One farmer who talks about pelleted seeds,cover crops,no-till grain farming with clover etc..

Came across the blog of Eric Koperek who has extensively used pelleted seeds,cover crops and no-till grain with clover. Please see the site, it has wealth of information. Had some email communication with Eric and came to know that he had visited Fukuoka in 1972 and 1980.

https://agriculturesolutions.wordpress.com/

Some interesting information taken randomly from this site...For complete information, refer the above site...

Biological No-Till Small Grains:     Broadcast seed pellets by hand or use a rotary spreader.  Sow pellets directly into standing vegetation so that soil remains undisturbed.  (Broken soil stimulates weed germination).

2 to 4 weeks before harvest sow pelletized seed of second crop into standing vegetation of first crop.  This is necessary to control weeds.

TO CONTROL WEEDS IT IS ESSENTIAL TO KEEP SOIL COVERED WITH GROWING PLANTS AT ALL TIMES = 365 DAYS YEARLY.  USE CLOVERS OR OTHER COVER CROPS TO FILL UP EVERY DAY OF THE GROWING SEASON.  SOIL SHOULD NEVER BE LEFT BARE, NOT EVEN FOR A SINGLE DAY.

Before seeding clover or any other living mulch, remember that two crops are growing on the same land at the same time — the mulch crop and a cash crop.  Success requires careful management or both crops may fail.

Costa Rican Indians grow dry beans by broadcasting seed into the weediest fields available.  The weeds are then hand cut and left as mulch to protect the germinating beans.  Yields are low, only 400 to 500 pounds per acre, but there are no costs other than labor for planting and harvesting.

Direct seeding into standing clover is not recommended unless the clover is knocked back to reduce competition with the primary crop.

Seeding small grains into living mulches works best when:  (1)  The companion crop is dormant or its growth retarded by mowing, grazing, or rolling, and  (2)  The grain crop is selected for a competitive growth habit.  Heirloom (non-dwarf) varieties usually pair well with understory legumes like Dutch white clover.  Alternatively, clover can be broadcast into standing grain that is well established (8 to 12 inches high).  Again, careful timing is essential to prevent the cover crop from overwhelming the cash grain.

The key point to intelligent weed control is to disturb the soil as little as possible, just enough to get a crop into the ground.

Remember that weeds have evolved specifically to rapidly colonize bare soil.  The more soil is tilled, the more weeds are stimulated to grow.  

Down the road I have a wilderness of citrus interspersed with live oaks, Spanish moss, and pangola grass.  It’s an old orchard that is long overdue for rotation, but it still makes me money because I spend almost nothing to maintain the trees.  Every now and then I spread some racetrack manure.  The irrigation system turns itself on and off.  The weeds grow 6 feet high.  Once a year, right before harvest, I mow between the trees — just enough so folks can pick the fruit.  Result:  No bugs on my trees.  Across the hedgerow of old-fashioned hibiscus, my neighbor clean cultivates his orchard and sprays with robotic frequency.  Every spider mite in the district comes to eat his leaves.  Chemical companies use his orchard to test new pesticides.  The mites don’t seem to mind; they eat insecticide like salad dressing.

Across the lane is my pride and joy: A jungle of weeds and melons.  The weeds grow over my head and the melons grow over the weeds.  The trick is to mulch the young melons (or mow the weeds) just until the vines start to run.  After the melons are well established, the crop fends for itself.  Vine crops thrive in the light shade cast by nearby weeds; the best fruits come from the weediest parts of the field.  Insect pests don’t like the broadleaf jungle so I never have to spray vine crops grown in weeds.

Find the weediest field possible.  Broadleaf weeds are best and thistles best of all.  (Thistles indicate fertile soil).  Broadcast seed directly into standing weeds.  (Pelleted seed greatly increases seedling survival, especially for large-seeded crops like peas and beans).  Mow down weeds with a scythe (or use a lot of people with sickles or machetes).  Cut weeds act as mulch for germinating crop.  Pray for rain.  Come back at harvest time and hope for the best.  Yields are low but surprisingly economic (because there are no costs other than seeding and harvest).

Summer - 2016

Summer is hot and temperature is at 40 degree and no summer rain yet. Neighboring district Trichur received good rain and it is still raining from morning there. Open well is almost dried and pond used for irrigation is also in the same state.

Some views...

Earth worm castings...it is there throughout where cows does not graze...

Rice field with horse gram grown after paddy harvest...field is mulched with straw, but does not cover the whole field densily

Papayas stopped yielding...but still there are some fruits left

Only some water is left...5 families collect drinking water from this well.. Some small fishes are there and one king fisher is constantly behind them...

Termites are attacking healthy trees also..but no harm done..

Termites do a good job...

Banana circle...

Tapioca growing on Hugelkulture beds..they survive without any water...

Effect of summer heat..some plants just fall down

Termites

Hugel beds opened up during tapioca harvesting...

It is mango season...

Some more banana circles....

Water does not reach here, no grass seen

Meeting a farmer who cultivates traditional rice varieties

Today met a farmer named M.P.Paul from Ottappalam who cultivates 14 or so traditional rice varieties on 5 acre farm. Now a days since labor cost is increased, he does all the work by himself. He has tractor, planter,tiller etc..all machineries needed for rice cultivation.

Chettiadi variety is grown by him and for the last 3 years, he just ploughs the field and seeds from pervious crop germinates and he gets decent yield, about 1000kgs from 1 acre. He says, the cost of cultivation is minimum for this. It competes with grass well and he does not do any manuring. Maximum tillers of this variety is about 140 and since it grows thick, it does not fall. He started Chettiadi, since one particular area of the farm more stagnant water and other varieties could not tollerate this. Straw is completely returned to the soil.

Some other varieties can be seen in the photos...more about his farming, once I make a visit to his farm.

30-October-2016
Had a brief chat with Paul over phone and one interesting information which he gave was that, after south-west monsoon, we should not cut any grass since it allows to condense water, in the winter time. This is quite a big amount of water which will be useful. According to him, my area is good for many crops including potatoe, beet root etc...

Coconut Harvesting

Coconut prices are going down and may be at rock bottom.In 2011, I had sold at 30 rupees per kg (dehusked and with water), but now private parties take at 15/- per kg. Since price has crashed, goverment takes it at 25 rupees per kg, in an effort to save the farmers.Typically prices goes high in sabarimala festival season since demand for coconut is higher, but this time that also did not happen. Coconut oil prices are at 120 per litre, it is not that low, so why is that price for coconut has fallen? Price of all commodities and labour charges have increased drastically in the last 5 years, but the price of agriculture produce, goes down !!!!

Earlier I used to sell it to private parties, which involves no work from my side. They come harvest, dehusk, weigh and takes it.But since price they offer is very low decided to sell it to government procurement center. This involved some paper work and got it done quickly, but they said waiting period is 1 month, waited close to 2 months. 

Got one person to pluck the coconuts and then they are supposed to gather it at one place. Two ladies came for gathering and they complained of thorns and farm ground is not clean and they are scared of snakes and they just went away. I had to get my worker's family for gathering and they are not experienced in this job, so take more time...

Searched for dehuskers and landed in some tea shops. To meet such people, I should go there at 7AM, when they come for tea. Finally worker's family agreed to do that and I made a dehusking tool. But one professional dehusker came on that day, arranged by my helper and he did a good job of dehusking 2000 coconuts in 2 days. If he wouldn't have come, it would have been difficult to complete it.

Finally with all the effort, could deliver it in Krishi bhavan (Government procuring centre) and totally it was around 2 ton and got a decent price. Money comes later ,may be after a month, but still it is worth the wait.

I never used to put lot of effort in marketing the produce, since running around was not interesting, this time I felt selling the produce at throw away price is not good, so took the pain of selling it. Once the system is in place and experience gathered helps in selling it next time, and also I document all the expenses, hence next time I know how to go about it.

May be a co-operative movement of farmers would help to sell it better and I can see there are many examples in different parts of the country. It is about co-ordinating things, but without loosing the spirit of agriculture.

Taro

Taro (called as Chembu in our local language) is very common in our area. I cultivate two varieties, in small numbers. Typically this is cultivated in raised beds or planting in pits filled with mulch. I wanted to try natural farming on this with minimal effort.

Last time I made a long pit put dried leaves under this and later planted its roots. Yield was not that good, but had some roots for making curry.  This time after harvesting just put some roots there itself without disturbing previous bed, and that is minimal work. Planting happens along with harvesting, but not sure, if we get good results. Also on the same area, cultivating again and again the same crop also is not advisable ? Only time can tell this.

This time made some pits and filled dried leaves in it and started planting roots directly. Next time after harvest, I can replant it at the same place and if it gives decent harvest, it will be taro natural farming.

Some photos..

Last harvest of small variety of taro.. yield is not that good, last time it was on raised bed, now put small holes using pick-axe and put the seeds and mulched. Will add some soil after some time and mulch again.

Seeds planted with minimal effort..to be seen if this become successful. Conventional type farming on raised bed need lot more effort. Existing raised bed will be reused. Cultivating same crop on the same place may not be advisable??? to be seen the result.

In Natural Farming book Fukuoka says ...As for potatoes, once these are planted in orchard, they will grow each year from the same spot, crawling vigorously along the ground to lengths of five feet or more and never giving into weeds. If just small potatoes are dug for food and some tubers always left behind, there will never be any want of seed potatoes.

The above statement is the ideal situation...hope to achieve this for taro on some day.

Scythe - An effective tool for cutting grass

Since cutting and mulching is an important task in natural farming, I have been searching an effective solution for that. I tried Honda brush cutter, used it to some extend, but putting petrol, fiber thread getting cut now and then, being heavy, noise, all made it me to look for other options. I still use Honda brush cutter to clear path ways and some time to clear the grass grown in the raised bed, it is a good tool.

Then I looked for Scythe, and bought one from Alexander Vido of Scytheworks.com and made a handle myself and started using it. I was hitting stones now and then and its edge was getting bent and again I couldn't achive cutting larger area. Please see my earlier post on this, which started around 3 years back.

http://farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2013/06/scythe-tool-for-cutting-grass.html

Then I bought one from CEC hyderabad and it had proper handle,grip, but blade and handle was both heavy. Blade was not getting effected even if I hit the stones, so used it to some extend again.

http://farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2014/11/scythe-from-cec-hyderabad.html

Then I bought 2 bush blades thinking that will do my purpose, but some how didn't get a feel of it. Alexander Vido of Scytheworks.com visited Kerala as part of making Scythe in India and attended a training given by him. I could really see the power of Scythe and realised, the grip made a lot of difference. He gave me a grip and a screw for it and I made a proper handle and fitted this grip. I am using this tool now very effectively, I get more control and able to manage without hitting stones.

I would say, anyone who is into natural farming should try this tool, it really makes your life easy. I am able to cut large areas and since all the cutting is done without bending, it is not tiring. Also I use the first blade which I bought from Alexander which is quite sharp and light, that makes the life easier. I am trying to make it popular in Kerala, and approached couple of magazines to write an article about this, they wanted Scythe to be available in India before publishing the article. Alexander Vido is working on this, will update soon when it is available.

25-March-2018

Cutting Sunhemp using Scythe, video is little faster than actual, some conversion issue

Scythe article written by me and published in 'One Earth One Life' magazine 

Buying Scythe in India

Any one interested to buy Scythe can contact Anand Chaturvedi -  anantchaturvedi355@gmail.com. More details are there at - http://www.scytheindia.com/

Their new web site - http://vikalp.tech/

Sabu Joseph - Karshakashree Award Winner - 2015

Karshakashree Award is given by Malayala Manorama daily once in 2 years for farmers who excel in farming. This year award goes to Sabu Joseph from Calicut. Here are some videos about him, it is in Malayalam ....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXuDniM2VIU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7gML-qNfs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUsHCFRyv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj_S7vOiDHY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYAvlb3fPkc

He has 7 acres of farm and cultivates more than 15 types of crops. Most of the work is done by he and his wife and occasionally takes help of one old worker. One interesting thing is , he is into full time farming and enjoys it completely and makes a decent income. He makes about 100000/- Indian rupees per month.These are his crops and income from different crops per year. He does complete organic farming.

Crop	Income (Indian rupees)	Details
Coconut	150000	250 trees
Arecanut	100000	250 trees
Banana	200000	Different varieties 1000 numbers
Nutmeg	600000	500 trees
Pepper	50000	150 numbers
Coffee	25000	1000 trees
Herbs - Thippali	12000
Tapioca	70000	500 numbers
Big honey bee	20000
Small honey bee	30000
Fruit trees		For own consumption
Fish		For own consumption
Vegetables		For own consumption
Total	1257000

Some of the translation from the videos..

He inherited 6.25 acres and bought another 0.75 acre and totally has 7 acres now. Originally from Pala, Kottayam and now has been at this place for 45 years now. He has been into farming since young age and he observes well and tries new things. Main crops are coconut and nutmeg. He has bees and does fish farming also. He is keen in water and soil conservation activities. Earlier it was coconut and arecanut and arecanut started getting diseases so he started nutmeg. He grows root vegetables.There are about 750 nutmeg trees and 500 are yielding. He got around 30 quintals of seeds and 6 quintals of jathipathri. During rainy season, water should not be stagnated so he has put drainage channel throughout the farm. There is a canal through the farm and coffee is cultivated at the banks of this. Coffee plants prevents soil erosion to the canal and yields well. Tapioca yields throughout the year, each plant gives around 15Kgs. There is a good collection of lemon, orange etc.

to be continued....