Hello Friends,
Monsoons hit the farms on the twenty first of the month and we completed harvesting the remaining tomatoes and brinjals. The rains come in strong bursts in the afternoons and are very heavy. We now only have our Banana plants in the farm and the vegetable fields will be re planted only in January from a nursery which will be planted in December. Transplanting is done after the seedlings are about thirty to forty days old depending on the vegetable. November and December are cold months and vegetables do not grow well in this area as per local farmers and so we wait for January. We could have tried some cold season vegetables like cabbages and cauliflower but since these are prone to heavy pest infestations we decided we would do this next season after we get a better grip on alternate pest and disease control measures.
Talking of alternative practices we have come across very promising alternatives which we have further explored by visits. Farms following these models are impressive enough to have convinced us to set apart one two acre plot for trying these practices. Farm animals are part and parcel of these forms of farming and so we decided to commission a cattle shed and we have populated this with one indigenous cow to start with;which you can see in the picture below.
For those interested to know more you could check out the video below. Masanobu Fukuoka has written a classic book called the "One Straw Revolution" and he has many followers in India and abroad.
Monsoons hit the farms on the twenty first of the month and we completed harvesting the remaining tomatoes and brinjals. The rains come in strong bursts in the afternoons and are very heavy. We now only have our Banana plants in the farm and the vegetable fields will be re planted only in January from a nursery which will be planted in December. Transplanting is done after the seedlings are about thirty to forty days old depending on the vegetable. November and December are cold months and vegetables do not grow well in this area as per local farmers and so we wait for January. We could have tried some cold season vegetables like cabbages and cauliflower but since these are prone to heavy pest infestations we decided we would do this next season after we get a better grip on alternate pest and disease control measures.
Talking of alternative practices we have come across very promising alternatives which we have further explored by visits. Farms following these models are impressive enough to have convinced us to set apart one two acre plot for trying these practices. Farm animals are part and parcel of these forms of farming and so we decided to commission a cattle shed and we have populated this with one indigenous cow to start with;which you can see in the picture below.
For those interested to know more you could check out the video below. Masanobu Fukuoka has written a classic book called the "One Straw Revolution" and he has many followers in India and abroad.
Indian followers have innovated further and we now have farmers practicing low input farming depending primarily on farm animals, composts and green manure to grow healthier plants which withstand pest and disease attacks better just as a healthy human being is more resistant to diseases and infections they say.
Anyway we intend to try a full range of crops both vegetables, bananas and fruits in the trial two acre plot that we have set apart now for these experiments in alternate farming methodologies.
Here is our brand new cattle shed built in traditional local style and captioned to suit the the farming practice we intend to follow here.
Sustainability of precision farming which is a form of chemical farming is strongly questioned by followers of these Natural Farming methodologies and they say that worldwide there is a trend to move away from Chemical Farming. Anyway November being a light month for farm activities we are going to be spending a lot of time researching alternatives and trying to find the best path to grow healthy marketable crops.
Bye till the next post.
Rajesh
