Our 10 acres farm is about 110km from my home in Chennai and 60 Km from Pondicherry. It’s wetland and above our land (eastern side) is a public pond. During rainy season in October to December this pond water level will raise and sometimes overflow. But this pond is not the source of irrigation, but good source of ground water retention. There is a catchment lake, northern side, 3 km away which was a source of water for our one time crop, but due to prolonged absence of desilting the waterways, now a days, we are not getting water from this source. Generally we cultivate Paddy&ground nut in this field. Due to my job at Chennai till 2017, I couldn’t concentrate in agriculture. After my retirement in 2018, I am practising natural farming techniques for growing paddy. I bought 2 desi cows with calves and now they are 7 in numbers. I am using jiwamritham, fish amino acid, cow dung compost, coconut +buttermilk solution, plants pesticides prepared in-house for the soil and plants. Soil is clay and sandy loamy type suitable for paddy, ragi, groundnut, water melon. Recent days, people are not coming forward to do these organic preparations. Labor shortage during harvest time and demanding high wages in the critical situations, pushing me to go for organic fruit trees, coconut trees cultivation. I am planning to have raised bed for planting the saplings due to water logging. I am using bio Fertilizer&pesticide in a small manner for its cost and your suggestion to use capable media is wonderful. I will definitely try this. Can we use this medium for multiplication of all bio products like Assospyrillum, Phospo bacteria etc? I want to know more on the fruit trees cultivation, particularly pros and cons on the raised bed Techniq . Kindly advise sir . Thanks once again
Dear Kasinathan sir,
very nice, for having good interest in Organic farming, after your retirement from duties. Good decision.
you can comfortably go for Coconut Farming in Raised bed system. In these 2 systems are followed. (One system, if you have lesser water source, and second system, if you have very good water available, year full)
generally in water logging lands for growing Coconut trees, both the above systems can be followed.
In One system, dig required depth and make beds of 3 ft height x 6 to 10 ft width, and plant the selected coconut trees. (if you give more width, and have interest, you can grow vegetable crops and/or other short term fruit trees like Guava, Acid lime as intercrop also)
In Tamil Nādu, good yielding suitable coconut variety is available plenty.
In second system, you can have bunds of 6 ft x 9 ft width bunds at equal intervals, by digging ponds in between to hold water at least to a height of 5 ft, so that you can plant coconut trees along with said plants stated above on the bunds and in the pond water you can go for Fish/sweet water Prawns farming.
Before starting, one of the above, do farming of green leaf fodder/Multi grain crops, and after started the flowering, cut and till them in the soil, and then start the bund formation work.
You can use all the bio fertilizers and for developing, you can.
Add @1 kg each, per tractor load of old, well decomposed FYM, plus 200 kilos of Neemcake, plus 500 kilos of Vermicompost, process it for 30 days and apply at required places, once in 4 months.
or
use them with Liquid waste decomposer, of Dr Krisan Chandra sir of NCOF, recommended.
All bio-Fungal microorganisms like Verticillium lecanii, Bauveria bassiana, Paceilomysis, Metazhium etc, you can multiply in said Media, at cheapest rate once in 45 days and use it for control of Sucking pests, root grubs, Nematodes, wilts etc.
Up to my knowledge, most of the coastal area farmers are using both raised bed systems for farming coconut trees, freshwater fish and M.Rosenbergi prawn culture etc.
You need not worry about, labor, if your earnings are good, as labor nature is they flew, where they get good/considerable money sir.
wish you all the best for your upcoming farming and any clarifications required please don’t hesitate to ask our Farmnest forum.
g.p.rao, farmer
I will follow raised bed for coconut saplings with acid lime, amla and mango as intercrops. Till they grow 6’ above, I will grow turmeric and yum etc
Will prepare enriched FYM with bio inputs.
I am not clear about your recommendation on WDC as an alternative. Do you mean to say that we can use all Bioagents with wdc instead of using the fym, Neemcake etc. Kindly clarify sir
Already we have harvested multigrain plants and tilled them in the soil. Will plough once more to get the soil lumps free before going for raised bed work.
Buying east coast tall and dwarf variety coconut saplings in 80:20 ratio
Would like to plant Balaji variety of acid lime
Kindly suggest suitable Machineries for making raised bed, so that I will check in our area for the availability on rental basis
very nice you have grown multigrain plants, and till them in soil. good act sir.
As per NCOF scientists, waste decomposer consists of all useful bacteria, but not clear which bacteria are existing in it. I used to add the said bacteria in it (as a precutionery measure to ensure that all the bio-fertilizer is assured ) and apply to my lands, which already enriched with FYM, along with neem cake, Vermicompost and all Bio-fertilizers, with the suggestion of experts of Government institutes like IIHR and GKVK.
you can do it seperately . once enrich with FYM etc and thrice with Liquid waste decomposer, of a Firm recognized by Dr Krishan Chandra, Director of NCOF.
As far as bed making is concerned, there or two ways, either by tractor mounted with bed maker and/or with JCB, as your land is big, if not you can do it manually also. Wish and hope you will have suitable tractors locally.
all the best to your Organic farming
g.p.rao, farmer
I have wdc with me and let me try with Bioagents as you suggested. So far, used wdc with jaggery only as per NCOF recommendation.
Will use tractor mounted bed making machine. As of now, tractor with groundnut seeding attachment makes 1.5’ W’x1.5 ’ deep canal with 4’ wide x3/4 ’ high bed. To overcome water logging on the 3/4 ’ high bed, I want to manually dig this canal further, upto 2’ depth and spread the dug up soil on the bed to raise it to 2’ height at least. Will try 1 acre and proceed further based on the trial.
Spoke to “capable media “ supplier and placed order for 1 kg for multiplication of bio agents trial . Will inform the forum about the outcome of the trial.
My best wishes to all farmer bros. and sisters,
who are the real backbone of the Indian community.
farming is the only profession,
which is perpetual,
without which, the human race can never survive.
Dear Kasinathan sir,
just for your information, earlier it was WDC, (waste decomposer of NCOF), now NCOF stopped both producing and also licensing others to prepare. As stated by Dr Krishan Chandra, that now it is " OWDC of HDH, ie: Liquid waste decomposer, please check it whether old wdc or present OWDC of HGH sir. ( just for your good and information only sir. All we have to use it with 2 kgs of jaggery, and 200 ltrs of water, and additionally use it with all bio fertilizers sir.
You must be cautious, your plants roots must be above the water logging level.
Very nice, for ordering Media, also order for mother culture of all the Bio-fungisides and use it properly as advised.
Other than bio fungicides, can we use capable media for producing bio products like azospyrillum, phospobacteria, k solubilising bacteria etc? What is the shelf life of this capable medium? What are the constituents of the capable media?
Presently I am using wdc gel only. What is the merit of liquid wdc over wdc. Kindly throw light on that. What is the shelf life of liquid wdc? Where can we get liquid wdc(owdc of HDH)? Kindly provide contact details of the vendors…
Dear Kasinathan Sir,
Up to my knowledge, this Media is for all Bio-Fungicides. Verify from near by Agri Institutes/Universities, whether any good media for fast culturing of Bio-bacteria.
Now I know that Waste decomposer Production by NCOF and their Technology users, is stopped and stopped supply of Mother culture to them. Now only Himagiri Green Herbal are doing the Liquid waste decomposer (OWDC), as per the statements of Dr Krishan Chandra of NCOF, (creator of WDC of NCOF). It can be had from them up to my knowledge and their contact number is 9811624448, email is sales@himagirigreenherbal.com of Himagiri Green Herbal, Gurugram-122001, (HR). You please send a WhatsApp message, and they will send you the price details sir.
all the best sir
g.p.rao, farmer
I have ordered Owdc and will try with bio fungicides. Since I have some stock of wdc gel, will prepare 200 litres conventional solution as well and compare the improvements with owdc
As you suggested, I will make raised bed and maintain the plant roots above water logging level, say about 2.5’ above water logging level. But in my opinion, we can not avoid roots completely going below water logging level for few days during severe rainy days. Hope 2 to 2.5’ high raised bed would be better to avoid water logging effects
Would like to plant fruit trees like lemon, citrus fruits, Amla as these fruits will have more shelf life and also not affected by rats and squirrels. I have Balaji type lemon saplings in mind. Kindly suggest better cost effective Varities of citrus, lemon and Amla and lime and availability .
I have come across people saying desi varieties are good for withstanding Pests&deceases. Some suggest air layered saplings for quick yields. Your opinion please
To overcome this water seepage/logging problem, i have adopted the 2 in 1 method of land preparation.
I am not sure if farmers are already using this method.
Enclosing photos of this.
