Hi, i am a newbie who is close to buying a 2 acre land near Hassan area. I want to develop this area and require guidance from you folks. Please do help me.
The land is 2 acres and situated closed to a hill. The slope is gradual. There is a lake and canal, which can supply water for immediate needs. Planning to get a borewell dug soon.
My questions are:
Where should one plan to dig a borewell? Is it dependent on any factors?
Is soil testing necessary?
How to get contours of the particular land? If i want get some trenches/swales dug, how should I do it?
I am interested in permaculture. How much do these experts generally charge? Can it be done without them??
I have more questions, but will give a pic and site information once the purchase goes thru.
Dear SK74,
" Congratulations " to you and your family, and welcome to our Farmnest Family
you contact nearby available expert Geologist and get the point in your land
and/or , if you trust, get it done with some local popular Coconut/stick/wire water checking experts and get the good point.
If possible, One Sri sir, a senior Farmer and one executive of our Farmnest is doing farming near Hassan, On request get his help.
Soil testing and water testing is a must, advisable.
i don’t think Contours are required
There are several Permaculture Farmers are existing. please contact them, on request visit their farm couple of times, discuss with them and start sir. Welcome to Permaculture.
On request, you can contact Sri NR Setty sir, one of the Sr Executive of Sahaja Samrudda, on 9108038977. Very great person and a Sr Citizen and on request, you can get good advice from him.
Please go ahead with Confidence and our Farm nest Forum cooperation will be always with you.
g.p.rao, farmer
Since the @g.p.rao has already answered the other questions, I will add my 2 cents.
Soil testing is necessary to understand the current status of the soil and the amendments required to improve the soil.
Water testing is necessary to understand the conditions of the water like salinity etc.
Since the land has gradual slopes, you should definitely go for contours. You can use A-Frame or use the latest laser technique to correctly do the contours. Many videos on the net is available.
Why specifically permaculture? Any reason for this. Only if you know how to implement permaculture in your farm, you can avoid taking experts.
Thank you for your response. I was reading the older information on this forum and i found your blog as well. Very informative.
About the contours, although i checked on YouTube, i am still a bit unclear on the why and how’s. Is contouring different than trenches? Can you shed some light on this please?
The only experience i have with farming is a small terrace garden set up i had for few yrs…then i moved to expanding to an empty site next to my house. I grow few banana and papaya. Rest is few small plants. I say permaculture, probably mean natural farming in creating a food forest. I am not getting into farming for investment. And i absolutely don’t have any experience with the same.
Me and my spouse have quit the corporate and since being doing small projects at our time. My grandparents are farmers and we have lost all of it somewhere. I feel that it’s our responsibility to get back to our roots and with whatever amount i have saved, have been looking to purchase a small piece of land with water and road. Our search finally ended at Hassan, due to climate and distance. There is a canal and lake opposite to the site. The land is barren. Once in a while, some ragi was cultivated (according to the records). This is my wish to get into creating a food forest, albeit small. I understand it’s going to be a very rough road with lot of investment. I am bit scared also. So basically the plan is still not on the paper. First, we will get the fencing done. After much research, looks like barbed wire is the cheapest and perhaps for now the most feasible. Then i want to go for drilling. As this place is closer to a hill and slopes slightly downward, bore should be dug near to the lake side. I still need to educate myself more on it. Next would be, before the rainy season, figure out how to do some basic planting. Around the fence and some fruit bearing trees for the long term. I have to apply for electric connection as well.
Contours is the design and the Trenches is the implementation.
You can dig trenches anywhere in a normal farm without slopes to capture water and mulching purposes. But Contours mapping is required for farms with slopes. The water coming from the slopes should fill the contour trenches completely and the spill over should happen gradually in the down way side.
If the contour mapping is not done properly and you just create trenches along the contour, the water will quickly fill one side of the trenches and the spill over will happen quickly and there will be a gush of water which may wash away the upper soil.
Once the borewell and electricity in place, you can go for fruit crops either based on the Miyawaki Model or Subhash Palekars 5 Layer Model or design your own. If you need assistance, let me know.
Get the design idea in place and then once you are satisfied, go ahead with the implementation.
You can do it on your own. Just get to know how to create A-Frame or similar tool. You should be able to get this from the net itself.
If you are not able to do so, you can contact civil engineers who can do the job for you.
Dear SK74,
Taparia Spirit level, " Taparia Spirit Level SL1012, 1 mm accuracy without Magnet is available for sale @ Rs 312/= at Amazon.in
or
you can take it , on request from any Building construction mastry for a day or two.
All the best to you
g.p.rao, Farmer
Dear Sir,
Please contact Freelance Horticultural Services on 98210 19981 for discussion to understand scopes of work to send you the proper proposals with modus of operandi along with my projects profiles.
Thanks,
M.M.Ahmed
Consultant Farms and Gardens
Mumbai - 400102 786mmahmed@gmail.com
