States, going from 512 in 2008 to 1060 in 2009. Karnataka clocked in second with a rise of 545. And Andhra Pradesh saw the third biggest rise — 309 more than in 2008.

this is not to be interpreted as a parochial view, but from a social angle, the southern states have been at the forefront and these trends are indicative of a deeper malaise, which is, as the final statement in the article - “The latest data show us that the agrarian crisis has not relented, not gone away.” The policies driving it have also not gone away."

at a recent public meeting/press conference in chennai, a well-known educationist and social scientist mentioned that there is a high level conspiracy to get the small/medium farmer out of farming and allow the big companies to take over their land and hence dominate food production/supply.
considering our good friends - MMS, PC and MSA leading from the front - it is very likely.

sorghum - chozham - jowar

continuing the millet series with jowar, the most popular millet after ragi.
in the karnataka/maharashtra regions, it is staple diet.

jowar rotis are served as fancy fare in upmarket region restaurants, but it is the source of survival for the dry-land farmers in interior deccan regions.

it is certainly the prettiest of all the millets :-)
the grain head is the largest among the millet family. and is almost a piece of art.

here is a close up of the variety we have sowed. we used it as an intercrop (with not great results) with varagu.
mesmerised by the beauty of the grain head, the locals call it 'alangara chozham' - ornamental sorghum.

there are other varieties with a much denser head. notice in this pic.

it is also called 'Great Millet'.

now you know why.

compost piles - update

we made our compost piles in early june 2010.
now we in end oct 2010. over 4.5 months of composting.
during this time, we had good rains (at least 20 days of rain).

we did check the piles over the interim and could feel the warmth that accompanies decomposition.
also we were in no hurry to use the compost, and so we let it continue to mature.

last week, we got our shovels out and emptied out half of a pile onto our new rice field and our vegetable beds and the mango trees.

the pile was nearly 4 feet when created. over four months, it has sunk to less than 1 feet.
so a total compost volume generated of 30 cu feet per pile X 2 piles = 60 cu ft.
320 cu ft -> 60 cu ft

smells lovely, feels moist and crumbly.
looks like we added a little more soil than required during the layering.
you can almost see the soil (last pic).






if you compare the pics from the june to oct, you will not fail to notice the intense vegetative growth surrounding the piles.