Idea on Market Gardening

The profit or loss in Agriculture depends on many factors. Saplings, Labours, Transportation, Miscellenious and Marketing.

In one of the survey, it is said that only one share from four share is given to farmer and other three shares are consumed by labours, Marketing, Miscellenious, Transportation etc... Sometimes, even loss of investments depending on the climate and other factors.

Have any one heard about Market Gardening:

Market gardens are established within 15-20 km of city to supply fresh vegetables to 

nearby local market. Cropping pattern in a market garden depends on demands of local market. Mostly high value crops, early varieties and varieties or crops which do not stand long distance transport (amaranth, yard long bean, bitter gourd etc.) are grown on an extensive 

manner in market garden. High cost of land and labour is compensated by high price of 

produce, low transport cost and availability of municipal compost. Due to increasing cost and pressure on land near big cities and fast developing transportation facilities, market vegetable gardens in big cities are on verge of extinction.

I came through so many websites for market gardening. while reading it seems good to try. But, in reality i dont have any illusions. For Market Gardening can we have an example. Assume Market Gardening in one acre. Divide one acre into three parts, where one part might hold 100 (1mx10m) raised beds. (i.e) Total 300 beds. This is just assumed. Might vary depending on various factors. Prepare the raised beds. Assume on january 1, If you start to transplant in the first part. Try to select some atleast 10 vegetables like tomato, brinjal, raddish, beans, cucumber, potato, onions, carrot, capsicum, greens like corrainder, palak, sabbaki, spinach any like atleast 10 vegetables and assign beds for vegetables.Nursery operation should be undertaken before 6-10  days. After transplanting the sapling in the first partion, undertake the necessery farm operations for planted beds. After 25 days continue the same operation in partion 2. sameway after 25 days continue the same operation in partition 3. Harvest begins. Enjoy the continuous harvest. After final harvest transplant the saplings or plan accordingly. This is an easy plan for marketing gardening. where you can harvest daily. Reduce Labour expenses. Daily sell your vegetables and fruits in your stall.

Lower expenses, Reduce labour, Managed by one or two people, you can harvest often to get income often are some of the advantages of market gardening.

Try to sell your vegetables in nearby market. Where if you get atleat 100 kg for three days, you can get the income of 1000 rs for three days, if each kg sold for atleast 10 rs. while the continuous harvest begins monthly you can get minimum 10000 rs per month.

If anyone prefers Experts guidance, I would like to refer ANNADANA SOIL AND SEED SAVERS NETWOTK

If you find any mistakes or anything to be added, please feel free to comment.

View our sitemap

Dont forget to like my fb page : www.facebook.com/abcdfarming/

Read More

Decision Making in Agriculture

"Decision Making" is important one and which plays a major role in Agriculture. I like to explain it with an example.

Can we have an example of "Mangalyaan satellite" ?

Here, there will be more than 100 people who discuss about the problems. First they make note of the provlems arised from launching period to the orbitrary position. They will list out what are the problems to be faced during the mission. Problems might exceed more than 200 and sometimes even more depending on the construction of the satellite. After finding what are all the problems to be faced during mission, then every one discuss about how the problems can be solved if arised. They all discuss each problem together and find solution for each problem. So that, they are prepared to face the problem and solve it.

By same the way, we in agriculture need to act like those people. Problems might occur in sowing, transplanting, tilling, fixing, water irrigation, fertigation, harvesting, etc... we need to list all the problems together and find the solutions to each problem so that we are ready to face it and take decision accordingly.

View our sitemap

our facebook page : www.facebook.com/abcdfarming

Read More

Partnering in Agriculture: Check this before going into Partnership

Are you willing to go for a Partnership in Agriculture. There is equal advantages and Disadvantages, when working in sole and in partnership. Here are few suggestions to check before going into Partnership in Agriculture Business.

* Let me come from begining, If two or four people are willing to do Agriculture, They can appoint one Manager, to manage the tasks in Farm.

* Make sure, don't be anxious, things might change which all depends on climate, soil, seeds and from many other sources.

* Partner being a friend, is not a bad idea until both have understanding.

* But, for some reason dont go and ask for a job or partnership volunteerly, with the friend who is already in a partnership business and dont take your own decisions. Because, you dont know what are the things there.  In place of investor, Understand the situations and capabilities to take your decisions.

* Always dont create Illusions, for example: Investor (Dont create Illusions Regarding salary), From Employee side (If we do like this we can get 3 times profit). Dont create illusions like this, because it might happen or could not happen, who knows about the future. This type of Illusions make even a non-greedy person to greedy.

* Just go for a Experienced person who is skilled one, rather than a freshers in Agriculture.

* Need to think of expenses to maintain daily needs.

* It is nice to maintain a dairy on both ends. (Investor and employee)

* If everyone invests equally, it is good for taking decisions. Otherwise priority matters.

* Sometimes, Division of Land according to Investments might help in this type of situations.

* Just write a Constitution (Rules and Regulations) for your farm, just like Indian constitution.

Hahaha :)

* If all the investors are in field, it will be nice. So, there will be no feeling of guilty on both sides.

* If someone has health issues, choose accordingly. Its better not to enter.

* If someone has more commitments, choose accordingly. Better to start solo.

* Investors need to enter into Agriculture, if they have backup for the whole year or atleast for two seasonal crops.

* In Agriculture, Percentage basis of wages will won't work for long term. Which can make to leave.

* All the Investors, need to sit together for discussions and each one need to know what are the things happening in the farm. Before taking any decision by one investor, need to discuss with other investors too Because, everyone have their own ideas.

* Invest if you believe yourself, and be free to do what you want to do.

* And last but not the least, Before investing your Money if you get loss how you are going to mange with it. Need to think over it.

If you any other points to mention, you can write down your comments.

Dont forget to like and share www.facebook.com/abcdfarming/

View our sitemap

Read More

CAN WE WELCOME THEM?

Hi, Good evening to All.

Happy Deepawali to all.
One of my friend started Agricultural trading company in Hosur, TN, India. He is Genuine and works with patience. He is looking for Vegetable and Fruit buyers worldwide. This page might help him. If anyone know genuine buyers, please refer.

Assume if product price is 4 shares, only one share is given to Farmer.

So, to reduce this problems they like to tie-up directly with farmers to  benefit the farmers as well as the clients.

CAN WE WELCOME THEM...?

View our sitemap

 

Read More

Labour Management: How do you Manage with Labours?

Hi Good Afternoon all, Today I Like to post on Labour Management.

Before starting sowing or transplanting, we need to think about Labour Management. Some crops need more labours and for some, minimum labours is enough. No of labours depends on crop yeilds, months of harvest, weeding, crop types etc...

* Before selection of crops know your strength and weekness. (i.e) Assume Tomato crop, It needs more labours in weeding, poles fixing, and harvesting, atleast 10 members. You can manage spraying and tieing up the tomato stems to poles with four or six.

* Whether can you able to manage the labours Time to Time ?. you need to question yourself. Depending on that you need to choose the crop.

* Bringing labours, depends on how much wages you give to them. Here, The wages for women normally between 170 rs to 200 rs with afternoon lunch, but sometimes it exceeds 200 rs depending on the market demands. For men it is normally 350 rs to 400 rs with lunch. Depending on type of work it exceeds. Most men take contract from the landlords for the particular work to complete in prescribed time. Where the wages will be high at this instant, but work will be completed in time.

* In middle, Landlords can get trouble in getting labours. some of the reasons are 1.) Some of them have joined to PM's yojana water source development. 2.) May be some other landlord is giving high wages. 3.) work opputunities in Industries.

* Thus, Few of the Landlords make contract with labours by giving Advance before the commencement of work.

* While the Labours on work, Landlords need to be friendly but not too much and not to ask or discuss yours or their personal issues with the labour, it may rise conflicts or disturb your farming activities.

* If the lunch is provided in time, it might increase the respect towards Landlords.

* Assume If a work is not done by a particular labour, make sure your words will make him/her to work and not hurt.

* So, If you can able to manage all this type of work and have enough investment in your hand, you can go forward.

* If not, we can go for crops where less number of labours needed and sometimes we ourselves can be.

* Crops like Corrainder, Dhantu, lettuce, methi, palak, etc ... are not more than 45 days crop. we can go for it.

* Don't forget to create a time table for your work schedule before cropping.

If anything has missed out here please comment !

I like you to share, If you like it.

Dont forget to like our page www.facebook.com/abcdfarming

View our sitemap

Read More

Must Know: The basic checklists before entering into farming

Hi, everyone. Today I like to post about some checklists everyone should know before entering into Farming. Nowadays, there are so many people having interest in farming and do farming. This post is dedicated to them.

* If you like to lease out land for vegetative cropping for the first time that too without experience, don't go for  more acres of land. Because managing labours, maintaining crops, manuring schedules, Land leveling, fertilizer fertigation, foliar spraying, Marketing and many more will be a tedious process.

* Lease a Land which is nearby to the market.

* Need to have a backup investment for whole one year.

* If you go for lease farm land, try to check everything is available like gate valves, electricity supply, drip pipes and its faults, land measurement so that it will be easy to split for mixed cropping.

* If the land is Fenced, it will be nice. so that you can save time, as you no need to be there everytime to watch out grazing animals coming and spoiling your feilds.

*  Try to do farming in one place rather than multiple places. It will save time and energy. Running from one field to another for some farm operations is a tedious process.

*  Few people in farming always think to acheive big. For them, I like to tell "dont neglect health".

* Try to buy some things before entering into farming Tarpal for shades or collecting harvested vegetables, kurphi (hand hoe), spades, axe, Gadari to dig holes, weighing scale, sacks, twines, seeds, hose, cutting pliers, screw drivers, spanners, etc...

* As you are a starter, dont go for bigger crops. Try crops which are harvested monthly like corrainder, methi, palak, lettuce etc...

* Before cropping try to get advice from experienced people around you.
Regarding sowing, manuring, fertilizers, foliar spray, weeding, harvesting, etc..

* Before cropping, Analyse markets for your crops and have ready buyers before harvesting.

* Prepare a feild map for mixed cropping either by sketching in pencil or you can also try out sketchup 3D software.

* Try out mixed cropping to avoid losses.

* As a starter, try to go for drip irrigation rather than furrow irrigation. As furrow irrigation takes longer time as well as it is a difficult job.

* As far as possible, try to know organic fertilizers and use it to minimize the expenses.

*  Prepare a To do list before cropping and follow it.

* Last but not the least, Marketing and Transportation of veggies not to forget.

If I forget anything here or if you have any queries please comment...! 

- ABCD farming.

View our sitemap

Read More

How to Build your own ram pump?

How to build your own Ram Pump?

Before you can really do much, you've got to go out and buy some stuff. One of those sad facts of many projects. But if you want to build this (and it's a lot of fun to see it work), print out this list and head to the plumbing dept of your hardware store. 

Materials for the Pump

• 1-1/4" valve
• 1-1/4" tee (buy two of these)
• 1-1/4" union
• 1-1/4" brass swing check valve
• 1-1/4" spring check valve
• 3/4" tee
• 3/4" valve
• 3/4" union
• 1-1/4" x 3/4" bushing
• 1/4" pipe cock
• 100 psi gauge
• 3/4" x 6" nipple
• 4" x 1-1/4" bushing
• 4" coupling
• 4" x 24" PR160 PVC pipe
• 4" PVC glue cap
• 3/4" x 1/4" bushing
• Short (4') section of 1-1/4" PVC pipe
• Old Bicycle Innertube

This parts list comes directly from the Clemson website. I recommend you look there for help in identifying what each of the pieces look like, if you're unsure. I'm also not convinced that the 100 PSI gauge, or all of the things that make it possible, are necessary. This will probably drop the price a good bit, and I haven't found a need for it on my pump. The associated pieces are: 100 PSI gauge, 3/4" Tee, 3/4" x 1/4" bushing, the 1/4" pipe cock. Four things not needed. But have them if you like. 

Connections Note Read through the instructable and understand all the pipe-fitting connections that will happen before buying materials. The store may not have exactly what you're looking for, and you may have to improvise. I wound up getting some different parts because my local store didn't have the exact parts I was looking for. This usually appears in the form of not having a threaded fitting, but having a smooth pipe connection, or vice versa. Not a problem, you can figure it out. 

Installation Materials

• Long section of 1-1/4" PVC ("drive pipe", connects pump to water supply)
• Garden Hose (male end threads into 3/4" union, supplies pumped water)
• Bricks, blocks, rocks to prop up and anchor pump
• Shower Drain assembly (must be able to attach to 1-1/4" pipe, for attaching pipe to water supply)

Build Materials and Tools

• PVC Primer (I used Oatey Purple Primer)
• PVC Cement (Oatey again, just what they had)
• Teflon Thread Tape
• Hacksaw
• Measuring Tape
• Clamps
• Pocket Knife
• Lab gloves (keeps the chemicals on the pipe and off your hands)
• Bike Pump (to inflate the innertube)

courtesy 

youtube

View our sitemap

Read More

The Photos which Insisting or bringing enthusiasm for me to become an Enterpeuner

I know there is no relation between this post with the blog but i love to share this as a Enterpeuner.

view more

Read More

Looking for Farmers and Agro Exporters to tie up

I am looking forward to tie up with farmers and Agro exporters. If any exporters and farmers are willing to tie up please comment your contact no and company name. Or call 9444618337

Read More

companion cropping Table

Name	properties	Good companions	Bad companions
Amaranth	Avoids the propagation of diseases or pest	Potatoes, onions, corn and around the garden
Basil	Keep away flies and mosquitoes, enhances the flavor of tomatoes, protect tomato from nematodes	Tomato
Bean	Repels beetles, helps corn and potato growth	Peas, cucumbers, squash, radishes, potatoes, marigold	onions, garlic
Beetroot	Loosen the soil at harvest	onions, garlic	Pole beans
Brinjal	Trap beetle	Beans, peas, thyme, Tomato
Carrot	Secretes a substance that promotes the growth of pea, repels onion fly, makes radish less piquant	Onions, garlic, rosemary, tomatoes, peas	Mint
Corn	After harvesting, the decomposition of corn stalks produce carbon-rich humus, repels cucumber fly	squash, Zucchini, beans, cucumbers, potatoes	Tomatoes
Cucumber	Keep soil humidity and protects from weed	Peas, onions, beans, radishes, lettuce, corn	Potatoes, rosemary, mint (strong spices)
Garlic	Repels insects in general, help growth of beetroot and improves its flavor	carrot, beets, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach	beans, peas
Ladies Finger	Protect pepper from wind and sun damage	All vegetables	Sweet potato, squash
Lettuce	Keeps away from plants slugs. Snails eat your lettuce priority, traps white worm	Radish, peas, tomatoes, squash, Zucchini
Marigold	Control nematodes, keeps aphids, flea beetles, ants away with it smell, helps tomato growth	Potatoes, tomatoes, beans
Mint	Repels flea beetles, ants, aphids	Tomato	Carrot
Onion	Repels carrot fly	carrots, beets, lettuce, radishes	Beans and peas, potatoes
Pea	Green manure	Beans, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, Zucchini, squash, lettuce, brinjal, spinach, mint	Garlic, onions
Pepper and Capsicum	Hot peppers repel aphids	Tomatoes, onions, carrots, basil	Spinach
Potato	Protects beans from Mexican beetle	Beans and peas, marigold, corn	Tomatoes, brinjal, cucumber, squash, Zucchini, spinach
Radish	Loosen the soil at harvest, repels cucumber fly, helps carrot germination	carrots, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, Zucchini, beans, peas, lettuce	Potato
Spinach	Can be used as green manure	lettuce, cucumbers, peas	Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers
Squash	Keep soil humidity and protects from weed	Radish, mint, peas, beans	Potatoes
Tomato	Repels carrot fly, aphids.	Basil, mint, peppers, onions, beans, lettuce	Beetroot, Brinjal, cucumber, spinach, potatoes, corn

courtesy: Annadana Soil and Seed Savers Network

View our sitemap

Read More

Growing different crops irrespective of the land size.

Hard work, dedication and some innovative thinking to make use of available resources for getting maximum benefit are practised by few farmers.

Mr. Poornaand Venkatesh Bhat from Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka is an exception.

A contractor-turned-farmer by choice, he started cultivation in 21 acres but soon had to give it up since his land was bought by the Government to set up a naval base.

He invested the money he received from the Government in 19 acres of barren wasteland.

Through sheer hard work he transformed the barren land in a few years into a big arecanut, nutmeg and pepper based intercrop plantation.

Today almost all leading agricultural scientists and students across the country are visiting his farm to learn more on areacanut, pepper and nutmeg growing techniques.

“His contributions towards plantation crops in general and spices like nutmeg in particular are noteworthy. Majority of nutmeg plants during seedling stage are males though sporadically some female seedlings are also found.

No technique

There is no other way to identify the sex of the nutmeg plant during seedling stage. It takes a minimum of five years after planting to know the gender of the plant.

But Mr. Bhat has succeeded in detecting the sex of the plant at seed stage and he intends to patent this process of sex detection,” says Dr. S.Prabhu Kumar, Zonal Project Director, ICAR, Bangalore.

For nutmeg varieties

He has also identified and developed four varieties of nutmeg and has about 2,500 nutmeg trees in his garden, which is considered to be the world’s largest nutmeg conservatory according to scientists from The Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode.

Each tree in his farm bears about 1,000 fruits a year (from sixth year of planting). One kg of nuts contains about 170 dry fruits along with the hard outer shell and one kg of mace.

The farmer is able to get an income of Rs. 1,600 per kg of mace and Rs. 500 per kg of nuts.

Not stopping with mere selling of the nuts, he has also gone into value addition of the produce. His nutmeg jams and pickles are quite popular in the market since they are rare and tasty.

Many technologies

“This innovative farmer-scientist has developed many technologies in nutmeg like harvesting and separation of fully matured nuts, washing, blanching, drying, storage, processing, grading, storing and value addition. These things are usually done by research and development institutions,” says Dr. Prabhu Kumar.

He is also an expert in arecanut and black pepper cultivation.

He gets double the average yield from both these and is also involved in black pepper processing to manufacture white pepper, which has great demand in the export market.

Till date 6,000 to 7,000 farmers from Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have visited him to learn this process.

His arecanut, pepper, nutmeg , coconut nurseries are popular among farmers. In fact many farmers who have such plantations have bought the seedlings from his nursery. “Before starting nutmeg-arecanut cultivation I grew only turmeric. I was able to a get about 20 tonnes of turmeric from an acre. In fact this was considered quite a feat in the region and I had many visitors to my place after local media reported it,” says Mr. Bhat.

Monthly expense

About 25 workers permanent workers help Mr. Bhat in his daily farm work and his monthly expense for their salaries works out to Rs. 35,000. His annual income from his farm is more than Rs. 80 lakh.

“Even CEOs in some big companies do not get such a big income. He is an example of dedication, innovation and hard work to make the best use of available resource to reap the maximum benefit,” according to Dr PrabhuKumar.

Both his sons — a lawyer and a banker — have left their jobs to help him. He is a good example for those interested to take up farming.

Advice to growers

“Be it one acre or 50 acres never put your entire investment or attention on a single crop. Grow different varieties and plan it in such a way so that once harvesting of one crop is over, harvesting of the other starts. This way a farmer can get some sort of continuous income,” seems to be his advice for other growers.

The farmer has been conferred several awards both by the state and central government for his sterling work.

Mr. Poornanand Venkatesh Bhat can be reached at Shriram Siddhi Estate, At Post Aversa – 581316, Ankola, Uttara Kananda, Karnataka, Phone :08388-292199, email : siddhinath.bhat86@gmail.com, Mobile : 9448066998.


courtesy : THE HINDU

View our sitemap

Read More

subash palekar five layer model

These diagrams will shows the subash palekar 5 layer model

The proof of the above method is given below where he is earning 6 lakhs approx. excluding expenses.

Sri Krishnappa Dasappa Gowda has developed this model in 5 acres . He has divided that 5 acres into equal blocks of 36ft X 36ft . In this video , he explains that , in each block of 36 ft x 36 ft ( which is further divided into four 9ft X 9ft sub-blocks) he is growing around 170 trees , in that he is explaining about the yield he is getting in a 9ft x 9 ft portion of land (one sub-block) . He planted 1 Banana Tree, 4 Arekanut Trees , 4 Black pepper Creepers climbing on Arekanut trees , 2 Coffee Plants , 2 Glirsedia Trees , 2 Venella Creepers climbing on Glirsedia trees & 32 Ginger Plants in each 9ft X 9ft area . He says that the Yield from,
(1) 1 Banana Tree - 10Kg X Rs.20/- = Rs. 200=00
(2) 4 Arecanut Trees - 25Kg x 4Trees x Rs.15/- = Rs.1500=00
(3) 2 Venela creepers+2Glirsedia Trees - 50grms x 2 trees x Rs.3/- = Rs. 300=00
(4) 4 Black Pepper Creepers - 1Kg x 4 x Rs.400/- = Rs.1600=00
(5) 2 Coffee plants - 2Kg x 2 Plants x Rs.80/- = Rs. 320=00
(6) 32 ginger Plants - 0.15kg x 32 x Rs.100/- = (Rs. 480=00) ( This income Rs.480/- is utilized for Expenses)
Total income from 9ft x 9 ft ( Sub- block ) land = Rs.3800 = 00
So , for each 36ft x 36ft block ( 4 Sub-blocks + 1 Coconut tree + 1 Mosambi tree ) the total income is approxmately Rs.18000 = 00.
{ Explanation :- income from each 9ft X 9ft sub-block = Rs.15,200/- , In addition to these blocks he planted 1 Mosambi (citrus) tree and 1 Coconut Tree in each 36ft X 36ft block and the income from them is Rs.2000/- and Rs.1000/- resply . So,the total income from each 36ft X 36ft Block is Rs.18,200/- and rounded off to Rs.18,000/- } .
For 1 acre there are 33 similar blocks like this , So , the total income per acre is Rs.6 Lakhs approx . ( Rs.18,200/- X 33 blocks = Rs.6,00,600/- and rounded off to 6 Lakhs ) .

CONCLUSION : He doesnt have any borewell in his farm and he says that his Land is a double wet land and mostly it is rainfed , canal water is used very rarely during peak summer . Water consumption is 10% of regular farming . He suggests that all the farmers to adopt similar Natural Farming Methods and grow plants & crops suitable for their local climate and reap money. Wish you all the best .

contact no of the farmer krishnappa: 9880587545

view more

His explanation about the subash palekar five layer model video is attached below

View our sitemap

Read More