My career as a farmer didn't last long, maybe 15 years.Inspired by Fukuoka I did experiment boldly and the results were remarkable! There were failures too. But in rubber and coconut ,my main crops ,I was successful.
RUBBER
Rubber is the main source of income on the farm. The first time I made a mark was in replanting a plot of 0.75 acre.I bought a150 RRII-105 budded seedlings from a nursery and raised them in earth filled plastic bags ,a year in advance.By the time the planting took place in June 1997 the saplings were on an average 5 ft. tall. A groud cover creeper, mucuna ,planted in the first year grew at a furious pace and had covered the plot to a depth of 30-40 cms. by the third year.The mucuna took care of the weeds! All I had to do was to see that the mucuna didn't "take care " of the rubber saplings too. And that meant 3 to 4 hours' labour unwinding the mucuna vines from the rubber saplings at an interval of 4 to 7 days in the first year,once in two weeks in the second year, once a month in the third year and so on till it became a once a year task . Mucuna is destructive to bio diversity and difficult to manage.In December 2002 I got permission from the Rubber Board to commence tapping.
No manuring ,not even platform cutting , and and that is what I call cost-effective!If I were to do the planting again[hypothetical] I would just let the natural weeds be and not bring in mucuna which has turned out to be a bother like the 'Assam pacha' weeds.
The second replant I undertook was in 2004,200 seedlings in a little over an acre of land.I planted 5 to 6 sprouted seeds in each pit[50cu.cm] after filling it up,and errected a polythene fence for each pit ,supported by four stakes stuck into the soil.This fence was meant to prevent bandicoots and hares from destroying the seedlings.Cowdung diluted in water was supplied as manure once or twice.In 2005,the saplings were budded with RRII-414 variety.After the stipulated 60 days or so ,the excess saplings were removed and sold,and the best one was left in place in each pit,and its top sawn off,above the implanted bud.The sale of the 'excess' seedlings covered the entire planting operations.Once more a plastic fence was provided to secure the sprouting bud.
By May 2011,150 of the 200 saplings orginally planted had achieved a girth of 50 cm at 1.5 m height,and tapping has commenced.No fertilizers of course! 1 or 2 kg of fresh cowdung was applied in the second and third years.And that was all...Prima facie ,414 seems to be superior to the 105 variety.
The plot was divided into two by a private road and on one section with 50 saplings,mucuna,left over from the previous planting,spread.The slur on mucuna notwithstanding,I have to admit that its thick ground cover did make a remarkable difference.The girth of the trees on this plot is noticeably larger than on the bigger plot.
But,here,I have to qualify.The section where the remaining 150 rubber saplings grew,had pueraria ground cover on it,and in the early stages, the growth rate was similar in both the sections.We have a cow,and after the fourth year[When the saplings had grown tall enough to escape from cattle]the better half let the cow graze on it.She would hav let the cow graze on the smaller plot too;only the cow just couldn't eat the mucuna.So,during the threee years,2008-10 the plot with 150 saplings on it looked rather like my head-bald-whereas the smaller plot with the mucuna had a healthy green blanket.
Ideally,an intercrop of bananas or pineapple may be grown during the first 3 years.This will add to the green cover.Ginger,turmeric,yams etc are also on the cards;but the hitch here is that they leave the land bare,open to sunlight during February-May when the soil needs a green cover most.
OBSERVATION
I had allowed a few saplings that sprouted at random in the plot to grow up along with the ones planted in the pits.Budded and allowed to grow alongside the regular saplings,they came up as healthy and stout as those in the pits.Perhaps in in situ planting[and budding]there is no need for pit digging!
RUBBER- HARVESTING-TAPPING
From my hands on experience in tapping,I can state with certainity that :
1) A tapping schedule of once in three days is most desirable[my experience is limited to RRII-105,but other varieties with similar yields may also be included.
2) A dry season holiday of 45-60 days is advisable,commencing from the winter defoliation in Dec-.Leaves are the tree's factory for 'rubber'- the product we harvest; the proper development of leaves will ensure good yields later on.
3) Rain-guarding and unbroken tapping during the rainy season is crucial for optimal yields!
COCONUT
My Guru in coconut cultivation is Sri.K .V.Dayal whose book 'Urvarathayude Sangeetham' bears testimony to his love of nature and his skill in natural farming.He had laid down a few rules for coconut cultivation.
1) No tillage.Just plant the coconut seedling in a shallow pit and prepare a bed around it and then put the spade away.
2) No weeding.Let the weeds grow;cut back only that which competes with the sapling for sunlight.Wherever the soil is bare,cover it with organic waste-dry leaves,loppings,coir pith,saw dust..
3)Apply any organic manure once or twice a year.
4)Return the "wastes" from the coconut-----dry fronds, husk, ,shells etc. to the coconut bed --as organic cover and manure.
5)Spread a kg. of coconut oil cake on the bed every year as manure and medicine .
6)Spread 2to 5 kg.raw lime shells on the bed once every 3 or 4 years.
7)In case of shoot-rot [koompu-cheeyal] _phytphthora infection_ just pull out the shoot [if it will come off ] and fill the hole or the interstices between the top most fronds loosely with river sand -matured for two weeks or more by piling it up in the open field. And forget it. In a month or two , a fresh healthy shoot will come up and the sapling will resume growth as if nothing had happened!
8) For bumper yields add 2 to 5 kg. ground nut oilcake per tree in the rainy season.
Well,I followed Sri Dayal's instructions and my coconuts were envied by many (20 trees in a half acre. ) ,though I never got to apply the ground nut oil cake , or the lime shells. Things would have been still better if I could irrigate them ; but that was out of the question!
Additionally , I connected the outlet from the kitchen wash basin to a long polythene pipe and let the waste water run on to the field , shifting the pipe end to a new spot every 2-3 days. And 4 or 5 coconut trees which benefitted from this special attention yielded 100 to150 nuts annually .
There was an inter crop , coffee ,which provided an ever green cover for the field , besides average yields.
FIASCOES
After having slapped myself on the back , Iwill now turn to my failures.
1)Pineapple
Planted as an intercrop with coconuts , the thornless variety of pineapples yielded in tons .A success on the productivity front, and also on the ideology front --tons of organically produced fruit ; but low prices and high labour costs rendered it financially unviable.
2)Bananas
3)Coffee on the Wagamon slopes.
4) Biogas
The biogas plant built in 1997 by The Malanad Social Service Society was a success . And the main reason for this success was it's position next to the barn, so that the urine flowed directly into the mixing tank , and the dung had only to be pushed into it with a shovel.
If the unit is built at a distance it entails carrying the dung in a pail to the mixing tank, ,daily ,and the urine runs off as seepage! The urine is rich in N P K and proteins .
Besides ,the runoff from the rubber sheet processing unit was also fed into the mixing tank.This runoff, a mixture of sugars and minerals from the latex and residue formic acid (used to solidify the sheets) generates alot of biogas.Runoff water from the processing of 20-25 sheets can generate enough biogas to take care of the cooking gas needs of a family of four or five.
Where I failed was in utilising the run off byproduct ,slurry properly.The coconuts and the fodder grass withstood ,and yes,more or less thrived on the slurry siphoned directly to them.
But not so the bananas.May be the rich slurry was more than the bananas could stand.
In retrospect,I feel sure that if I had diluted the slurryy ten times or more and pumped it waith a slurry pump to my various crops, from rubber, cooconuts,bananas,pineapple,to fodder grass, it would have made a great improvement on my entire farming operations.And it would have been cost effective too. A 2000 ltr. tank adjacent to the biogas slurry exit point, a slurry pump and enough polythene pipes would certainly have incurred a not so insignificant initial cost.
But,supposing I was able to pump the diluted slurry to different parts of my field,I could probably have soaked the entire field area twice a year with the lean slurry solution in weekly instalments. And the results would have been spectacular.Perhaps,the Jeevamrutham advocated by Subash Palekar [Zero budget natural farming]or the classic Panchagavyam or a mixture of cow dung and urine in water would do as well as ,or even better than bioslurry.This method of fertilization has been recommended by Mr.Prabhu in the Farm Page Note Book of THE HINDU more than once.
'What might have been and what has been
Point always to one end
Which is the present.'
RUBBER
Rubber is the main source of income on the farm. The first time I made a mark was in replanting a plot of 0.75 acre.I bought a150 RRII-105 budded seedlings from a nursery and raised them in earth filled plastic bags ,a year in advance.By the time the planting took place in June 1997 the saplings were on an average 5 ft. tall. A groud cover creeper, mucuna ,planted in the first year grew at a furious pace and had covered the plot to a depth of 30-40 cms. by the third year.The mucuna took care of the weeds! All I had to do was to see that the mucuna didn't "take care " of the rubber saplings too. And that meant 3 to 4 hours' labour unwinding the mucuna vines from the rubber saplings at an interval of 4 to 7 days in the first year,once in two weeks in the second year, once a month in the third year and so on till it became a once a year task . Mucuna is destructive to bio diversity and difficult to manage.In December 2002 I got permission from the Rubber Board to commence tapping.
No manuring ,not even platform cutting , and and that is what I call cost-effective!If I were to do the planting again[hypothetical] I would just let the natural weeds be and not bring in mucuna which has turned out to be a bother like the 'Assam pacha' weeds.
The second replant I undertook was in 2004,200 seedlings in a little over an acre of land.I planted 5 to 6 sprouted seeds in each pit[50cu.cm] after filling it up,and errected a polythene fence for each pit ,supported by four stakes stuck into the soil.This fence was meant to prevent bandicoots and hares from destroying the seedlings.Cowdung diluted in water was supplied as manure once or twice.In 2005,the saplings were budded with RRII-414 variety.After the stipulated 60 days or so ,the excess saplings were removed and sold,and the best one was left in place in each pit,and its top sawn off,above the implanted bud.The sale of the 'excess' seedlings covered the entire planting operations.Once more a plastic fence was provided to secure the sprouting bud.
By May 2011,150 of the 200 saplings orginally planted had achieved a girth of 50 cm at 1.5 m height,and tapping has commenced.No fertilizers of course! 1 or 2 kg of fresh cowdung was applied in the second and third years.And that was all...Prima facie ,414 seems to be superior to the 105 variety.
The plot was divided into two by a private road and on one section with 50 saplings,mucuna,left over from the previous planting,spread.The slur on mucuna notwithstanding,I have to admit that its thick ground cover did make a remarkable difference.The girth of the trees on this plot is noticeably larger than on the bigger plot.
But,here,I have to qualify.The section where the remaining 150 rubber saplings grew,had pueraria ground cover on it,and in the early stages, the growth rate was similar in both the sections.We have a cow,and after the fourth year[When the saplings had grown tall enough to escape from cattle]the better half let the cow graze on it.She would hav let the cow graze on the smaller plot too;only the cow just couldn't eat the mucuna.So,during the threee years,2008-10 the plot with 150 saplings on it looked rather like my head-bald-whereas the smaller plot with the mucuna had a healthy green blanket.
Ideally,an intercrop of bananas or pineapple may be grown during the first 3 years.This will add to the green cover.Ginger,turmeric,yams etc are also on the cards;but the hitch here is that they leave the land bare,open to sunlight during February-May when the soil needs a green cover most.
OBSERVATION
I had allowed a few saplings that sprouted at random in the plot to grow up along with the ones planted in the pits.Budded and allowed to grow alongside the regular saplings,they came up as healthy and stout as those in the pits.Perhaps in in situ planting[and budding]there is no need for pit digging!
RUBBER- HARVESTING-TAPPING
From my hands on experience in tapping,I can state with certainity that :
1) A tapping schedule of once in three days is most desirable[my experience is limited to RRII-105,but other varieties with similar yields may also be included.
2) A dry season holiday of 45-60 days is advisable,commencing from the winter defoliation in Dec-.Leaves are the tree's factory for 'rubber'- the product we harvest; the proper development of leaves will ensure good yields later on.
3) Rain-guarding and unbroken tapping during the rainy season is crucial for optimal yields!
COCONUT
My Guru in coconut cultivation is Sri.K .V.Dayal whose book 'Urvarathayude Sangeetham' bears testimony to his love of nature and his skill in natural farming.He had laid down a few rules for coconut cultivation.
1) No tillage.Just plant the coconut seedling in a shallow pit and prepare a bed around it and then put the spade away.
2) No weeding.Let the weeds grow;cut back only that which competes with the sapling for sunlight.Wherever the soil is bare,cover it with organic waste-dry leaves,loppings,coir pith,saw dust..
3)Apply any organic manure once or twice a year.
4)Return the "wastes" from the coconut-----dry fronds, husk, ,shells etc. to the coconut bed --as organic cover and manure.
5)Spread a kg. of coconut oil cake on the bed every year as manure and medicine .
6)Spread 2to 5 kg.raw lime shells on the bed once every 3 or 4 years.
7)In case of shoot-rot [koompu-cheeyal] _phytphthora infection_ just pull out the shoot [if it will come off ] and fill the hole or the interstices between the top most fronds loosely with river sand -matured for two weeks or more by piling it up in the open field. And forget it. In a month or two , a fresh healthy shoot will come up and the sapling will resume growth as if nothing had happened!
8) For bumper yields add 2 to 5 kg. ground nut oilcake per tree in the rainy season.
Well,I followed Sri Dayal's instructions and my coconuts were envied by many (20 trees in a half acre. ) ,though I never got to apply the ground nut oil cake , or the lime shells. Things would have been still better if I could irrigate them ; but that was out of the question!
Additionally , I connected the outlet from the kitchen wash basin to a long polythene pipe and let the waste water run on to the field , shifting the pipe end to a new spot every 2-3 days. And 4 or 5 coconut trees which benefitted from this special attention yielded 100 to150 nuts annually .
There was an inter crop , coffee ,which provided an ever green cover for the field , besides average yields.
FIASCOES
After having slapped myself on the back , Iwill now turn to my failures.
1)Pineapple
Planted as an intercrop with coconuts , the thornless variety of pineapples yielded in tons .A success on the productivity front, and also on the ideology front --tons of organically produced fruit ; but low prices and high labour costs rendered it financially unviable.
2)Bananas
3)Coffee on the Wagamon slopes.
4) Biogas
The biogas plant built in 1997 by The Malanad Social Service Society was a success . And the main reason for this success was it's position next to the barn, so that the urine flowed directly into the mixing tank , and the dung had only to be pushed into it with a shovel.
If the unit is built at a distance it entails carrying the dung in a pail to the mixing tank, ,daily ,and the urine runs off as seepage! The urine is rich in N P K and proteins .
Besides ,the runoff from the rubber sheet processing unit was also fed into the mixing tank.This runoff, a mixture of sugars and minerals from the latex and residue formic acid (used to solidify the sheets) generates alot of biogas.Runoff water from the processing of 20-25 sheets can generate enough biogas to take care of the cooking gas needs of a family of four or five.
Where I failed was in utilising the run off byproduct ,slurry properly.The coconuts and the fodder grass withstood ,and yes,more or less thrived on the slurry siphoned directly to them.
But not so the bananas.May be the rich slurry was more than the bananas could stand.
In retrospect,I feel sure that if I had diluted the slurryy ten times or more and pumped it waith a slurry pump to my various crops, from rubber, cooconuts,bananas,pineapple,to fodder grass, it would have made a great improvement on my entire farming operations.And it would have been cost effective too. A 2000 ltr. tank adjacent to the biogas slurry exit point, a slurry pump and enough polythene pipes would certainly have incurred a not so insignificant initial cost.
But,supposing I was able to pump the diluted slurry to different parts of my field,I could probably have soaked the entire field area twice a year with the lean slurry solution in weekly instalments. And the results would have been spectacular.Perhaps,the Jeevamrutham advocated by Subash Palekar [Zero budget natural farming]or the classic Panchagavyam or a mixture of cow dung and urine in water would do as well as ,or even better than bioslurry.This method of fertilization has been recommended by Mr.Prabhu in the Farm Page Note Book of THE HINDU more than once.
'What might have been and what has been
Point always to one end
Which is the present.'