Hello Friends,
Have spent the last two days at our farms after the unexpected Mullaperiyar interlude. Work is progressing with seedling nurseries and so on but at a lower pace compared to where we were last year. There will be a little discomfort in spending intensive time at the farms till the final verdict is out towards end February and how this would be taken in and taken up by the two parties. I expect it will take till the end of March to build up tempo to the level we were operating at the period prior to this issue.
In the light of this experience and of the last crop season with intensive cultivation of short term crops with precision farming technology; we would like to make certain course corrections which I would outline here for your perusal. With precision farming we could raise good quantities but with a very high input cost and very high use of pesticides for plant protection fighting continuous pest infestation problems. We also invariably ran into lower price realizations when quantity production was brought to market as often the crops from all fields were similar during a particular period leading to a glut. We could not differentiate our produce with others in a marketing sense as our produce also had pesticide residue as did others.
To overcome the situations we have experienced and taking a long term view for development I would like to suggest that we change our direction gradually towards a multiple crops with low input cost and Natural Farming approach which we have been able to fine tune as a result of the continuous study we have been doing for alternate methodologies for growing crops. The reasoning behind this is that with multiple crops grown on each farm the possibilities of hitting glut situations are lower and with low input cost even a lower price realization will not impair profitability. With Natural Produce we have an opportunity to differentiate our produce and possibly take it direct to consumers on a no pesticide or chemical fertilizer Natural Produce platform.
The second course direction change that we would like to bring about is to balance the farm produce with short term, medium term and long term crops so that in the event of any disruption at any time in the future for whatever reason only the short term crop would be effected with medium term and long term crops remaining through to give stability. What is proposed is that twenty five percent of the individual farms be reserved for short term vegetable crops, another twenty five percent be deployed with along term orchard crops with inter cropping of vegetables during the first three to four years while the fruit crops mature. The balance fifty percent will grow an annual crop like bananas but with multiple varieties in the same field instead of the G 9 alone that we do now. Additionally the banana spacing would be altered to grow inter crops also between the banana rows. The fifty percent on which the annual crops are grown can be converted after two seasons either into short term vegetable crops or into long term orchard model depending on our experience and potential returns from these two models.
In essence what is planned is to do 25 % short term vegetables with yields from 90 days of planting, 25 % long term fruit trees which will start yielding only in 3 to 4 years time and 50 % 1 year crops with the one year crops area planned for flexible deployment long term on basis of experience of next two years. All farming would be basis mixed cropping as opposed to mono cropping for better price realizations and on Natural Farming principles for differentiation in the market.
On the marketing front price realization on G 9 bananas which was expected to be at Rs 8 per Kilo level could not be achieved due to a combination of glut from Andhra crops when our first harvest came to market and the disruption referred to when the second and third harvests were taken. On the banana crops we have now we plan to ween them to Natural Farming low input cost model so that we may make a surplus even if the price realization drops to Rs 5 a kilo ie below what we realized on our first crop.
The almost two months forced break was spent personally in Kerala planning the setting up of a sales outlet and the location for the first of these has been finalized. The model is going to be that of a Farmers Market selling only Natural Produce and to achieve regular supplies and full range of vegetables; sourcing arrangements have been done with farms in Kerala also as also captive areas for consistent supplies identified and tied up in both the plains as also high altitudes. The retail location is just off M.G.Road near Woodlands for those familiar with Ernakulam with a target for launch in April by which time we would like our farm produce to be ready from the next round of planting. The produce from the Cumbum Farms will be placed at the outlets with the Cumbum Fresh brand if there is no negative consumer perception on this label come April.
The outlet will retail Naturally grown FRUITS and VEGETABLES only and will be organized on a Farmers Market model where multiple farmers produce can be displayed.
Would like to close this rather long post hoping that the disruptions are now behind us and we can gradually build up our work tempo back to earlier levels by March and that we will be able to overcome the past shortcomings with the new architecture proposed.
Bye till next post.
Rajesh
Have spent the last two days at our farms after the unexpected Mullaperiyar interlude. Work is progressing with seedling nurseries and so on but at a lower pace compared to where we were last year. There will be a little discomfort in spending intensive time at the farms till the final verdict is out towards end February and how this would be taken in and taken up by the two parties. I expect it will take till the end of March to build up tempo to the level we were operating at the period prior to this issue.
In the light of this experience and of the last crop season with intensive cultivation of short term crops with precision farming technology; we would like to make certain course corrections which I would outline here for your perusal. With precision farming we could raise good quantities but with a very high input cost and very high use of pesticides for plant protection fighting continuous pest infestation problems. We also invariably ran into lower price realizations when quantity production was brought to market as often the crops from all fields were similar during a particular period leading to a glut. We could not differentiate our produce with others in a marketing sense as our produce also had pesticide residue as did others.
To overcome the situations we have experienced and taking a long term view for development I would like to suggest that we change our direction gradually towards a multiple crops with low input cost and Natural Farming approach which we have been able to fine tune as a result of the continuous study we have been doing for alternate methodologies for growing crops. The reasoning behind this is that with multiple crops grown on each farm the possibilities of hitting glut situations are lower and with low input cost even a lower price realization will not impair profitability. With Natural Produce we have an opportunity to differentiate our produce and possibly take it direct to consumers on a no pesticide or chemical fertilizer Natural Produce platform.
The second course direction change that we would like to bring about is to balance the farm produce with short term, medium term and long term crops so that in the event of any disruption at any time in the future for whatever reason only the short term crop would be effected with medium term and long term crops remaining through to give stability. What is proposed is that twenty five percent of the individual farms be reserved for short term vegetable crops, another twenty five percent be deployed with along term orchard crops with inter cropping of vegetables during the first three to four years while the fruit crops mature. The balance fifty percent will grow an annual crop like bananas but with multiple varieties in the same field instead of the G 9 alone that we do now. Additionally the banana spacing would be altered to grow inter crops also between the banana rows. The fifty percent on which the annual crops are grown can be converted after two seasons either into short term vegetable crops or into long term orchard model depending on our experience and potential returns from these two models.
In essence what is planned is to do 25 % short term vegetables with yields from 90 days of planting, 25 % long term fruit trees which will start yielding only in 3 to 4 years time and 50 % 1 year crops with the one year crops area planned for flexible deployment long term on basis of experience of next two years. All farming would be basis mixed cropping as opposed to mono cropping for better price realizations and on Natural Farming principles for differentiation in the market.
On the marketing front price realization on G 9 bananas which was expected to be at Rs 8 per Kilo level could not be achieved due to a combination of glut from Andhra crops when our first harvest came to market and the disruption referred to when the second and third harvests were taken. On the banana crops we have now we plan to ween them to Natural Farming low input cost model so that we may make a surplus even if the price realization drops to Rs 5 a kilo ie below what we realized on our first crop.
The almost two months forced break was spent personally in Kerala planning the setting up of a sales outlet and the location for the first of these has been finalized. The model is going to be that of a Farmers Market selling only Natural Produce and to achieve regular supplies and full range of vegetables; sourcing arrangements have been done with farms in Kerala also as also captive areas for consistent supplies identified and tied up in both the plains as also high altitudes. The retail location is just off M.G.Road near Woodlands for those familiar with Ernakulam with a target for launch in April by which time we would like our farm produce to be ready from the next round of planting. The produce from the Cumbum Farms will be placed at the outlets with the Cumbum Fresh brand if there is no negative consumer perception on this label come April.
The outlet will retail Naturally grown FRUITS and VEGETABLES only and will be organized on a Farmers Market model where multiple farmers produce can be displayed.
Would like to close this rather long post hoping that the disruptions are now behind us and we can gradually build up our work tempo back to earlier levels by March and that we will be able to overcome the past shortcomings with the new architecture proposed.
Bye till next post.
Rajesh
