Hello Everyone - I am introducing my farm to you all, and share my journey to convert my farm into a profitable venture. For almost last 30 years, owing to many reasons, we had very poor returns. I work as an automation specialist who specializes in minimizing manual effort, reduce cost and improve returns for an organization which has lead to apply these skills into farming. Wish me good luck.
Farm Background:
Organic Farm
8 acres of coconut crop - tap irrigation with sparsely intercropped banana
1.5 acres of open land - Heavy peacock intrusion split into 3 section
.5 - Banana - Tap irrigation
.5 fodder crop - Sprinkler irrigation
.4 Vegetable - drip irrigation
Challenges:
Aging Parents (I am away from home)
Unavailability of Farm labor
Increasing cost of labor
Increasing cost of Inputs (Fertilizer, rented machinery)
Reducing/Low price of output
Inconsistent water availability - drought prone if two successive rains fail
One of the main goal is self running farm with minimum labor input.
I plan to tackle the problems one by one and i hope this community will guide me
Sir namaste. Wishing you all happy sankranti/ Pongal. I visited Pollachi area several times in connection with PAP project work. These lands are rich in organic matter and water and nutrients holding capacity also ver high. I suggest you to please seek help from TNAU soil science department for increasing profitability and funds under pmksy( micro irrigation) for effective use of available water in the farm . At state level mr Ram Nathan director of horticulture department Chennai is helpful. Now I am retired from office and only can share information.
Please check in Google and also dist. Horticulture department is helpful
Wishing you all the best.
Good morning. Your seems to be a well designed farm as far as your resource allocation. Visit your farm atleast once a year for preparing annual plan. Regarding coconut there are ways. You can make use of this for nuts, tender coconut or for palgur(neera) . Neera could be sold as toddy also make use for making palm sugar also. Coconuts also you can sell as nuts or extract oil and sell. But simple way is to sell as tender coconuts. Less pain. Inputs : convert to organic farming. Its very easy very much cost effective. As you have livestock its easy. Labour: machanise the maximum to reduce the labour requirement. As claim to be an automation specialist every activity could be automated. Japaneese have done for cabbage, I think. Put cc TV and operate the farm.
Let me first wish you good luck. I believe your farm is in the Kongu region. Among all the challenges, the one that got my attention is the water scarcity in your place (If so, the choice of coconut as the main crop is a major challenge). So do you have a pond in your farm to collect runoffs so that your water table can be improved gradually?
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Dear Veera
Glad to hear from you. Please share the location of your property . There are many techniques that can be used to enhance your profitability and usability of land
We can discuss in details
Donot go to any consultant unless you know them in person. They will experiment with the project. Visit different farms and agriculture university for correct information about your need
Dear Respectable IshaKeshavan,
I am an Organic farmer with more than 40 years of experience in Farming Fruits vegetables etc. Any specific clarifications you need please ask me and I do my best to give you my services with a good heart towards the farming community.
Let me know are you a full time farmer now or an Absent farmer, so that i can suggest you accordingly.
g.p.Rao, farmer, Farmnest member
Update: 01/14/2023 - Happy Pongal Everyone. Thanks to all the inputs. I spent about 6 months recently to understand the in&out of the farm activities. Some notable changes to the farm,
Reducing Manual Work: We have about 11 Gate valves to operate to irrigate the 8 acre coconut farm. Roughly one labor would spend half a day walking length and breath to open/close gate valves, fix drip pipes( livestock movements in the farm disturbs the drip pipes, squirrel bites, worn out pipes etc…). I have introduced Niagara automation to automate the entire drip system. Now, Mom/Myself control the entire drip network through an app, systemic irrigation, timeline etc… This has taken away the manual work. Whether we have labor or not, main crops will be irrigated. Will upload a video shortly. The time saved is now reallocated to other farm work which i will update one by one. I also have upload a farm layout and future plans in the link here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yc2la4qQvyaCHgrnTXjDVVboYkrPsOLh/view?usp=sharing. Except Banana, none of the crops in the image has been introduced yet as intercrop within coconut
Rain water conservation and dig strenches
around farm and plant soap nut trees with
Low maintenance,low coast,less labour,regular
Income.
Best of luck sir
As an organic farming consultant and an agriculture graduate I can be of help to you
Kindly let me know1. where are placed - place of working
After making a visit to your farm… and based on observation i can give my suggestion and solution to your problem
3 there will be a minimum visit charges payable to me.
To & fro train fare by II ac or chair car chennai to Coimbatore and and stay at CBE hotel to be borne by you Travel to your farm in your car or taxi to be arranged
Hello,
I am facing the same issues, kindly send me your email id or contact number. I have some great ideas about what factors need to be considered.
Regards
Azim unicorn044@gmail.com
1.What is the gross income of your farm currently?
2.How many workers/labourers are there in your farm and the cost associated with them?
3.How many labourers are allocated for each section of work in your farm? This will help to pinpoint the problem and reduce the manpower there or automate, if possible.
3.What is the manure/fertilizer used and the cost?
4.What are the machineries used and their cost?
5.What is the net income of your farm currently?
If you want to reduce labour cost to a greater extent, I would suggest not to go for vegetables, livestock etc.
Why? Livestock needs constant attention.
In Vegetables, you can make good money provided you are able to sell them directly to the consumer and please keep in mind, it is very labour intensive.
You have too many things in the plan and it is going to be difficult for you to manage. So, keep things simple, if you wish to be profitable.
I am sure, some of the question cannot be answered directly in the forum, but if you wish to share it through private messenger, then I can suggest more based on your thought process.