Peahen mother

Couple of days back, laborers were harvesting coconuts and I was helping them to identify trees. In one area there were some logs piled up and I thought spreading them in the free time. I threw them here and there so that they decompose and become part of the soil. When I threw one log to the pureria covered ground, could see one dried coconut near to that. 

I thought of picking it up and moved towards it and as I approached closer, to my surprise it was a peacock sitting with its eggs. She didn't even looked at me and was not scared, normally they fly off when we approach them, in this case I was just few feets away from it. Later laborers came and harvested coconuts and the falling sound also didn't scare her. I didn't take photos so that it is not disturbed again. I could see the real will power of a mother bird, even though I had seen some such incidence in the social media, this was a unique experience to me.

Some tribal agriculture details - Attappadi,Kerala

Recently attended a webinar about tribal agriculture of Attapadi a hilly area in Kerala. This happened on farmer's day and one outstanding farmer called Unnikrishnan was honored in this meeting. Later collected his phone number and talked to him. Thought of sharing some informations collected from him..

He is from tribal community in Attapadi and stays in the same area. He was earlier working in Navy and took retirement to take care of his family and got into full time farming. He grows rice, millets and vegetables. New fallow areas are leased on every year and he does cultivation, idea is to make sure that there are no fallow areas and encourages people to get into farming. Lots of people leave the farm in fallow and take up other works and also depend on government supplied ration and ultimately they become malnourished.

Rice grown is a traditional variety which is used in that locality but there is no name for it. It is a 6 months duration crop and 4kgs sown gives a yield of 300Kgs. It reaches chest height and grows with many tillers. Generally they will be sown sparsely and will be intercropped with sunflower so that there will be less pest attack. Sunflower seed will be used minimally so that they don't interfere with rice.

On the buds, they grow a local variety pumpkin which is a small fruit variety and this makes sure that bunds are weed free.

Millets are cultivated and he says, right now they have 300Kgs of finger millets on stock. Tribal people typically cultivate for their own food, selling is the last choice for them. There are wild animal and birds attack, but they think that they are growing food for them and wild animals and birds. They see it as a good sign, if wild animals come and eat, so that next year they will have a better crop. This is an amazing way of living together with nature.

He asked me to visit them with family so that we can understand it better....

Shade for newly planted saplings

I have planted many fruit tree saplings on this monsoon season. There won't be any irrigation as of now in the farm for them. So planning to grow mexican sunflower cuttings nearby to each saplings. Typically around 2-3 feet away from the saplings and in opposite direction, so that mulching can be still done without much disturbance.

Still have to get more cuttings of mexican sunflower, I can see them growing on road sides, have to cut and take them. If they grow and provide shade, I am thinking saplings will survive the summer.

Mexican sunflower cuttings around Israel fig, already growing

Around sweet orange from Culcutta

4-October-2021

17-November-2021

Fodder grass

My neighbor farm has cows and they grow fodder grasses. Seeing that tall grasses, I enquired the details and it looks like it matures in around 3 months and after that it can be cut in every 2 months. One grass cut would be enough food for a cows for a day. Since it creates so much biomass, thought of growing some on an experimental basis. The neighbour grows super napier grass which is a hybrid variety and I can see some other fodder grasses growing in some parts of the farm, don't know its name. One thing I noticed was that, it decomposes slowly and hence controls weeds effectively.

I got some cuttings from the neighbor farm and planted it here and there. Also got some seeds, and sown them.

Here are some pictures ...around 1 month old...