Dear Ganesean Sir,
Thank you for your response !
Your blog is just awesome and gives brilliant approach to setup and manage one’s farm, though I come from farming family my knowledge in farming is VERY poor (like many farmers in this country my father never wants me in farming for known reasons such as not predictable income, live in rain’s mercy, in one word life is not easy in farming to make your life comfortable in economically)
Your blog is an eye opener for me and ignites my brain to think more 
Thank you Sir !
Brief Background & Objective
Since my father (Swami Shiva Kirubananda) passed away (Samathi) last year, it is my responsibility to manage and maintain the farm without compromising the eco system and the values that he has created over a years such as people who manages our farm, they are having responsibility to maintain our shares of sheep, cows and coconut trees, income from these are being donated to my Mother’s anniversary charity in different temples, ashrams and ad hoc donation to Ramakrishna mission’s and spiritual requirements from his spritual network members as and when required.
My objective is to improve and optimze the land without compromising his values.
My land bank is in 4 contigous packets
- Packet 1 is 17 acres, currently most of our farming is focused on this 17 acre land, with support of open well and couple of bore wells, open well supports at-least 6 to 8 months for cultivation and we use bore well for another 4 months to support coconut trees other trees, cultivation happens once a year crops like cotton, sunflower, corn and fodder plants such as mize to maintain about 5 cows + calfs. Currently about 7 acres in this packet is used for cultivation.
I am developing a small memorial for my parents in this land & one of the bore wells is dedicated to support water requirements for the trees, flower plants, fence plants etc for whole year.
Remaining 10 acre land is used to feed sheep (75nos) and cow (5+ calfs) with green fodder (Kolakattai Grass) from two monsoon rain. I am planning to plant trees in this land in a phased approach so there will be less disturbance for the sheep and cow till the tree grows (may be 2 years).
This land is leased to a family, they stay in the farm, it has farm house with electricity, storage facility, cow shed etc.,
The reason for Neem is due to extrem weather condition , during summer it is really HOT and for couple of months high wind guest/strom from Palakad kanavai takes away all moistures, these events makes our land extermly hot and dry, I found Neem controls the temperature makes slightly cooler than other trees during summar and requires less water and manages drought like conditions. Not sure if i am correct, please correct me if there are better solution.
Current Trials
a. I have planted about 50 Melia Dubia as a trial before think of large scale.
b. I am planning to plant bamboos in memorial and arround farm house as trial before planting as live fence.
Tree & Fencing Plantation ideas for next mansoon:
a) Planning to have Neem, Match wood for long term and Melia Dubia for short term in the remaining 10 acre land.
b) Fencing in non cultivation land : currenlty there is Kiluvai but would like to reinforce with Bamboo as a wind breaker
c) Fencing for cultivation land : Currenlty Katthalai protecting river/ stream side of the land but it is not tall enough as wind breaker hence i am planning to plant bamboo here as well to protect ground mositure during summar times.
d) after a year of Bamboo plantation I will plant coconut in two acres. (We never planted bamboo not sure how good the growth based on the growth we will decide)
- Second packet is 9 acres with one bore well (sweet water) and red soil, no EB connection, I am in the process of applying for EB, no cultivation is happening currently, distance between first land and this land is about 1 km.
a. I am planning to plant neem and match wood trees.
b. Rain water harvesting & pond is an option in this land.
c. I am planning to include solar or diesel or windmill etc.,
Leased to someone, he uses it for housing sheep and feed them from our land and have built small shed.
- Third land packet is 8 acres with bore well no cultivation, it is about 5 km from my first land it is middle of the dry land being used only to feed sheep, goat and cow.
a. Planning to plant wild trees such as Unchal, Vellamaram etc. during next monsoon.
4.Foruth packet is 3 acres with open well with EB and being used for cultivation, distance between first land and this is 0.5 km, problem in this land is water, may be due to excess use of pertilizers or whatever reasons the water is so became so bitter that it burns the crops. Currently we grow mize for cattle during rainy season and we do not use the well water.
Recently leased to someone to manage it,
a. long term idea is to have borewell and plant trees.
Radhamurali blog has lots of information, i will read his blog in the weekends to understand his practical experience and think how I can utilise.
Kind regards
Sakthivel Chellamuthu