Ajay-farm

Location

Near Nelamangala. 3.5 acres.
1 hr from sahakAra-nagara.
As of 2023, surrounded by city folks’ farm houses and investment lands.
Animals - rats, snakes, peacocks, mongooses, rabbits, dogs, cheetahs, cows.

Farming

Layout & Trees

• Divided into two 1 acre plots + 1.5 acre strip. Terraced. Plants with strong roots planted at borders.(=which??).
• Farm boundary has a wire fence. Some tall trees (some of which won’t branch out into neighbor lands) are planted. Include - teak, jack-fruit.
• In the 1 acre plots, crops are grown.
• In the 1.5 acre strip - farm house, fruits, greens, some flower trees, (prospective as of 2023) ayurvedic trees. The trees are separated into 8 feet rows.
• Each crop plot is a grid of squares marked by coconut trees 32 feet apart. Each such square has 8 ft wide strips with arecanut trees, interspersed with banana trees.
• Subhash’s Palekar’s 5-layer model is used.
  • There are many more things you can grow (ginger/turmeric) as the bottom-most layer. Cinnamon at the centre of 4 coconut trees. Etc..

Crop rotation

In each 8 foot strip, cattle fodder (maize) is grown, alternated with nava-graha pulses (which do nitrogen fixation).

nava-graha pulses - (bengAl gram, wheat, horse gram, green gram, rice, white beans, black sesame, chickpeas, black gram)

Every week, a particular strip is cleared, fertilized with bIjAmRta, tilled and sown (with a hand-pushed power tiller).

Watering

• Water comes from a borewell.
• Drip irrigation with plastic pipes.
• Ground covered with old mulch to impede evaporation, add organics.
• Between tree lines, trenches are dug to avoid (unlikely) water-logging around tree roots, which would kill the tree.
• Pipes connect various terraces.

Fertilization

jIvAmRta with water, dung, jaggery, flour is sprayed on the ground, to let fungii grow.

Expenditure

• Beyond initial levelling, equipments and new seeds - no external input.
• Laborer paid 12k + 2k expenses monthly as of 2023.

Revenue

Initial

• Banana yield 3500 kgs (from 1 acre) leading to 3.5L revenue in early 2023.

Forecast

• Banana:
  • 6 kg/tree. 550 trees per acre.
  • Rs. 45/kg for Elakki variety
  • this yield is achievable for the first 2-3 years. After the arecanut/coconut grows taller and competition for sunlight becomes a reality, the banana yield could reduce by 50%.
• Arecanut:
  • 1 kg/tree. 550 trees per acre.
  • Price for our variety Channagiri: Rs. 475/kg. Partial yield starts at 4 years.
  • Full yield starts at 8 years.
• Coconut:
  • 120 nuts per tree.
  • 36 per acre. Rs. 20/coconut.
  • Partial yield starts at 4 years.
  • Full yield starts at 8 years.

(There are many more things you can grow (ginger/turmeric) as the bottom-most layer. Cinnamon at the centre of 4 coconut trees. Etc..)

Animal husbandry

• Initially had 5 dogs. 2 were taken by a leopard (identified by paw marks); 1 from a neighboring farm. Since then, dogs are kept inside the cowshed at night.
• There is a cowshed, adjoining the servant quarters.
• 2 Hallikar cows.
  • Artificially inseminated as of 2023. (Tag is inserted at the ear.)
  • When they yield milk, excess is submitted into the diary.

Management

Labor

• Generally 8 hour labor daily is needed.
• Hired locals earlier. Hard to get/ maintain. Abscond for Rural Employment Guarantee jobs.
• Switched to Bengali laborer (+wife and child). Referred to by laborer in neighboring farms.
• Go on a month long vacation every year - but they themselves arrange for substitute labor (their co-ethnic laboring in neighboring farm).

Farm house

• Eco-friendly construction.
  • Architect: https://madeinearth.in
  • Contractor: Kraftek (friends of Ajay)
• Single floor.
• toTTi-mane design - with glass-covered open square space in the middle. There’s also such strips next to some walls - for plants.
• Walls (even stone walls) become damp during heavy rains - but no mold grows due to good ventilation.
• Many RCC slabs jut off walls.

Materials

• Bricks used - brunt with straws, rather than coal. More porous.
• Mud plaster + pigment used for some walls.
• Stone + cement used for some walls.
• 100+ year old windows and doors installed, bought from a warehouse near ambur- remains from demolition.

History

• Purchased in late 2019 for 30L per acre from a distant relative (whose farm remains accross a dirt road, aka brAhmaNara toTa).
• When received, it was barren like the surrounding dirt road.
• It was slanted - so an excavator/ JCB was brought in for levelling into the 3 terrace plots.
• A strip of the land was acquired by Government in 2020, but compensation was not paid as of 2023. They were laying an underground 10ft diameter pipe to pump excess water from Anekal to tippasandra lake (?). At long last they finished the job, and returned the land to the prior owner for cultivation.
• A farm house was built. Construction lasted 1.5 years.