Hello Everyone,
Thanks in advance to all who will help enable ZBNF in our farm. Though i have not personally attended Subash Palekar’s sessions, i was inspired through a series of 7 days training session videos in youtube.
I am Keshavan from Pollachi, Tamilnadu. I plan to convert an existing coconut farm (24x24) into multi layer model in a phased approach. (Plan attached)
In total we have 8 acres of coconut , aged about 40 + years and around 20-30 gliricidia trees
At present two borewells provides 3 hour water supply/day through drip irrigation(not literally drip but continuous flow of water in small dia pipes)
Due to drought we had to let die 50-60 coconut trees in the last few months which triggered me to find ways to efficiently use the water resources and thus i plan to move to ZBNF
In my phased approach, i plan to take 2 acres out of 8 and first create trenches, initiate mulching process using coconut and gliricidia leaves & Jeevamirdham.
I plan to irrigate only trenches immediate next to existing coconut trees and plant Gliricidia in between(attached plan) as i need to minimize water wastage to survive coconut trees.
I plan to introduce creepers(pumpking and ashgourd) around the irrigated trenches. Gliricidia and Creepers would support live mulching. Seasonally i would also introduce legumes in between Gliricidia. Hoping Coconut and Gliricidia & Legume straw would ensure C:N ratio.
I would be sincerely grateful if the esteemed members/farmers/aspirants would help understand if my approach is correct or not and provide any inputs you all may have.
Since my farm is not compatible with 36x36 i have to find a suitable alternative method to convert into a complete multi layer model. Once i progress well, i plan to introduce Areca Nut at 12’ between coconut trees.
I would need an alternate for Banana and Cocoa/Coffee option, as banana needs more water and coffee/cocoa was never planed in our farm.
Thanks24x24_.pdf (80.1 KB)