I’m planning to start multi millet and vegetables farming with organic farm practices in my farm spread over 3-4 acres.
I wish to work out an estimate on the farm tools, equipments and machinery that may be required for the same. Kindly let me know of the most essential equipments and tools that may be wise to invest at the time being and also on a long term investment basis.
Also, the Tamilnadu government schemes and subsidies available in the purchase of these farm equipments and theri availability in Vellore district of Tamilnadu.
The key to success in agriculture is to control costs. Farmers have no control on selling prices anyway, so control the only factor you can control.
See if you can rent a tiller to till the soil (if required). You can find cheaper options for sprayers if you go for manual ones (in case you want to spray Jeewamruta, Buttermilk, etc). If you start purchasing equipment, you’ll easily spend a few lakhs and the interest amount on this investment will far exceed your profit in the initial years.
Start small and then expand. Add additional crops as you find a market. Have you worked out a crop pattern? What is the market for your produce? See if you can sell directly to consumers and then work out a crop pattern based on demand. That way, you won’t have to worry about haggling with middlemen.
It is a balance between own equipment and hired. You will need to factor in time and convenience too.
For example, if you go for a power tiller, you will need to calculate the coverage per hour/day and see if you can spend that much time in the tilling operation as against a quicker tractor. A power sprayer can cover the same area in a fraction of the time taken by manual sprayer - so you will need to work out the cost of labour in making that decision. Often the window for most operations is small.
If your land is just 3-4 acres a power tiller or mini tiller may be handy for basic tilling and intercultivation. For larger expanses, a tractor driven rotavator is a nice implement. You will of course need sickles, spades, crowbar, baskets, sprayer etc. for any kind of cultivation.
As Chandra mentioned we need to find the balance considering various factors like
Your schedule at farm
Availability ,Efficiency ,Cost of manpower
Security of equipment and availability of dependable operators for
My suggestion is (if you care about ROI , if don’t care abt ROI please ignore my points)
1). Short list what you want to do in your farm
2). Estimate expenses for the same in traditional way from local farmers
( I will add 100% buffer to that)
3). Gather revenue estimates from fellow farmers (reduce it by 25 - 50%)
4). See if the margins are on positive side
Get started with traditionL approach and take 1st crop with detailed record keeping
And once you see the numbers and your experience
Analyze pain points
Process improvement possibilities
Possible equipment that could have saved you time or manpower cost due to improved efficiency
And then decide. I think these factors vary a lot across regions and between farms and crops
Thank you for the valuable inputs. Currently the land is being used in conventional cultivation methods. We had cultivated grams and beans since the last couple of years. Though I can say we have not used extensive fertilizers or pesticides, still I wish to start farming in the best organic methods possible.
For the time being, I’m not interested in RoI. I first want to learn the basics in farm practices only through experience and hiccups on the road. Since I wish to invest some amount in the farm equipments with some share of my savings, I wanted to know investing in what would be advisable. Should I be concentrating on the sprinkler and drip system equipments or fencing for protecting the farm? Should more share of investment be for acquiring cattle for organic farm practices or in purchasing nursery green covers and green house equipments? If so how can I balance the investment?
The Crop pattern that I’m planning to go ahead is with 1.5 acres of millets (2-3 varieties) and 1.5 acre for vegetables (tomatoes, brinjal, radish and chillies). Though I’m cultivating these in organic methods, I donot want to market them as organic produce as I’m yet to convert the land. There is ample space available for nursery beds and manure preparation. So this is my plan for crop rotation. Please add your suggestions to this idea.
Congrats on your start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.
As far as investment goes, there is no cookie cutter model here. Invest in fencing if that is important, for example if you have people and animals entering your field and causing damage. Fencing can happen at various price levels. A simple barbed wire fence should suffice for most farms, go for electric fencing if you have significantly sized intruders - boars, cattle, elephants, etc.
For machinery, study your labor costs and try to cut down the major components using machinery. If you are buying machinery, the savings in direct costs should pay for it. Invest in sprayers, bush cutters first.
Like I said earlier, you have to study your scenario and provide unique solutions to suit your scenario.
Hi Guys
Need a wood crusher/shredder/sawdust machine close to Karnataka,
Have been trying to find a dealer, If any body could suggest or give a pointer it would be really nice,
Regards
Please shed off your bombastic words of ROI etc.It has got no relavance till you cultivate in controlled environments where no vagaries can damage your crops.Remember,every farm is an unique identity in itself.Every farm has its specific requirements.Keeping in view that factor purchase only those items which you really require.Do not purchase entire market since every one has seen different requirements in their respective fields.Move cautiously and move without haste.There is no rat race in agriculture.
rcdixit
I feel that both of you are saying the same thing, that agriculture is both different and similar. Natureworx has given practical methods to estimate the expenses and returns (talk to the farmer and factor in something additional). This is the way to go if you want to correct and improve your practices. I cant agree with rcdixit sir, that such estimation and documenting keeping are useless or bombastic.
k vinod kumar
Dear Vinod
You are correct to some extent but imagine the vagaries attached with agriculture.Storm.floods,no rains.mice attacks,hail storm,loss through wild animals.man made problems etc.After catering to all these factors you come to your net earnings.I do not want to dissuade you but want you to be more practical towards pending problems in agriculture.We have got our land where langur menace exists.Few of my clients are facing problems due to elephant attack,blue bulls eating away maximum crops and man made disasters where some farmers create shade for other farmers by planting bamboo or popular this way harming other farmers interests and not letting them grow any thing(shade adversaly affects any crop except ginger/turmeric).Anyway go ahead with caution that is the main theme.Accounts etc maintenance is essential,no doubt, but with strong will power to overpower complications and then succeed.
Good Luck
rcdixit
