agriculture tips

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we will see when Crops Design makes sense and when it does not make sense.  We will be using a very simple example for showcasing when Crops Design makes sense. When is Crops Design not necessary? The Crops Design will not be necessary if you go for a mono-crop for the entire farm and hence there is no design requirement (for crops) at all. When is Crops Design necessary? The Crops Design is necessary if you go for a diversified crop activity. Lets take 2 Farms (hypothetical example) each having 10 acres and the crops grown are Teak, Mango, Coconut & Vegetables.  Both the farms has 2.5 acres allocated to the individual crops. Please note that the author does not recommend monoculture design and has taken the example for the sake of simplicity. The 1st Farm has the following design and the crops placement in it are given below. First 2.5 Acres - Teak (followed by) Next 2.5 Acres - Mango (followed b...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we will try to understand the basic requirements of the Farm Design and how to approach the detailed design using the basic requirements. Keeping it very simple, we need to understand the basic requirements of the Farm in the first place and jot them down.  Please note that it is not required that each and every basic requirements needs to be made available immediately.  What we are trying to achieve is to provide the spacing in terms of land parcel and the placing of the requirement in the right place in the farm keeping in mind our overall design. Please note that all the requirements mentioned below may or may not be required for each and every farm except for the Crops. Crops Fences Roads LiveStock Living Quarters Once we have decided on the basic requirements, we can create a detailed design using the basic information as the basis. The following detailed questionnaire will help us to finetune the detailed...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see Ghana Jeevamrutha popularised by Subhash Palekar. Required Ingredients S.No. Ingredient Name Qty in Litres/Kgs 1 Cow Dung 100 Kgs 2 Jaggery 2 Kgs 3 Flour of any Pulse 2 Kgs 4 Soil from same land 1 Handful 5 Cow's Urine As required Note: If Jaggery is not available, use Palm Jaggery. If Jaggery or Palm Jaggery is not available, add 4 Litres of ripened Tender Coconut. Use Greengram or Blackgram or CowPea flour. Living Soil should be used. Method of Preparation Mix the first 4 ingredients well and keep adding Cow's urine as required to get a good solid form. Spread the solid form in a shaded place during the day and allow it to dry well. Method of Storage The manure should be kept in the shade. How long can we store the Manure? The manure can be stored for longer periods. How to use the Manure? The solid manure need to be made into a powdery form before mixing it with FYM. Apply the manure in the ra...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see Jeevamrutha popularised by Subhash Palekar.  The data provided below is for ONE acre only. Required Ingredients S.No. Ingredient Name Qty in Litres/Kgs 1 Water 200 Litres 2 Fresh Cow Dung 10 Kgs 3 Cow's Urine 5-10 Litres 4 Jaggery 2 Kgs 5 Flour of any Pulse 2 Kgs 6 Soil from same land 1 Handful Note: If Jaggery is not available, use Palm Jaggery. If Jaggery or Palm Jaggery is not available, add 4 Litres of ripened Tender Coconut. Use Greengram or Blackgram or CowPea flour. Living Soil should be used. Please note that the stick (neem stick is better or any pole) used for mixing the ingredients should be cleaned before & after the usage so as to avoid maggots formations in the manure. Method of Preparation Mix all of them and keep them in a shaded place for 48 hours. Method of Storage The manure should be kept in the shade and covered with a wire mesh or plastic mosquito net ...