Demotivating -- farming

Hi everyone

Last week I was speaking to one of my relative who is running a canteen business. I told him I am starting a agri farm in 10 acres. To begin cultivate in 1 acre and slowly increase. He advised me not to invest money in agri farm.

He gave an example. He buys one bag full of cucumber from wholesale merchant for 150 rupees ( I think 25 or 50 Kgs). The merchant buys the cucumber for 100 rupees. So wholesaler makes 50 rupees. The farmer earns 100 rupees. if we factor in the time required to cultivate cucumber, investment and risk etc. it is not worth.

Here is some evidence.

I came across the following three articles.

Hindu 2015, Drumstick
[url=https://goo.gl/oGr13l]https://goo.gl/oGr13l[/url]

Pasumai Vikatan March 2016. Coconut and Banana

[url=https://goo.gl/J89Xkk]https://goo.gl/J89Xkk[/url]

[url=https://goo.gl/29InT3]https://goo.gl/29InT3[/url]

We do not have any balanced approach. Farmers need to co-operate and cultivate. Currently there is no mechanism and farmer suffer the most. As an active community what is your opinion?

Thanks

Dear ramsforum sirs, you are right. But, good times will start for farmers soon. Earth is round. Hope the best for our farming community. Few years back, poultry ,both egg and meat were in struggle. From past couple of years ,it went in to the hands of big companies like venkateswara hatcheries, srinivasa hatcheries, suguna hatcheries etc,etc, and now they are dictating the price. Even now we can dictate our terms in Nati chicken, both eggs and meat. Let us hope the best. With best wishes, g.p.Rao. farmer

I agree with ramsforums. There is no money in farming and looking at the rates of the land it seems more impractical. I bought farm last here and have invested huge huge amount and i do not see any returns coming.
But my friend farming is not a profession, its a way of life. It is about what you wish to do. If you wish to do business, jobs etc it is a different thing but when you farm and when you go for completely organic and natural farming will you understand what life it is. It will lead you to a very very spiritual life ahead.

Have you heard about “organic mandya” and “nalla keerai” guys? Just google about them. If you plan to do agri as business follow food to table and you can make some money… Those news link you shared from Pasumai Vikatan is true with chemical farmers because a ton of them in India and abroad are growing the same variety of Banana just FOR PROFIT so it’s natural they loose as well. Also they spend a LOT of money end to end on fertilizers, etc… watch some video and I m sure you can figure out…

Read books on “One straw revolution” and participate workshop by ZBNF or “Nammalvar team” and I m sure you can do natural farming cheap, cut middle men and give to customer with not too high prices but nutritious quality products.

Good luck!!
Vimalan

ramsforums… dude how can you call it demotivating?.. you already have a ready customer (canteen friend) for your Cucumber, tomato, onion, potato, brinjal, carrot, etc who will pay you Rs 140 for your cucumber and you can give him a Rs 10 discount… so you will get a profit of Rs 140 much more than the Merchant or the original farmer think positive :slight_smile:

Main thing is to get the orders… growing food is easy… and you already have the potential client in front of you.

Whenever people think of farming or any business people calculate how much they will get from it… but overlook how much one puts into it.

Getting into farming without the following 4 is VERY DANGEROUS

  1. Ability to sent into ground the rain water and (use swimming pool size pond or swales or square paddy-bunds to trap rain water)

  2. Ability to create your own electricity (use solar power, wind power, biogas) at least to pump water…

  3. Ability to tackle unexpected rains or pesticide spraying overhead (use polytunnels or greenhouse plastic to shield your crops)
    Once your seed sprouts there should be NO UNWANTED water or chemicals reaching it… this much is your GREATEST responsibility and you should be able to manage that… there is no excuse for that… for ANYTHING ELSE you can blame nature.

  4. Desi Cow… without desi cow no farming is sustainable… especially in India. Its manure and urine is irreplaceable…

Follow these 11 Golden Rules

  1. Make sure you use traditional organic seeds not hybrid ones.

  2. Never feed poison (chemicals/fertilizers/pesticides/weedicides) to your field/mother (earth).

  3. Always use wet manure… NEVER dry manure.

  4. Use Traditional cow manure & urine (avoid Jersey hybrid)

  5. Never buy seeds… get it for free from Organic farmers… and return it from your harvest.

  6. Never MonoCrop… grow multiple crops… Never single…

  7. Never Ever do LARGE SCALE farming… unless you have enough orders or free labor-hands

  8. Never use tractor or anything that takes petrol or diesel… use manual or Oxen or Solar electricity or biogas or Windmill/Wind turbine

  9. Always be ready to market your harvest using social media… not very big effort needed there just a few photos & videos…

  10. Use earthworms that burrow the soil (avoid Vermiculture). If you are not able to attract bees and earthworms something is wrong

  11. ABOVE ALL BE HONEST… never cheat your customers… even if you have to bear a temporary loss…

So where are the expenses dude (other than the greenhouse plastic)… I see only Income… especially with that Canteen friend of yours… :wink:

It is such a lame thing to say its growing food is not a good business to be in? Then what is better selling Pepsi? Pepsi people dont drink 3times a day every day… but people want food and the demand will increase even more in future…

Growing food is the best and the most easy work… EVER INVENTED!!!

IF NOBODY BUYS EVEN A SINGLE VEGETABLE and you have excess… dump it into your biogas digester… you will have methane gas to power your generator, cooking gas and car… and also fertilizer slurry for the field… to make it healthy… absolutely nothing is wasted… NOTHING…

@BuddyFarmer…Superb way to see it… :slight_smile:

@BuddingFarmer

Thanks for your constructive inputs. I have couple of more input needed. Posted below the questions. Thanks in advance.

Suppose if I have 20 Acres of land(I am planning to buy for organic cultivation and started looking), I have multi corps, Planning to recruit labor on monthly salary basis (1 or 2 laborers) , Can I plan 5 acres Single vegetable?

First things first… you have to make sure you will collect the maximum rainwater that falls in your 20 acres… the easiest way would be to make paddy field like square bunds so that max rain water will soaking every day. If you can create a 10mtr long 4 feet deep pool you can use it for harvesting rain to ground water and also breed fish.

Initial months must be used to rejuvenate soil health… this is an impossible task without indigenous cattle… once there are enough earthworms then nature will take its own course of water harvesting and making the earth porous…

I suggest start small if you are a newbie… large investments have larger risk… Risk should be taken in business… but the Risk should be “Calculated-Risk”… never take more than what you can bare…

Hi-tech farming with greenhouse is not required in India… especially in areas above 30decree Centigrade… as heat and sunlight are needed… for the plants to grow and are available in plenty… creating “rainshelter” kind of polyhouse is sufficient to avoid rain and fertilizer spray from above… and once this is up you can cultivate 12 months of the year… you could plan the rainshelter next year after your first trial run…

If you are thinking of 5 acre single crop too is possible… very risky… but possible… but your soil health should be excellent for that… disease happens in our bodies due to some weakness of “good bacteria” in our body and they get overpowered by the bad-bacteria invading the body… similarly for the soil too… if the good bacteria in the land is less it could be overpowered by the bad-bacteria… and plant disease could occur if this happens then the risk is very high… “NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET” is an investment slogan…

If it is a monocrop the disease would take down a lot of the crop… some times the entire lot… in a multicrop of say 5 crops only 1 or 2 would be affected and you could harvest the 4 or 3. Which means you would be able to sell something rather than nothing. Also different types of crops have different properties… some plants like to breath out oxygen more number of hours than the rest… the behavior of the roots system is different… enrichment and consumption of each plant to the soil is different… Every plant gives as much it takes from the Earth. The benefits of multicrop far outnumber the monocrop.

It has been clinically proved that the good bacteria in desi cowdung is many times more than jersey cow… so much so that you can mix desi cowdung with jersey cowdung and generate the same amount of bacteria just like one curd put in milk can create further curd. Desi cow AND OX can even pull the plough…

Tractor use is to be lessened to lower expense as a general rule… especially on small farms where oxen can be used. But if you need to do 20 acres you will need to use Tractor…

Vermiculture and Earthworm-culture are as different as chalk and cheese. The worms used in each is very different although both are called Earthworms.

Vermiculture is inferior “technology”… the vermi-worms do not pierce the ground or burrow… they lie inside “bin” and have no contact with the soil. Any transfer of the output has to be manually done. Serves single purpose - 1) Create Fertiliser.

While Earth-worms burrow the soil… they multiply real quick and spread all across the field… on one acre can have 100,000 earthworms which will double every year and create tunnels in the ground for the rain water to sink into… to sustain this earthworms you just have to send through irrigation pipe the slurry from biodigester which would require very less manhours… Earthworm Culture is automatic… its nature… nobody has to do anything… just dont put chemicals in the farm to kill the worms…
Has multiple functions 1) Create fertilizer, 2)Move earth 3) Create Water harvesting channels

You will also have to create your own social media Page - One in Facebook for Pics & one in Youtube for videos is a must for marketing and sharing farm stories, events and also for guiding other. You will be competing directly against Global Giants like Monsanto and Bill Gates… :stuck_out_tongue:

Once the farm takes shape… you can start incorporating open poultry farms (without cages) local Hens, Ducks and also diary…

Best of luck… and please share pics and updates…

Regarding your question about Hydroponics in the other thread…

Even I was researching about it for a while… and see that it has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
Layered farms one over the other. Depending upon what you grow you can use this method on normal farms. This is good if your land holding is very small. Like for eg one can grow cauliflower or onions in pots one on top of the other at least in 3 rows on shelf.

Good Graceful Arrangement: The plants are planted in almost centimeter perfection.

Rain Control:
This MUST be used on every farm… cant let unseasonal rains affect output…

Wind control: not necessary unless there are high winds

Temperature control: Neither heating nor cooling is required… nor is it sustainable…

Raised beds: Easier for labourers not too much bending is required…

Water control: Drips have to be used… this is good and less water is required. This can be done in normal local organic farms as biogas slurry can be pumped through the pipelines along with water in required proportions.

Disadvantages:

Pruning: Pruning is required to control… the growth and look the whole concept and mindset is to Control… control… control…everything the climate, the crops, its growth, the minerals, the seed… and finally the farmer… my personal opinion is to not to prune.

Soil cannot be tilled. So they do away with soil and use other means. Also stale soil becomes unhealthy so to keep environment without ANY BACTERIA good or bad they do away with soil. and nuterients have to be bought, fed to the plants… then taken back… try to sell… its crazy… and thereby you give the control of YOUR crops to a HANDFUL of companies.

So the best way is to use the advantages on your farm… Greenhouses and Hydroponic farming are not needed in India… and it is THE ONLY WAY people CAN FARM in extreme climates having temperatures below 25degress or above 45 degrees for a larger part of the year.

India is blessed that we do not have extreme climates where the whole country goes under snow… or where you cannot see the sun for months together… or have monthly typhoons… or sand storms … we cannot even imagine how difficult farming in such cold climates are where even creating biogas is such a pain… and land become hard due to snow… or the farm is covered with inches of sand… Hydroponics are for such countries.

We also have to be very careful for people selling us technology used in their countries!!! ESPECIALLY EXPENSIVE STUFF…