Amateur white collar farming

Dear farmers and farming enthusiasists
well how to start?
only for low budget small farmers
let me state my own experiance as a small farmer
BACKGROUND: I am a medical professional with little knowledge of farming, as ameteur farmer.I as a kid used to grow lot of plants and vegetables in our garden i have grown tomato,potato,groundnut,maize brinjal,carrots,raddish,coriander chilli etc with outstanding results
we rarely used to purchase vegetables and also we used to distribute to our neighbours.My heart always used to pound for agriculture

when i grew up and had little money i purchased 5 acres of land -dry barren land relatively cheap in that region
in 2010 farmland is in hassan district and i work in kerala

farm has borewell and sprinklers and thanks to government electricity for pumps is only 4 hrs /day and that too very low voltage

problems I faced

success stories:first and foremost problem in success stories especially over internet. we will read them and start calculating and we even think giving some 20-30% buffer of loss :))on ground we fail miserably
because they publish and we read success stories which very few educated ppl achieve what they dont publish and we dont read is lots of failure stories :))
never calculate anything on success stories

labour problem:because of urbanization and lot of government schemes for labourers its very difficult to find labourers
and its even difficult now because of 1 rupee rice .they dont have to work they get 30 kg rice for 30 rs ( also heavily subsidized other products like oil sugar dals etc) so they dont have to starve and they dont have to work. One or two days work a month will get 600-800 rs which is more than sufficient to lead a sedentary life.local laborers were demanding too much

misguiding farmers dont ever be in an illusion of thinking that all farmers as "poor, illiterate innocent and honest" true genuine honest farmers are difficult to find these days.Few will misguide u like u should do like that, like this and all sorts of c**p

TRUSTu need some trusted worker to look after ur farm
my bitter experience: we had one family very young and energetic initially hailing from north india, both husband and wife were working for 5000/month in bangalore (in that 5000 rs they had to pay rent ,purchase groceries etc etc)
we were paying them 10000/month and had provided a house(in farmland) with phone ,LCD TV and DTH ,groceries. Actual work wass to work in small dairy unit whaich i wanted to start, water 34 (thirty four) coconut plants and few( about 15) fruits plants and watering maize crop (sprinkler system ) they had to turn the valve and switch on the motor, that too we had asked them to do alternatively . For all other works (sowing seeds, fertilizers spraying insecticides) additional laborers were used:D Initially they worked well started growing vegetables (half of which they themselves used to consume :)) ) plants started growing well but after about 2 months plants stopped/retarded growing. when we see all the plants had been watered we were wondering why plants are not growing .Even neighbours used to say he works hard. later we came to know that women never used to work and the guy used to water 5-6 coconut plants with a bucket of water and 20- 30 vegetable plants with a bucket of water and divert water to neighbours farm for few favours and also used to sell seeds.i had already spent so much on them but they were cheating me. One fine day they asked for advance and i gave, they left and didnt return :astonished: ::) :-[similar thing happend two more times
SO I BECAME A JOKE in that region

ECONOMICS why white collared farmers fail?? :'(
farmers themselves work so savings on labour itself will be huge.quality of work is also great when you yourself work
for example growing ragi,maize,its very labor intensive u will lose more than ur investment
plant diseases can wipe out ur prospects :)) If not loss ur gain will be equivalent to "KAPIL SIBAL’s 2G loss i;e 0 " :sunglasses:

SUBSIDIESforget subsidies most of the time u will never get it

AM I DISCOURAGING ANYBODY? AM I PESSIMISTIC?
a big hell no
i want ppl to be careful

is there profit?
yes there is

how?
dedicate urself 24/7
you have to do things by urself
never calculate things on “SUCCESS STORIES” things like that rarely happen
carefully analyze local markets
carefully select local crops and take advice from trustable local farmers
prefer machines over men

now i have decided to do it myself :smiley: and whether success or failure i will let you guys know

JAI HIND

Yes you are right, I am facing similar problems.

bhasker

thts true…4 months of my experiances i seeing it staing on he feild than what i expected…thanks for sharinggggg

Dont lose heart, things will take a turn for the better.
The food bill wont last long, where will the government get the money? Its just till the Lok sabha elections are over, then lets see what happens.
One important thing is if you love it so much, you should be doing yourself as much as possible, and involve family members. If close ones are not supporting, its going to be very tough ride.
Farmers are collar less workers, banian workers to be exact, be prepared to come down and get hands dirty.

Trusting people is big issue, frankly I feel you were paying too much and thats why they took advantage. I also feel that we should give oppurtunity to local people first.

When we shifted to our farm, during infrastructure development, we were hiring almost 40 people per day from nearby villages on daily wages of Rs. 120, it was amazing. They normally used to go daily to city, as soon as we gave employment, they stopped.

Todays situation is not very pleasant, however times will change.

I also agree that one persons success cannot be replicated, you have your own battle to fight. But at least you can get your spirits and hopes up by looking at successful people. Looking at failures is dangerous in some way where you may not attempt at all.

As the great inventor Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work.”

Keep looking up, never lose heart. Good luck.

Nikhil

Well Said Nikhil,

Vasudha farms:

Your post is split in to seprate topic see below link
farmnest.com/forum/agricultural- … abar-vemp/

This split is done to avoid reptition of same topic. If you want anybody to suggest on melia dubia please use the above link. This will save webspace.

Thank you for understanding.

Dear Amateur,
Nowadays required more maturity about understanding of labours attitude and local trend. Most of them r misleading and dishonest working men-labours. To some extent u can trust women labors.

   Most of the men labors r drunkers, have no strength, demanding advance and liquor. 

Politicians are extending whatever they demand and cheap popularity schemes for the sake of VOTE.
You correctly said that, one should work can do farming OR other wise grow some trees. Politicians and their local chelas, govt officials and free-booters will swallow all subside money by building records.
A big lesson to new agri-farmers.
Dr. Nandeeshaiah

Hi khannae,
a really good and honest post .
Be careful with neighboring farmers , the moment they know you have enough money to spend they will try to sell you various services, products,seeds etc etc with higher costs . So better roam around and get opinion from few more farmers . Be careful with your infrastructure/produce/farm equipments/resources most of the times the neighbors will try to get benefit by hook or crook .

Regarding trusted farm labor, this is a pain point and if you are lucky you get good caretaker . But most of them are kamchor .

Thanks,
Prashant

Exactly prashant brother
they are borrowing almost everything and returning in damaged condition,
local labors and local ppl think we are outsiders and behave like we are aliens and we will destroy them :))

one day without our permission one farmer was drawing water from our borewell for his crops:)) he has his own borewell and separate tranformer(some govt GANGAKALYANA scheme)
-khannae

LABOR WOES CONTINUE :astonished: :'(
updated today(27/01/2014)
now labors are demanding 400rs/day. they will come at 9:00-9:30 and leave at 4:30-5:00 and one hour lunch break
they are alos demanding breakfast and lunch :slight_smile:
these labors are highly skillful in delaying and prolonging work one must see their pace of working.its highly appreciative they can make one hour work to laborious 2 days work ::) :-*
thanks to 1 rs rice ,MNREGA,freebies,free education with reservation, free health services(even in private hospital)
If things go like this we will have days where we (tax payers and working class- middle class) have to take loans to purchase vegetables e or starve :stuck_out_tongue: ::)

Hi,
is this the wages that others are paying ? 400 rs is too high and forget about breakfast n lunch, you are not running a restaurant .
Did you tried instead of hiring on daily basis , hire task wise, let them finish it in 2 hrs or 2 days, wages will be fixed .

I will suggest please start pointing faults and let them know how bad thy have done work while paying . If you hire same person , tell him clearly last time he did not do proper job, still you are hiring him and doing favor . May sound silly but it works . Simple thing is ensure that they are busy every time . A experienced farmer near our farm says you should have a list of things to be done by laborer when you hire, if you do not have work, create it . If give them money with less or no work it becomes habit .

Thanks,
Prashant

dear prashant
for others they ask 300-350 for us they r asking 400(initially my father was( is and will) way too generous thats why they demand too much)
it is thier usual demand for breakfast n lunch and all male labors demand “liquor”
also demand is high because we are outsiders (though same taluk, different nearby village)
contract they are refusing
i am planning to completey mechanise agriculture (concerned land is 5 acres ,i have another 10 acres of better land but its bit far from my place and no farm activity)
I LOVE FARMING, ITS NOT JUST FOR MONEY, ITS PASSION FOR ME
once i mechanise they will lose what they were supposed to get :smiley: good riddance
thanks
khanane

[quote=khannae]
LABOR WOES CONTINUE :astonished: :'(
updated today(27/01/2014)
now labors are demanding 400rs/day. they will come at 9:00-9:30 and leave at 4:30-5:00 and one hour lunch break
they are alos demanding breakfast and lunch :slight_smile:
these labors are highly skillful in delaying and prolonging work one must see their pace of working.its highly appreciative they can make one hour work to laborious 2 days work ::) :-*
thanks to 1 rs rice ,MNREGA,freebies,free education with reservation, free health services(even in private hospital)
If things go like this we will have days where we (tax payers and working class- middle class) have to take loans to purchase vegetables e or starve :stuck_out_tongue: ::)
[/quote].

I am fully agreeing with your Post. The main reason behind it is because is the Policy of Government in Purchasing Votes with Public Money. One of such scheme Wage Employment Programmes [WEP] . This scheme is 100% Bhogus. No work is carrying out. No Productivity in any Developmental work.Only the workers are gathering at a Place and taking Photographs as work done getting attendance and gone. All this is being done in an hour or less. During these Day’s the Farmers cannot get the Labourers for their work.This is the uproar of all most all the Farmers in AP. I don’t know about other Places in the Country.Instead of that the works which are benefited to Farmers have to be got done for 8 Hours work with the Govt. 50% Contribution and Farmer’s 50% Contribution. Taking into consideration of all these aspects I have identified a Farm Plantation with vigorous efforts by taking poolproof results. Though I have posted the same ,the MODERATORS have shifted my Posting some where else by giving a Link. The useful link be visible at the Place where it is required. My useful Posting is being Treated it as an Advertisement. My suggestion is only be the solution for mitigating the Problems of Big and Absentee Farmers.

Thanks to all with Best Wishes,
MANNE.SN,
for vasudha Green Farms,
vasudhagreenfarms@gmail.com,
9133498366

continued…
lobor problem contiues
we had cultivated ragi in about 1 acre of land seed was of hybrid type
it was reaped on 28th of december 2013 .Generally they r kept in field for 2-4 days for drying up then bundled and they will make a pile, then its allowed to stand for 2-3 weeks
ragi straws were left in field for seven days because of lack of labors
lot of ragi was lost due to shredding ,RATS ( more than 3 quintols)
lobors took 5 days to dehusk n clean ragi :))
in their own land they did it in 3 days with much less labor
keep watching “I WILL HIT BACK” it may take time but its certain
khannae

Thank you Sir,

I am very sorry for the Problem which you have Faced. when you are going for such Crops it is better to have Plastic/Fiber blanket (Patta in Hindi) . After cutting if you put it on the Blanket (Patta) there will not be any loss . This sheet will help you for some years together by keeping it in a Room. Because of these reasons I am suggesting Abesentia Farmers to go for Plantation crops. When ever Harvested one can sell in lumpsum.

Thank you Sir with Best Wishes,
MANNE.SN,
Vasudha Green Farms,
09133498366.

What u say is absolutely true.
But still we can manage to get a small profit apart from soul satisfaction in farming provided if we can devout our full attention and time for farming. Remote control won’t work in farming. Village people are never honest as far as my experience goes and all they want is to extract money from people coming to the villages. One should go for mechanisation with small machines.

For my paddy harvest of two thirds of an acre I spent Rs. 7500/= . This could have been done for as little as Rs. 1000/= had I employed a combine harvester. Unfortunately I sowed early and had to reap early and there were no combines available at that time.
Apart from Rs. 400/= per day as wages , I had to shell out for their break fast, lunch , tea and liquor.
Before farming , we have to find a way to minimise labour dependancy.