Plus one to Agri Exec, Welcome to this madness called farming.
Sure I could figure it out. Lots of paper planning and text book MBA stuff . But someone said in farming 2+2 can be +40 or -400
We all will find that out shortly.
One thing about labor problems. If it is really so, I am puzzled as to how people manage huge I mean HUGE tracts of Coffee and Tea estates. Has any one seen the terrain ? One should visit Chikmagalor outskirts, Balehonnur or Sakaleshpur outskirts. No near by city or even a small village and inspite of those heavy rains, Work goes on like a clock work with a gangs numbering 50’s !!
I am really puzzled looking at those estates or how it is managed. Absolutely Nil machinery on those slopes. Some estates are in excess of 500 acres midst those forests !!
Hello all! Farming is NOT mathematics or engineering and detailed calculations may be O.K. for building bridges or making rockets and missiles but will go go haywire in farming. We have two highly unpredictable factors in farming viz. MAN /WOMAN & NATURE. How these two will behave cannot be predicted accurately by anyone, not by machines, not by supercomputers, not by scientists, not by astrologers. So my bottomline is-- do your homework well but take the plunge into farming knowing well that agriculture has its ups and downs because nature has its ups and downs. If you remain stuck in figures then I guess you can never really take off. Just take the plunge, you will bounce back even if you make a few mistakes in the process of becoming a good farmer. Good luck to all you guys!
Just a small statement " Another wanna be farmer: Decision Taken - Want to go rural !!" evokes such varied responses. I am wondering why this discrimination towards farming ??
I had a variety of such suggestions, advice’s, threatenings, pleading, not to do so etc etc when I just announced that my end would be in farming. Atleast that would be a means to my end.
But when many in their young age say, one wants to be musician, a theater guy, or a RJ, DJ etc etc, does such responses received ?? I am wondering. Even if some one says instead of Medicine or Engg, one wants to take BA (Arts), people encourage,
But to farming a big no no !! why is it so. Isnt the land prices sky rocketing ?? Even if a guy starts at 22 years with some basic education, with 10 Acres and fails after 5 or 10 years, he will be still sitting pretty when compared to many enggrs or Docs. Isnt it ? His 10 acres will give him a good ROI.
I believe that she is giving some well intentioned advice and most of us who are trying to enter farming are more or less doing some kind of homework i.e. ‘background research’ into various farming related areas which would impact their decisions, budget and startegy or pure personal choices
My question was genuine i.e I did not intend any malice when I asked that question. All of us here would know that there are several things in farming that can go right and wrong. But as human beings we have to ensure that we do due diligence in our endeavors. Some of us here want to venture into farming for monetary benefits and some for the pure love of farming. Whatever the reason, there is a financial implication in terms of input costs etc which not many would want to see being washed down the drain. While some may be able to withstand financial losses, for some it may boil down to daily bread and butter. Therefore, the views/opinions/suggestions/advice we offer here should be with a view to help a fellow boarder. To say agriculture is unpredictable but still say “do your homework” is a contradiction. I would appreciate if members here come up with more constructive advice than simply say “Take a plunge”. What happens after you take the plunge? Who will soothe you if you burn your hard earned money? Point is, everyone has to run numbers/calculations and do a cost/benefit analysis. If agriculture was so unpredictable then it would be akin to gambling in casinos. No?? There are certain things humans cannot control but we are here to discuss and learn those things that we can control.
as i mentioned earlier, i still feel it is a well intentioned advice which may make sense to some or may not to others. there are plenty of constructive and not so constructive advice and opinions that are being offered in this forum. these may or may not be useful to one and all
for example i wanted to do some farming since quiet some time and i thought it was piece of cake, by participating in may forums like these i think i have understood pretty clearly that it is not simple as i made it out to be in my head and a few responses to my posts similar to “do your homework” however simple it may sound now, set the ball rolling for me by positively influencing my thought process
yes i did not have any profound knowledge or deep insights or opinions on what i should do or what i should ask others to do, i still dont think i have these but from a layman point of view “do your homework” makes absolute sense for me and it is upto me what i do with this advice
That is too much of mudslinging. Kindly bury those, I support Agri_exec in that front.
It has almost become like a mantra here in India, what ever you want to do in life, there will be many free advisers. Whether they are domain experts or not but sure they advise !! That too on all front as though they had led the war and won it from front.
Yes that’s the greatest mantra we have. Some are, Be careful, dont follow others, be wary of friends, Be on you toes. take the words of elders and now the latest, do your home work, do your research etc etc.
If you fail then the standard slogan will be repeated like a parrot to you " I told you no ? It will not work like that, thats not the way to do, thats why it failed. !!"
No No. No mud slinging. It was actually good to talk to Brijesh as he is seeing the other side of the coin. We need different perspectives here for our benefit. Im very sure that lady meant well but my point simply was that if people give clear guidelines/suggestions then more members could constructively benefit for that advice.
Like most of you I also dream of setting my own farm. Presently I am a working government official drawing a good salary of approx 1L/month. I am on better side of my 30s. Presently, I own 2.5 acres of my own 2.5 acre of my brothers’ land (avail for farming) aprrox 80kms from Delhi. I have been planning on and off to quit my job and go farming. Is it a good idea? I have two daughters in primaries.
I am inclined towards polyhouse/greenhouse floriculture and cultivation of exotic vegetables. Probably that is the only way I can sustain myself with this small piece of land.
Can anyone help me out with the economics of setting up of my project and how to go about it?
you are a government servant, don’t quit as of yet, it is easy to get excited as we all would love to do farming . Go on long leave, try out for a season and then decide. you can try out a small scale poly house unit (low cost). check out thousandpetals.in/ this is a low cost option using bamboo and is much better in terms of the environment and temperature is also better controlled. I am attaching a presentation on this that can help
you can start with 200 square meters, go through the entire cycle end to end, try to sell the product and then decide how you want to take it forward in the future
Thanks a ton buddy for the sensible advice. BTW I dont plan to leave right away. I will quit only after I have pensionable service after few years. Dont think I can get leave long enough to try…but lets see.
Hello, newbie wannabe farmer, totally committed and looking nationwide for land. Spoken to a few brokers in TN, been to see a few in the Tiruvannamalai region - great pieces - 2 to 1500 acres - sometimes as low as 2L/acre.
This is a fantastic thread!
I’m surprised that nobody has taken Brijesh’s idea (above in quotes) further. I’m very interested in getting together with like minded farmers to source land. It would be great to have such neighbours as those on this thread.
I’m a budding wet behind the ears permaculturist, interested in organic crop farming, horticulture and medicinal herbs. I’m looking to buy between 5 and 10 acres depending on the price and location.
If there is an ongoing thread for this, or a group buy being organised, I’d like to get into it as well!
. Go on long leave, try out for a season and then decide. you can try out a small scale poly house unit (low cost). check out