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.

sign of the times

Dec to april every year is the best growing season for this part of the world for apparent reasons – cooler weather and abundant water. Most lands are under cultivation with either paddy or groundnut or more recently water melons. With deficient rainfall over the last couple of years the area under cultivation had dropped.

Over the last six years we have noticed that there has been no addition into the agriculture labour force year on year. Young women from the rural areas are being employed in 'companies' in the SEZs and most young men either become drivers or go into catering. Quite understandably these are preferred over hard labour in the sun on the fields.

This year due to unprecedented rains, 100% of the area has been cropped uniformly post the monsoon thus increasing the requirement for farm labour. MGNREGA also was in full swing in order to fulfill the year's quota before the close of financial year. With relatively easy work and good pay under MGNREGA, more and more labour are choosing not to work in the fields (rightly so for why would anyone labour in the hard sun if not out of necessity). Unfortunately we chose this year to hand harvest our paddy and ended up doing most of the work ourselves due to lack of labour. We had to put in over 6 hours a day at a stretch for over 25 days to complete an acre and a half of paddy. It was a frustrating experience expecting promised labour to show up and continue working alone due to no-show. Tempers ran high and we thought people were delibrately giving our work a miss. But we noticed most fields in the neighbouring areas were being laboured on by lone woman or couple due to lack of helping hands. It pushed people to their edge what with Jan and Feb being quite hot!

This also happens to be the marathon season...

16000 runners – chennai marathon – jan 2016

40000 runners – mumbai marathon – jan 2016

4000 runners – auroville marathon – feb 2016

our village is roughly inbetween chennai and auroville....assuming everyone ran (expended work) for atleast 50 hours over two months including training, thats a whopping 20,000X50 = 10,00,000/5hrs = 200,000 person days - not to include all the gym times people put in. Imagine utlilising this level of energy for agriculture. Cannot see how this is not a win-win!

Wendell Berry's nails it in his essay titled 'Sanitation and the small farm',

“...physical exertion for any useful purpose is looked down upon; it is permissible to work hard for “sport” or “recreation”, but to make any practical use of the body is considered beneath dignity.”

and the man also said..'eating is an agricultural act'!

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.

recommending Raibar - a monthly magazine

SIDH is a wonderful bunch of experimentalists based out of Tehri Garhwal.

they have a monthly magazine called Raibar - a delightful read, for people interested in 'real' stories.

i highly recommend it.

for subsciption, please contact
raibar.sidh AT gmail DOT com
+91 - 9760049414/9767408270

2015 North East monsoon - rain data at farm

expanding on the earlier brief post, here is the rain data in our area since oct 1, 2015.

period                     rain (mm)             cumulative (mm)
oct I week                65                           65
oct IV week              20                           85
nov I week                125                         210
nov II week               310                         520
nov III week              250                        770
nov IV week              270                         1040
nov 30, dec 1           530 (30 hrs)           1570

the last item was replicated in chennai metro area and its hinterlands and caused the massive flooding.

but in our area, there was no flooding, the nearby villages were barely affected, excess water drained in less than 24 hours, power restored in 36 hours and the net access resumed from today morning.


after 4 years of continued dry spell, we watched this cascade with fascination and thirsty eyes.


some images from nov 

zamin endathur big eri (lake) from hill top

zamin endathur sitheri (small lake) from hill top

zamin endathur sitheri (small lake) with hill top in the background

zamin endathur sitheri overflow weir

view from our home (netrambakkam eri)

the topography of the area came alive. fields drained from one to another and streams and canals revealed themselves. water flowed along the least resistant path. our land is upsteam to an eri and we watched the eri fill up with awe and a prayer of thanks. 

runaway rivers of our metros

2005 - mithi river flooding wrecks mumbai

pic: mithi river forced under the airport runway

2015 - adayar river flooding wrecks chennai

pic: adayar river forced under the airport runway

go figure....

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.

can organic farming feed the world?

at a recent meeting, bernard (auroville) part replied to the titular question with: "as if current farming practices are doing that."
in addition to being a clever quip, it exposes the illegitimacy at the question's and the questioner's core.

but here is a full fledged response, by the erudite colin tudge.

in it he answers another recurring question we face - "how will you scale your work?"

Farming designed truly to feed people must be rooted in sound biology. The form, the structure of farms must reflect that of nature. Lots of plants, not many animals. Tremendous intricacy and attention to detail. Such variety and attention to detail requires a great deal of labour. Farming that really works needs to be labour intensive. (emphasis mine)

Climbing down the pyramid!

It was the literacy campaign in 1991 in Taramani that first introduced me to the not so equal world we live in. Strangely, it was not the caste difference, but the class difference that made an impression on me. I came from an “upgraded” lower middle class. Parents came from very poor families but managed some basic education which got them salaried jobs and which moved us into the great indian middle class. They had built a home on one ground of land (2400 sqft) and although we did not have a room each to ourselves it was plenty – 800sqft. The part of Taramani we worked in was an urban slum with 100-200sqft houses on an average. I was young and full of enthusiasm to do “social service” and to “help” the poor illiterates. We worked with the local volunteers (who were 8th-10th level) to set up street level literacy centers for the illiterate adults in the slum. We bonded greatly with the local volunteers. Towards the end of the programme we (couple of 'my class' volunteers + me) decided to take the local volunteers from the slum around a tour of the iit campus as a picnic. They had a great time but their wonderous reactions to the scale of infrastructure at iit left us feeling very guilty at the end of the day. Guilty not because we had better homes and facilities but because it just dawned on us that every one of them can never have such facilities and so, 'What are we really trying to do with all this literacy'? We concluded that lack of good education was the basic problem for all the poverty and better overall education for all was the answer to all problems. We also felt that however many we could educate would be a constructive step towards the answer.

I moved onto a job, but carried the guilt with me. I promised myself to return to more meaningful work at some social sector organisation or NGO soon enough and not be stuck in the corporate world forever. To handle the guilt, I did volunteer in my spare time, joined groups run by similar spare-timers in working for better education for all, visited NGOs that worked full-time in the education sector, hoping to join one of them some day. 

This went on for 10 years and I had the opportunity to interact closely with a couple of NGOs in mumbai who were working with kids from some of the slums. It was the same old story. English education was the designed intervention to get them jobs. The kids passed out and got an opportunity to participate in the modern economy (eg: working in malls/coffee shops/mobile stores/professional caterers). However the process of getting them educated in english increased their aspirations to an extent which their employment could not satisfy. They were taught to dream, made to feel special, taken on many joy rides during their time with the NGO but when they stepped into the real world they did not have the skills to handle the ruthlessness of the modern economy. They grew more frustrated for they continued to inhabit the lowest class in mumbai with the realisation that their dreams may remain just that...dreams. One of the unfortunate fallout of the intervention was that the kids grew disconnected with their families. They never left the NGOs, always lingering around hoping for some miracle that would transform their lives into the ones led by their sponsors! I noticed this pattern of outcomes in rural as well as urban settings in varying degrees. Most of the people who choose to work at NGOs at are more affluent than their beneficiaries and with their sense of guilt they tend to mollycoddle beneficiaries and consequently tend to give them a rose-tinted vision of life. I felt that all this mollycoddling by the the 'NGO-people', is a way of shielding themselves from having to take a hard look at their own lives & choices, after witnessing, stark differentials in privileges between themselves and their beneficiaries. This way of assuaging their guilt blinds them to the basic problem, gives a false impression of reality to the beneficiaries and creates an unhealthy emotional dependence.  And so it became clear that, whatever the NGOs (all of them put together) were doing in the education sector, they were not really making a difference in addressing the basic problem. It seemed like the lot were having a lot of fun and patting their backs swimming against the current but were not going anywhere. 

In the meanwhile the guilt in me was mounting everytime I looked around. But the reason I felt the NGOs were not getting anywhere was because the 'basic problem' was actually different. I realised that lack of basic equality, and not basic education, was at the core of the problem and rampant exploitation of people, resources and nature was fuelling it. Trying to address the core or any other peripheral issues through some activism / organised effort in the current world would honestly just lead to frustration when one sees the connections. It became also clear to me that I was a very willing contributor to the problem and the answer lay within. I saw that the disparity in privileges, incomes and status exists for the current system to work. Also that exploitation is a necessary condition for the current economic order to continue.

The whole exploitation problem has become so institutionalised that it does not seem to be a problem at all to most. People do realise that there is an issue with ecological destruction, loss of livelihood, loss of habitat - diappearing of basic necessities like water/clean air from certain areas thereby forcing people to migrate and accept menial jobs in desparation, loss of bio-diversity etc but seldom connect these to anything to do with their lives and choices at a fundamental level. The actions they take to be sensitive towards the problem tends to be at a very trivial level like refusing a plastic bag in a supermarket while shopping a cart full of stuff when they could do without some of them. Why use a plastic bag when you can wheel out the cart and tip it over into the boot of your car? I felt that the car, the cart full of stuff, the need to shop at a supermarket - all of it needs to be relooked at, not just the plastic bag!

I searched for a life that was least exploitative and it led me to work with my hands and that led me to agriculture.

It has been 5 years since I moved into a lifestyle I am comfortable with. In the context of equality and expoitation, a few things have become clear to me.

• The only way to bridge the inequality and basic human right gap is by people who are over consuming (just using more stuff like gadgets, clothes, luxuries, houses, maids, rooms, land, chauffers, nannys, cars, holidays etc) to consume less.
• Having someone else to do one's personal dirty work, laundry, dishes, cook, clean etc when one is physically capable of doing it oneself is exploitative at the most fundamental level. This presumes that the time of the maid is less valuable than that of her/his employer!
• All work is work. The basic reason to compensate some more than the other is a rule that has been made to keep a constant feed into the exploitative machine. If all work were to be compensated equally, there will be no one to willing to do another's dirty work as they would not need the money! No one does another person's house work out of passion.
• The 'Demand and supply' argument that is used to defend differential compensation is flawed because demand and supply is artificially fixed to keep the differential intact.
• It does not really matter if you contribute to charity, buy organic, give free tutions, pay for your servant's child's education, support fair trade, sport eco-friendly outfit, run for charity and all the rest, as long as you do not do your own work you are exploitative. You honestly do not want a world that does not have people poorer than you for then there will be no one to work for you!
• If you have and use way more stuff, like cars, phones, houses, clothes, gadgets, shoes, land etc, than majority of the people in the world and are not willing to shed some of these voluntarily then don't bother planting trees or have them planted with your money, buying organic, avoiding plastic, work with NGOs to 'empower the poor', working with self help groups, etc for none of these actions can really balance the imbalance you continue to create and maintain through your own lifestyle.

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.

the house story and movement

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

the house story

will expand on the bullet point narrative on our house building trials and errors.

the design is an L shaped structure, 26 feet X 21 feet as the length of the 2 legs. each leg was 11 feet thick. one could imagine a 21 X 11 feet rectangle and 15 X 11 feet rectangle placed to make this L.

1. Location
adjoining the well, there was this massive mound of excavated earth. we partially levelled it in 2013 as a drying platform. we got a 6 feet high 1500 sq ft location.
practically, this location made the best sense.
a. there was a nice corner with around 5-6 neem trees, that's why the L shape
b. it was already 'raised', so we could dispense with raising the house floor.
c. we would not be taking up potentially 'agri' space for a 'non-agri' purpose.
d. the elevated nature of this mound, meant we had a good view of the overall farm as well and had the best wind systems in operation.
the fallouts were:
i) we could not build a stone foundation (we had plenty of stones) as the mound is classified as unstable due to presence of assorted sized boulders buried in while excavation.
ii) hence we would have to go for a steel reinforced plinth foundation.

2. Foundation
as we were optimising item 1 above, we could not repeat same for item 2 - namely foundation. we had to resort to a cement+steel design. we thus ended up with an one foot wide, 9 inches deep and 110 running feet plinth base.  it was completed in two days with just the marking/re-marking of the foundation outlines taking up one day.
note: if we had wanted to build a classic stone foundation + stem wall it would have taken much more time and more money, but much less environmental cost.

3. Walls
we went for a brick and mortar system. the reasons being:
a. easy to implement in terms of time and handling workmen.
b. termite resistance, at least in comparison to mud walls
c. using the rat trap brick laying system to reduce usage and improve thermal insulation. initial attempts to convince the masons to use this system failed. finally we managed to implement it in two walls which did not have windows. even these walls were possible after we put our foot down as the masons are very averse to trying out anything different. after the trial, two of the 3 masons were actually enthu to build with this system and were convinced that the strength was not compromised.

we bought the doors and windows second hand and have used terracotta jaalis for a few windows. we have 15 window/jaalis & 2 doors which take up 15% of the walls space.

 we dung plastered the outer walls and just limewashed the inside walls.

4. Flooring
we laid the floor with terracotta tiles, the same as in the cottage at pR. we got some discard-level ceramic tiles for flooring and actually discarded ceramic wall tiles and used them for the kitchen floor and wall decoration.

5. Roofing
we repeated the system we used for the cottage at pR minus the tar sheet interlay.
and we did elegant bamboo+thatch extension awnings.

6. Costs
we spent around Rs. 550/sq feet i.e 2.2 lacs for a 400sqft built up excluding the awning space. 25% was labour cost. total of 25 working days spread over 50 calendar days.

we are indebted to dv. the confidence to go ahead with this 'on our own' was solely due to the apprenticeship experiences at pR.
also gratitude to major roy, mason rajendran and his building team, periasamy and his thatching team.

reference : we came across the book  the barefoot architect which recommends building thin walls with a lot of ventilation and a sloping roof for hot humid tropics and it is certainly working. 
  

Thursday, July 03, 2014

movement

in early 2012, karpagam's brother was engaged in land search around the area we are located. it was his idea that it could be his spot in the future. k and I had decided that if something 'interesting' should come up, we could jointly buy.

by some fortune, an interesting parcel of land became available within a couple of kms from pR. interesting because it was the opposite of pR - conventionally farmed, terraced plots, almost flat, open well irrigated, free irrigation power from the govt...
in the sense that we now had a place where we could attempt to grow food in sufficient quantities for us, family and a few friends.

the person who introduced us to this land was a trusted friend and he was of the opinion that it would be highly apt for our requirement.
we went ahead and with little more than the standard due diligence, we jointly purchased this land (christened thiyagu farm - TF for short).

from the very outset, we always assumed that we could 'remotely' manage TF from pR itself.
reality check - remote management in agriculture is very draining and we were only 2 kms 'remote'! this is inspite of several factors working in our favour - an excellent water source, a reasonably reliable set of locals providing labour and general oversight, a soil that was not badly damaged.
but without direct presence and direct action, forget about effective implementation of one's plans and ideas.
looking back at our earlier experiences in the corporate sector, it is quite the established fact that even 'paid professionals' fail more often than not to do justice to their work without an appropriate set of people to constantly cheer, steer and motivate them.

over 2 years, in an effort to make good the idea of growing food at TF, we landed into the obvious 'conflict of interest' spot.
our efforts and attention had to be divided between 2 locations and as one would expect, it was not making sense for pR, TF and we were much disoriented and exhausted.

the only option was for all owners to take direct control of their properties, their ideas and desires. however difficult this was going to be, it was the bitter pill that needed to be swallowed and we did just that.

based on these decisions, we have built a small house at TF and relocated around 10 days ago.

• the house is 340 sq ft. 
• the roof is same as the cottage at pR without the tar interlay
• the foundation is reinforced concrete 
• the wall are brick and mortar. we have used the rat trap masonry system for 2 walls
• no cement plastering the walls, outside  plastering with cowdung+clay and  whitewashed interiors
• flooring is terracotta tiles
• we have around 90 sq feet of windows and doors for ventilation.
• costed us Rs 550/sq feet
• the house is sheltered by around 4 young neems.

there are many important reasons (too many to elaborate in this post) why we made some of the above decisions. specific questions could be emailed to sriramskd at gmail dot com.

at TF, we have grown (and will continue) paddy (6 varieties), groundnut, black gram (urad), green gram (moong), sesame (til), finger millet (ragi), pearl millet (bajra) and some assorted veggies.
by Nature's grace, even from our first crop, we have been able to generate marginal profits.

all this hopefully adds up to the idea of 'simple homesteading' - which has been the lifestyle idea right from when we made the key initial transition in 2010.

wishing readers the best and announcing that frequency of blog posts for the coming time will continue as per the 2013-14 rate.

Posted by csm at 1:33 pm 6 comments

Aadi 2012 - agriculture update

we have been recording updates on our activities and observations on paper rather than online as its a lot easier. here is the synopsis for Aadi season...

the summer notwithstanding, we started preparations for the important Aadi season (July-Aug) in right earnest. the earnestness was buoyed by some rains in early july (Our first rain for the year). what was till then a limited agricultural area, just exploded into a large scale (2.5 acre) rainfed attempt. (actually since we had been twiddling our thumbs most of this super hot summer, the first rain unleashed the 'lets scale up beast' in us).

we got the area ploughed using a tractor a couple of times, divided into plots and hired labour to put up varappu (bunds) around the plots - clean and pretty. while all this was being done we were reports on reading deficient rainfall in the SW monsoon, unprecedented dry weather etc in the rest of the country. we still hoped we would get regular showers.
this jump from 0.5 acre to 2.5 acre (1 acre inside our fenced area and 1.5 acre non-fenced) can be simply termed as bravado. without the necessary experience, fertility, soil preparation, it rolled out as an inspired rush job. using two runs of tractor based ploughing solved the soil preparation issue and importing farm yard
manure solved the fertility issue. also we were relying entirely on rain for irrigation and did not have any other option to irrigate.

anyway we bought seeds and waited for the sky to open up and it did. as luck would have it we got 11cm overnight on the 8th of Aug 2012.

here is the list of crops we sowed.

Ragi

Ragi (first attempt in Aug ) in 60 cents. failed - very poor germination and the ones that did, did not survive the long dry spells in between the rains.
Ragi (second attempt in sept). in 25 cents. good germinaiton and received follow up rains. 15 cents inside fenced area survived and is coming up for harvest in about 10 days. 10 cents outside got grazed by cattle.

being our most consumed millet, we wanted to scale up Ragi. our earlier experiments with mulched and SRI Ragi yielded well but cannot be scaled up beyond 5-7 cents. we had to get the broadcasted-rainfed method to work. Ragi is not a common crop around here and the few who grow use transplant-irrigated method. It is not possible to plan for transplanting under rainfed conditions as rains are unpredictable and with no option to irrigate we could just end up with the seedlings maturing in the nursery. Hence the direct sowing.
with no real experience in the neighbourhood on  broadcasting, it was done the way other broadcast based crops like green gram, black gram are done - throw the seeds around and plough the field to cover them. we realised lated that this may not be the best method as it might have sent the seeds too deep.
they did not germinate the first time. we got the farmer to do a very  shallow ploughing the second time and that worked.

Varagu (kodo millet) & other millets. 

sowed in 50 cents - failed - poor germination due to no follow up rain and the ones that did got grazed by cattle. we sowed them in the non-fenced area.

Assorted millets - kudiraivalli (banyard millet) & samai (kodo millet) in 17 cents did not germinate - no follow up rain.

Kambu (Pearl Millet) in about 15 cents, germinated and grew very well but got rain during flowering and ear maturing stage. this spoiled most of the ears. we got about 5kgs of kambu.

Groundnut 

our earlier attempt at irrigated groundnut in Dec-March 2012 season yielded poorly due to insufficient fertility and irrigation. we sowed about 15 kgs of groundnuts in about 25 cents and used the sprinkler for irrigation as our solar based power can only run a quarter hp motor. as the days grew hotter we could not keep up sufficient moisture levels. as field preparation we had just ploughed an area that was under broom grass and thought it might have some fertility for it had never been cutivated over the last 30 years. as it turned out, it had none. the tough broom grass was an indication that nothing else could grow. we got about 15kgs of nuts. about 20% of a decent yield expected for the area. the nuts were of very good quality though and so we milled a part them for oil.

we figured that we are not going to be able to scale up irrigated peanuts with our well-motor combination. and so this time we scaled up rainfed peanuts. sowed 30kgs in 65 cents. (20cents outside and 45cents inside out fenced area). this was another calculated risk. instances of rainfed groundnut are getting scarce in the locality. we sourced local seeds from a village market near gingee and sowed with reasonable precision on timing on the 10th of Aug. they sprouted beautifully and grew well. we had added farm yard manure and organic matter from nearby neem trees and that worked in improving the fertility from last time. however rainfall was deficient and they went through prolonged dry patches with severe heat in september. they also got infected with some pest that was supposed to go away with rain and that rain took too long to come. so the crop did take a beating but turned out ok in the end.  harvest was due end oct - early nov. with strong NE monsoon starting mid october and with Nilam cyclone dumping some 15cm of rain during maturing phase (when the soil is supposed to be dry to aid in maturing) we thought we had lost this one too. but a month of dry-hot spell that followed Nilam helped the crop immensely and we could harvest, dry and bag the nuts to safety before the next rain. we got 5 bags (100kgs of nuts) from 45 cents (the 20cents sowed outside did not do well due to lack of fertility like our earlier crop). the productivity this time was 3 times better than our last irrigated attempt on the same field. we now need not worry about cooking oil for the next two years :-)

we sowed assorted carbonaceous and green manure crop in the rest of the 45 cents & they were ok.

so we got some and lost some. overall good learning from this season. we still need to figure out scaling up of ragi & kambu.

House - update and final part

no, we have not moved into the house we built. the house was built as a back up should the pavilion thatch give away or leak during the monsoons. as we also re-thatched the pavilion last year, it is unlikely to leak for a couple of years now. so the house will remain as a back up accommodation.

in-spite of the steps taken to prevent them, we saw a heavy infestation of termites as soon as the monsoon started last year. they completely took over the walls and flooring. our brand new house suddenly had a haunted look early this year. post NE monsoon we did a complete lime-wash on the walls as an experiment to deter termites. it has worked so far. we have since been maintaining it with regular cow dung dabs on the floor and have installed a kutty fan and a light. this is how it looks now.

the front

mud floor with cow dung dab

mud floor does require regular maintenance and cow dung dabbing is the common practice in the village to keep the floor smooth and to prevent the mud surface from chipping off.  we will not be able to use any wooden furnitures because of termites. otherwise the floor feels very good.

 

 

we also had to put a long awning in the front to prevent the walls from taking a direct rain splash. after much deliberation we decided to put up a keeth pandal ourselves and it was great fun.

skeleton for keeth pandal

we learnt the rope knots from the pavilion

finally done and cost us little over a lakh of rupees.

the summer of these contents!

dec 29th 2011 cyclone thane – 21cm rain in less than 12 hours
june 22nd 2012 – 173 days and counting of no rain since above

this summer has been different for obvious reasons...

- its been hot hot and hotter. we must have had about 30-35 days over 40 deg C between april - june and its still going strong

- we have been indoors - sweating and cooling it off.

- we sowed some summer veggies in march but very few survived the hostile weather. the ones that did survive did not produce much. we see nearby organic farm produce some veggies (okra, cluster bean, bitter gourd etc) in the summer but they seem to have pumped their soil and plants with a high quantity of water and fertility. it will take us a few years to get the soil to a level when we can grow summer veggies with our level of watering.

- last couple of years we had had about 100 mm of rain by this time (apr-jun). this year we are yet to receive even 5mm.

- our standard summer crop, ragi also failed - repeated attempts at raising a nursery never took off as ants took away most of the seeds we broadcasted and rabbits nibbled clean the ones that sprouted. they too were desperate for food in this weather and so we let it be. with no summer showers, we gave up the attempt and decided to take it up again in the next season.

- we lost 4 of the 5 sapota saplings and a few coconuts we had transplanted last year inspite of regular watering . we also lost a few forest trees we got from the forestway. :-( very painful indeed.

- our laptop hard disk got fried in the heat and it took a couple of months to get it replaced.

the brighter side (pun unintended) to all of these has been..

- we scaled up on tubers. 40 yams, 30 tapiocas and 5 vethalavalli kizhangus all growing well.

- our solar cooker has been working overtime giving us more leisure time. In addition to rice, dhal, sundal, sun dried tomatoes we have perfected making kheers and ragi mudde in it. fill it, shut it, forget it (well not entirely, just little tilts of the mirror ever so often)!

- one of our mango trees produced some 20 odd fruits. we let the fruits ripen and fall from the tree and they were delicious. its been exciting to walk around the tree every morning looking for 'today's special' :-)

- we have had tons so sweet papaya this summer.

- with all this free time and nothing much to do on the field we have been reading and re-reading anything in print. Some of the treasures have been
    regenerating the soil by claude bourguignon (a must read classic for all farmers)
    the ecology of commerce by paul hawken
    an agricultural testament by sir albert howard
    collected works of dharampal on panchayat raj, education, science and technology
    rediscovering india by dharampal
    an omnivore's dilemma by michael pollan

- surprisingly, we have been able to take this onslaught of heat and resultant inactivity in our stride.

- with no laptop, we have had blissful two months of no access to current events, popular media, breaking news etc. now that we are connected, we spend far less time on the net. this has been a pleasant and unexpected development. 

what are we doing at pR?

when confronted with this question, some of the common responses we give are:
1. pR is a wasteland restoration initiative/project.
2. an abandoned parcel of land is being restored to Nature.
3. we aim to produce surpluses from a previously uncultivated piece of land.
it is a response that is easy to understand and easy to explain.
and none of the responses fail to elicit the appropriate oohs and aahs.
and over time as we repeat these lines, there is a obvious risk of us getting enamoured by attention and actually starting to believe it!!
affecting the core of who we are and what we do is the way we look at things, human-centrically.

borrowing michael pollan's strategy (used at his famous TED talk - from the plant's eye view - where he examines the world from the corn's viewpoint) and examining this question posed in the title from the point of view of the land.
this parcel of land has obviously existed since the birth of earth several billion years ago.
She has been a witness and a participant in a microcosmic part of the Earth's etire history.
She has been a womb to several creations and a graveyard for several destructions.
(i use the past tense injudiciously, struggling to overcome the pull of human-centricity).
she will continue to create and destroy and continuously modify herself till the sun explodes.
it is She who has welcomed us, we like little children looking for a playground, have stumbled onto Her courtyard.
it is She who is playing the gracious and wise host, promising us a good time.
like tennyson said about the brook, " for men may come and men may go, but i go on forever."

She too would say, "pR is a wasteland restoration project."

new residents

of pR in the wild. this season we are seeing a few natural beehives with a tiny colony of bees.
they have appeared in tulsi plants, grasses and small weeds.

samba wheat experiment - failed

our experiment with samba wheat sprouted and took off quite ok during the first week. it also received constant rains in december and we had reasonably cool weather over dec - mid jan. however the crop did not show vigourous growth after the rains. the test seeds we planted in the nursery grew at a rapid rate but direct sowing did not have the same effect. we will try again earlier in the season this year to see if that works.

tuber january

this new year we got a tuber treat from the farm. after our potato growing fiasco, we planted a few varieties of tubers that are known to grow in the humid tropics. these paid off well.



elephant yam (senai kizhangu in tamil and suran in hindi)

we cut a full grown yam with a sprout into 3-4 pieces in such a way that every piece retains a part of the sprout. we got our initial seed from our friends at green local. we then planted these pieces into a 2x2x2 feet pit with a lot of manure and mulch. we feel we can reduce the pit size to 1x1x1 foot next time. this was planted in late april with the help of one of our friend shankar who was visiting at that time. we watered the pits regularly till the monsoon took over. the plants grew through the year and wilted after the end of NE monsoon. nice pictures of various stages of the plant growth can be seen here. we dug up to find the treasure in jan. each of the pieces had grown into a full yam @3kg/tuber. we plan to replant most of the harvest to scale up for next season. yam stores well over months and is a tasty vegetable to cook.






vethalai valli kizhangu (betel leaves tuber)

we got this tuber from our friends at pebble garden, auroville. this is a vine with a leaf structure similar to betel leaves and hence the name. grows and climbs vigorously onto anything and is quite hardy. we harvested and cooked the tuber. it feels and tastes like a combination of elephant yam and colocaesia yam.
















tapioca (mara valli kizhangu)

sticks of mature plant is planted on a mound in april and watered till rains take over. the plant grows tall and tuber forms below. if the soil is fertile, loose and friable, the tuber branches and grows thick. its very tasty to cook fresh tapioca. we just steam boil with a little salt and have the tuber instead of rice. unfortunately this tuber does not stay beyond a couple of days. so its harvested and cooked fresh. these are also par boiled and sun dried for storage.









all of the above nourished us with over 20kgs of food this jan.