editorialteam
New Member
Edible forest being developed for food, fodder and forest near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Also an attractive venue for the workshops
Food security, environment friendly, educational resource and connect of people with food and nature are the unique features of an edible forest. These days people understand the need of growing food inspite of their busy work life in cities and are deeply concerned with global warming issues. Thereby they invest their resources in developing farm at far away locations from the hustle and bustle of cities. Besides majority of them grow food practicing chemical free farming. One such farmer is Mr. Kiruba Shankar. His farm is at three-hour drive from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is named as Vaksana Farms.
Mr. Kiruba Shankar
“I belong to an agricultural based family. Unfortunately with my family migration from village to city I lost the touch with real farming and became Social Media Entrepreneur and Professor of Digital Marketing. However, as said branches of a tree grows in different direction but roots remain intact, I too got back to agriculture by turning into organic farmer along with my on-going professional business,” he shares.
Vaksana Farm is a 13 acre integrated farm. It was set up in 2011. “Vaksana means ‘lush green’. I have named it so because I want to have greenery all around my farm. To do so I started growing multiple food producing crops and trees. To create the edible forest we have planted 15 different varieties of fruits trees along with mango and coconuts groves, each in four acre. Mango varieties grown are alphonso, banganapalle and ginimoothi (commonly called as totapuri). We also grow paddy and millets. Being strictly no chemical and no plastic zone, all our farming inputs are sourced from different livestock reared in the farm,” informs Mr. Kiruba. Dairy, poultry, goat and sheep complete the integrated farm model. Fodder for the livestock is grown in 2 acre area in the farm.
The farmland was almost the virgin land so it was boon for Mr. Kiruba to expect good yield from the crops and trees however, “At the same time it was challenging too as the land has clay soil. To make the soil fit for horticulture we added huge quantity of organic matter precisely the compost prepared from dung and urine of locally available cross breed cows of HF and desi breed. At the moment we have five cows in the farm sufficient to fulfill the requirement raw material for preparing the compost,” he informs. In addition, nitrogen fixing plants were also grown and mulched back in the soil to improve the fertility. “We also collected the post harvest farm waste from other farmers in our village who would otherwise trash or simply burn it. It also helped a lot in preparing abundant compost for the farm.”
In the edible forest half of the trees have started to fruit namely sapota, custard apple and pomegranate etc. Millets and paddy are also harvested. At the moment all the farm produce is grown exclusively for family and friends.
The farm generates revenue for Mr. Kiruba not from the sale of crop harvest but as venue for conducting different workshops. “Being into the business of media I arrange many workshops such as book release, yoga and meditation etc. It serves as an attractive venue! Participants and guests from cities are quite excited to attend the events to be close to the nature,” he states.
Speaking of challenges he says, “Low rainfall has made water scarce in our village. To cope with the dry spell we have built two ponds for harvesting rainwater. With ponds water problem is solved to a large extent as well as it has even improved the bio-diversity by attracting many birds that further is beneficial for natural pest control, helps in cross pollination and enhances the overall farm aesthetics.” Immediate plan at Vaksana Farm is to rear fish in the ponds and slowly increasing fruit and nut trees in the edible forest.
“I feel more than generating income from agriculture it is the ideal way to have the ultimate peace of mind and sense of satisfaction that leads to real happiness in life. Thereby to continue farming forever it is best to keep it low-investment venture else if turned expensive then the future could be a complete shut-down! For example instead of having the wire fencing have living fencing with acacia shrub (babool). Similarly there are many low-cost techniques available in farming that are accessible through google search. Farming is an activity that completes life!” Mr. Kiruba signs off.
Contact details:
Vaksana Farm
O-2, Second Floor, Raj Paris Apartments, 82, Kamaraj Street, Virugambakkam, Chennai - 600092
Phone: +91 – 44 – 42733619
Email:kiruba@kiruba.com
Web:http://www.kiruba.com/farm/
Food security, environment friendly, educational resource and connect of people with food and nature are the unique features of an edible forest. These days people understand the need of growing food inspite of their busy work life in cities and are deeply concerned with global warming issues. Thereby they invest their resources in developing farm at far away locations from the hustle and bustle of cities. Besides majority of them grow food practicing chemical free farming. One such farmer is Mr. Kiruba Shankar. His farm is at three-hour drive from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is named as Vaksana Farms.
Mr. Kiruba Shankar
“I belong to an agricultural based family. Unfortunately with my family migration from village to city I lost the touch with real farming and became Social Media Entrepreneur and Professor of Digital Marketing. However, as said branches of a tree grows in different direction but roots remain intact, I too got back to agriculture by turning into organic farmer along with my on-going professional business,” he shares.
Vaksana Farm is a 13 acre integrated farm. It was set up in 2011. “Vaksana means ‘lush green’. I have named it so because I want to have greenery all around my farm. To do so I started growing multiple food producing crops and trees. To create the edible forest we have planted 15 different varieties of fruits trees along with mango and coconuts groves, each in four acre. Mango varieties grown are alphonso, banganapalle and ginimoothi (commonly called as totapuri). We also grow paddy and millets. Being strictly no chemical and no plastic zone, all our farming inputs are sourced from different livestock reared in the farm,” informs Mr. Kiruba. Dairy, poultry, goat and sheep complete the integrated farm model. Fodder for the livestock is grown in 2 acre area in the farm.
The farmland was almost the virgin land so it was boon for Mr. Kiruba to expect good yield from the crops and trees however, “At the same time it was challenging too as the land has clay soil. To make the soil fit for horticulture we added huge quantity of organic matter precisely the compost prepared from dung and urine of locally available cross breed cows of HF and desi breed. At the moment we have five cows in the farm sufficient to fulfill the requirement raw material for preparing the compost,” he informs. In addition, nitrogen fixing plants were also grown and mulched back in the soil to improve the fertility. “We also collected the post harvest farm waste from other farmers in our village who would otherwise trash or simply burn it. It also helped a lot in preparing abundant compost for the farm.”
In the edible forest half of the trees have started to fruit namely sapota, custard apple and pomegranate etc. Millets and paddy are also harvested. At the moment all the farm produce is grown exclusively for family and friends.
The farm generates revenue for Mr. Kiruba not from the sale of crop harvest but as venue for conducting different workshops. “Being into the business of media I arrange many workshops such as book release, yoga and meditation etc. It serves as an attractive venue! Participants and guests from cities are quite excited to attend the events to be close to the nature,” he states.
Speaking of challenges he says, “Low rainfall has made water scarce in our village. To cope with the dry spell we have built two ponds for harvesting rainwater. With ponds water problem is solved to a large extent as well as it has even improved the bio-diversity by attracting many birds that further is beneficial for natural pest control, helps in cross pollination and enhances the overall farm aesthetics.” Immediate plan at Vaksana Farm is to rear fish in the ponds and slowly increasing fruit and nut trees in the edible forest.
“I feel more than generating income from agriculture it is the ideal way to have the ultimate peace of mind and sense of satisfaction that leads to real happiness in life. Thereby to continue farming forever it is best to keep it low-investment venture else if turned expensive then the future could be a complete shut-down! For example instead of having the wire fencing have living fencing with acacia shrub (babool). Similarly there are many low-cost techniques available in farming that are accessible through google search. Farming is an activity that completes life!” Mr. Kiruba signs off.
Contact details:
Vaksana Farm
O-2, Second Floor, Raj Paris Apartments, 82, Kamaraj Street, Virugambakkam, Chennai - 600092
Phone: +91 – 44 – 42733619
Email:kiruba@kiruba.com
Web:http://www.kiruba.com/farm/