Farming... The first steps

Taking a detour from the previous posts, I would like to present my first attempts at farming in two steps. First is the acquisition of the land and the knowledge (didnt want to use the word knowledge acquisition :-) The second post would cover the actual process and steps that we went through with the quantified results.

As the picture illustrates the land in question is about 15 minutes brisk walk from the Tiruvali temple. Through all the well wishers in Tiruvali, I was able to acquire the land (currently 4 acres). you can refer to the 11.202967,79.774336 coordinates in google maps.

Right from the beginning I was blessed with an excellent handy man (actually a well qualified handy man with an MPhil) from Tiruvali. He has been behind all my endevours there right from entering the village, temple, festivals and now farming. Without him, nothing would have been possible.

I had been reading about organic farming for the past few years with significant triggers/inputs from my brother in law. Still when I got the land, I was a little apprehensive despite my best intentions and expectations. So we reached out to experts. There was one who was willing to come all the way to Tiruvali to inspect the land and give his comments. (I know I have not been mentioning names of all my acquaintances, well wishers and helpers. Will do in a separate entry once I get all their approvals).

Broadly his comments:

(1) You are blessed!

(2) This is a fertile land

(3) More importantly, it is near lake (actually a water body of cauvery rivulet which subsequently flows to the sea near Poompuhar). There are two small canals which flow thru two sides of my land. One is an inflow canal and other is the drainage canal for the water body. This means that I have a good water channel for irrigation. the drainage canal will remove excess water during monsoon. YOU CANNOT ASK FOR MORE!

(4) His inspection of the land was in later summer and so we spotted a few big dead crabs in the land. His comment was that, it is good to see crabs as they furrow and increase aeration of the land and it is generally an indication of the fertility of the soil.

(5) He was also very impressed with the overall structure of the village

(6) He enquired about the local farming practices and gave some recommendations (a) To get Farmyard manure to spread initially as the land had been fallow for some time (b) to start with paddy as it is the most common crop there (3) to not to use native varieties immediately (though that is the end goal) and use what is typically used for starters. He actually preferred native varieties but did not want too many variables as we are just starting.

Onto actual work now!

We got a lot of farm yard manure (cow dung, stalk, Cowurine, Sheep dung etc) and spread it across the entire field. We ploughed it lightly just to mix the manure. Ideally if we had started a little early we would have planted Daincha (Thakkai Poondu) or Sun Hemp (sannappu) and ploughed it down after 45 days as green manure. (Hopefully next year!)

Now on to the actual "Organic farming"!

(Before I close, how did I relate the farming experience with what was in the previous two posts? By the below mentioned pasuram of Thirutherriambalam, when I actually saw small crabs running along the water stream during irrigation subsequently)