I am in. Where does Mr.Shankarappa stay? How far is it from Bangalore? I am sure even Hegde will be interested. I will PM you my number Sri.
Thanks,
AK
[quote=sri2012]
I was planning to visit Sri.Shankrappa (details are in post above) this sunday. Anybody is interested? [/quote]
[quote=AK1311]
I am in. [/quote]
This is terrific. It will be great to hear experienced members’ informed opinion regarding Shankrappa’s claimed income of 1.5-2 Lakh / acre post the visit.
Hello Everyone…I was thinking that we post our planned farm visits here and explore opportunities to travel together. One advantage I clearly see is we can car pool saving fuel/costs, the fun of traveling together etc.,
I also used to notice that Swamy used to post his review along with some photographs of the farms he visited. It would be nice if all the forum members write a brief of the farms they visit and info on the farmers techniques, any special trees or species in the farm, any mechanization or tools/methods he or she has developed to save labor or improve productivity etc.,
Going forward I will post all my farm visits here along with a brief report and some photographs.
Hope all of you join me in this.
I had visited Oxygen Acres dairy farm (oxygenacres.com/) couple of years back, it is in Mysore. It is a very well managed Dairy farm. In case you are in and around Mysore, I suggest you to visit this farm. You have to do pre booking in their website.
Thank you for posting review on Kala Farm. You can checkout additional pictures in this link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kala-Farm/130407813655144.
Welcome, Sri Janardhan! Nice to have you here!
All,
Sri, Hegde and I visited Shri. Shankarappa yesterday. Although this write up is supposedly on behalf of all three, my thoughts and learnings might come thru primarily. Sri and Hegde, feel free to add or contradict what I say. 
First of all, hats off to this person’s attitude! I want every farmer to think the way he does. Whether he makes 2 lakhs/ 6 lakhs per acre is secondary. He says he is and he looks content with what he makes! He has a nice modern house, a hatchback car and he has a pleasant attitude. To me, that’s a mark of a man who makes decent income and is happy with what life has given him. It is such a difference from a majority of farmers who simply crib about how the whole universe is plotting against their success.
Second, he was frank and forthcoming, answering most of our questions and accepting things he didn’t know. He did not act like a ‘know-it-all’ discrediting our thoeritical information. He supported it with examples or debated against it based on experience. This was the kind of discussion we were looking forward to.
Third, about him being a ‘natural farmer’. His farm is chemical free. He used Jeevamrita althought he has stopped using it now. He does supplement external manure (we saw a load of chicken manure in the farm). He said that his trees were gradually losing productivity without manure. He provided numbers - Bananas lost 80%, Arecanut lost about 10% of their yield. He said coconuts were unaffected. He provides one basket of manure per year to Banana alone. He has an amazing digester that provides the essence of the organic material dumped, into a large well (dry well, now converted to a large concrete tank). The gray water from the house and cattleshed also go to the well. From here, the water gets mixed with borewell water and sprayed via sprinklers to the entire plantation. He sprays water for about 1.5 hours every alternate day. The mulching (mostly live mulching with weeds and leguminous plants) help retain moisture. He does not spray pesticides.
Fourth and most importantly, the yield. We did not ask him directly about the yield as we felt that it might be uncomfortable for him to state the exact income. We used an indirect approach and asked him about plant yield. The rates are anyway subjective, so we can calculate what one can make in our respective towns. As an example - he said he sells local banana varieties at 30 Rs per kg. I am getting 12 Rs for the same variety at my place.
His coconut yield - 300 trees - 100 nuts avg per year - 30,000 nuts avg per year. At 6 Rs per nut - 180,000 Rs annually.
His arecanut yield - 1 acre plus - 100-110 quintals of raw nuts. At 1000 Rs per quintal - 100,000-110,000 Rs anually.
Banana - he said he does not keep acurate count. This is the tricky part for calculation. Although he said the farm was 8 acres, we did not see the entire 8 acres, so can’t vouch for Bananas being planted in the entire 8 acres. I saw bananas in about 5 acres. From the trees we could calculate, 300 trees average per acre X 5 acres - 1500 trees. Assuming 10 kilo average per tree - 15,000 kilos of Bananas per year. At his rate of 30 Rs per kilo, 450,000 Rs pr year. At my rate of 12 Rs per kilo, it is 180,000 per year ! 
So the total yield at his rate - 750,000 Rs per year from 8 acres. Or a little under a lakh per acre. His costs are almost zero as he has no labor. He only spends for the minimal manure he procures from outside. I have reason to believe that he is a successful farmer who makes about a lakh per acre!
More than the income, I came back impressed with his frankness and his attitude of questioning before he applies anything to his farm. This has helped him greatly! One simple example he quoted - ‘Research Institutes always publish the yield numbers of a new variety. Why do theu never publish the costs?’. For a high yielding variety, the costs are also generally high. I agree a 100%.
Cheers,
AK
PS: Wrote this in a hurry. Sri and Hegde, please add if I left anything out.
Dear AK,
I accept with what you have said about the coconut and arceanut, but just a small mistake with the Banana’s ( I might be wrong). If you remember in his farm each Banana plant would have at least another sucker growing beside it, this ensures him that he gets a bunch every 4 months. Thus he get 3 bunches from one plant every year.
He said when a new sucker is planted and it starts flowering, he allows another sucker to grow exactly in the opposite direction of the growing banana bunch. This will ensure him that when he cuts the first bunch, the other plant has already gone into flowering and will give him another bunch in another 3-4 months.
Yes many would say the yield would drop, but according to him and many others it doesn’t even if it does it is compensated with more number of bunches per year. Also he said he never chops down the old plant. only the head part is cut so that all the nutrients of the mother plant can be utilized by the daughter ( ready made food 
, thus speeding up the growth.
They say once you plant a sucker forget it… no need to replant a sucker again… I have seen suckers growing the same place for over 12 years ( at least thats what the farmer said )…
Thank you sir.
Folks:
My post with title “one man army” is about Sri.Janaradan. He has posted facebook link of his farm photes.
Dear AK…thank you very much for the write up. Kindly upload any photographs you may have.
Here are the link for pictures
picasaweb.google.com/1072704091 … directlink
pic1: Old dried open well is plastered and being used as storage tank. The borewell water and biodigester water gets mixed here. From here water is pumped to farm.
Pic2,3: Bio digester(aerobic). It is just a open pit with economically buit with stone slabs. two adjacent slabs are joined with concrete. He claims the slabs can be reused. At the time he constructed rate of stone salb was 9rs/sqft. now it is 24rs/sqft. He states that it is not a liability, it is an investment.
At the corner a Sintex biodigester(for bio gas) he uses slurry from this to feed to the earthworms in the open biodigester.
output of this biodigester will be in liquid form. He fills choultery waste to this pit, when it is available. Past 3 years it has not filled. He never empties this pit. on the bottom of this pit there is a perforated pipe wrapped with mesh is layed. This pipe is connected to the open well shown in pic1. so here it is almost zero labour. The pit is filled by dumping from tractor.
Pic 4,5,6,7 are the examples for plants can be there at 4.5 feet spacing. Watch velvetbeans,pongamia,sweetpotato,turmeric as live mulch. He deweeds using brushcutter only arecanut plot during harvest because, people who harvest hesitate to go inside.
He subcontracts arecanut harvesting. For coconut, if people available he hires or he picks up fallen coconut.
pic 8 is Sri.Shankrappa explaining to GG and AK. (me behind the camera)
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[quote=AK1311]
Although he said the farm was 8 acres, we did not see the entire 8 acres, so can’t vouch for Bananas being planted in the entire 8 acres. I saw bananas in about 5 acres. From the trees we could calculate, 300 trees average per acre X 5 acres - 1500 trees. Assuming 10 kilo average per tree - 15,000 kilos of Bananas per year. At his rate of 30 Rs per kilo, 450,000 Rs pr year. [/quote]
If we go by Shankarappa’s word and calculate banana yield of entire 8 acre instead of 5, it comes to 300 trees x 8 acre x 10 kg x 30 Rs. / kg = 7.2 Lakh. Adding estimated earnings from other crops - Rs.1.8 Lakh coconut and Rs.1.1 Lakh arecanut - total comes to Rs.10.1 Lakh. That’s about Rs.1.25 Lakh / acre before deduction of seasonal labour expense.
Subramanian stated an estimated income of 1.5 - 2 Lakh / acre. A couple of questions for Subramanian:
-
Did Shankarappa provide a break up of this figure? If so, can you share that with the forum so that we have a diversity of opinion.
-
After AK’s comment you wrote about banana. Are you saying that the estimated banana yield / tree / yr should be more than 10 kg or should the number of trees / acre be more than 300?
-
In your original message you also wrote that there’s a lot of turmeric in his farm that is never harvested by Shankarapa. Any estimate on production?
-
Are there any other crops / poultry / livestock in the farm?
Thanks.
Dear AK,
I accept with what you have said about the coconut and arceanut, but just a small mistake with the Banana’s ( I might be wrong). If you remember in his farm each Banana plant would have at least another sucker growing beside it, this ensures him that he gets a bunch every 4 months. Thus he get 3 bunches from one plant every year.
He said when a new sucker is planted and it starts flowering, he allows another sucker to grow exactly in the opposite direction of the growing banana bunch. This will ensure him that when he cuts the first bunch, the other plant has already gone into flowering and will give him another bunch in another 3-4 months.
Yes many would say the yield would drop, but according to him and many others it doesn’t even if it does it is compensated with more number of bunches per year. Also he said he never chops down the old plant. only the head part is cut so that all the nutrients of the mother plant can be utilized by the daughter ( ready made food , thus speeding up the growth.
They say once you plant a sucker forget it… no need to replant a sucker again… I have seen suckers growing the same place for over 12 years ( at least thats what the farmer said )…
I am just reposting my reply… i think that should answer your questions
Subramaniam / Newbie,
Hegde and I had initially said that about 1 lakh per acre is a good target to achieve and I have reasons to believe that Shri. Shankarappa does that. He himself told us that he doesn’t keep an accurate count of bananas and I am with him. It’s just too much hassle, think about the effort it takes. As a farmer, I would keep count of the total cash I made on the sale rather than the bunches I sold. We didn’t ask him how much he made in a year.
The intention of the discussion was to get an approximate yield and I think we have done that - 1-1.25 lakh per acre per year. Let’s leave it at that and move on. The question is, can we apply his principles to our farms and generate anything close to that? I am nowhere close. I don’t know about you.
Cheers,
AK
[quote=subramanian.g.r]
I am just reposting my reply… i think that should answer your questions [/quote]
Subramanian, I had seen that reply.
[quote=AK1311]
The question is, can we apply his principles to our farms and generate anything close to that? I am nowhere close. [/quote]
AK, can you describe what would it take to give you that kind of confidence?
"They say once you plant a sucker forget it… no need to replant a sucker again… I have seen suckers growing the same place for over 12 years ( at least thats what the farmer said )…
In my home we had this type of cultivation for native varieties of banana. it was proven method, since group of banana plants stay together its resist in wind and I do not remember any disceses affected such groups. + it was rain fed. no additional water no fertiliser it may vary soil to soil/situations. this was the old methods in kerala and banana was not a prime crop in this pattern. now demand for local variety banana is huge. on average Rs 30-40 per kg is of illachi banana .
regarding income generation. for newbies/ farming aspirants its matters how much we can earn per acre in spite of all figures are subject to approval from the nature. In G8/G9 banana cultivation several farmers given figures that 1200 plants per acere and aprx 1100 bunches can expect x rs 250 per bunch ie 2.75lac less expenses of Rs 150 per bunch ie 1.8 net 95k.
So for any of the most aggressive farming method either it is banana or rubber or integrated with coconut orchid we can expect net 85-95k per acre.
more farm visit can bring more realistic numbers and data and can form a most successful farming modes/methods.
best wishes
mathew
Confidence about what? Generating a lakh an acre? I am confident I can, it will take time. In how many years? I don’t know. Like I said earlier, I am just a small part of the equation. The soil, weather and market conditions play a greater role.
Usain Bolt can run 100 mtrs in under 9 secs. Doesn’t mean all of us can. Some of us might, I don’t know, but it will take years of training and practice. This is the same way. We are studying champions of agriculture and their techniques, we can’t replicate their successes overnight.
1 Like
friends
I came across an excellent research study on Integrated farming model.
pls use below link
www.belize.org/bcci/resourcesmodule/dow … ce/id/345/
this research report is prepared in very details prepared by Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute. though it is for a country Belize have seen that we can follow the model in India too.
if you are not getting the same pls google A Manual on Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) or AGRICULTURE ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENTFOR RURAL BELIZE (AED)
rgds
mathew
Hi Subramani, Hegde, Sri,
Hope you are doing great.
Just remembered about this thread and noticed that it is silent from a long time, looks like you guys are busy with your work?
its been long time. are you guys planning a 2nd round visit to Teja farms at Devanahalli for the follow up session?
Regards,
agri_lover
Usually farmers are busy in rainy season,It is difficult to travel also.