Land selection : opinion needed

Sir,

have received snaps of a potential buy of Empty land in Alangulam TK, Thirunelveli Dist., Tamilandu. It has closure look of soil and near by lands. Awaiting suggestions/openions about this land.

Our project is to start integrated farming with some long term corps like Cocount, Lemon. and Banana, Back yard poultry, goat farm…etc

rgds
mathew








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Dear Mr. Mathews,
After going through the photographs posted these are some of my observations/suggestions:

  1. The land has good connectivity with very good black topped road.
  2. From all the 5 photographs, I see the site is a perfect level land with red soil.
  3. The borrow pit cuttings along the road seen in one of the photographs indicates that the sub soil is very deep (more than one meter) red morrum type with good surface soil mixed with sand.
  4. The photograph with road shows the presence of Phoenix thickets (eetha in Telugu) at the far end. The presence of Phoenix thickets is an indication of good sub soil water.
  5. One of the slides shows the presence of degraded scub jungle on the borders. This degraded scrub may be a reserved forest along the foot of the hill range seen at the farther end. This is again an indication of good soil depth.
  6. This photograph also shows a valley fold in the hill range which is an indication of good underground water flow which means you are likely to strike good water in the bore wells. How ever this can be known only after drilling the wells.
  7. The photograph with road shows the presence of Phoenix thickets. Areas with these thickets are normally saline (in addition to their indicators of good subsoil moisture). If the land you are planning to purchase/purchased also has these thickets (The photographs do not show these thickets) then you may have to take suitable measures to reduce the salinity of the soil in these portions.
  8. Because not putting the land to agriculture and the continuos trampling of the soil due to cattle grazing, the land has become hard and compacted over a period of time. Therefore lot of soil manipulation has to be done for bringing it under plough. Since you intend to raise horticulture crop in this land, (the horticultural plantation needs deep worked up soil for the roots to penetrate deep into the soil) I suggest you undertake deep tilling of the soil. For taking up tilling operation you employ a backhoe (proclain). The bucket of the backhoe digs the soil more than one meter deep and puts back the soil back in the same place. This ensures thorough upturning of the soil and removal of roots of the scrub jungle species. This tilling operation has to be carried out all over the land. Simulaneously along with tilling, the breaking of the soil clods formed due to tilling and soil levelling has to be ensured using the bucket of the backhoe. Otherwise the big soil clods that remain can be a problem at the time of ploughing. Normally a backhoe can till and level one acre of land every day. This operation may cost around six to seven thousand rupees an acre. After tilling, the land has to be ploughed with a tractor. This tilling is one time operation that will give you excellent results. If your intention is to go for only for horticulture crop without intercropping with agriculture between the horticulture planting rows, then there is no need to break the soil clods and levelling with backhoe. Infact experience has been that leaving the soil clods without breaking helps good inflow of water into the soil improving the sub soil moisture ensuring good growth of the plantation. You may feel that the tilling is an expensive operation. Never mind it will give you good financial returns in the long run.
  9. The soil is inert and sterile because it was never put to agriculture and badly grazed by cattle. Therefore lot of fertiliser inputs in the form of farmyard manure etc., are required initially to bring back the fertility of the soil.
    I congratulate for choosing a wonderful site for your plantation. Good Luck in your pursuit.
    Siva Sankara Reddy.

Looks lovely!

I have the following questions w.r.t. Vastu:

Is the hill in the background part of the land?

If not, is it contiguous to the land in question, i.e. is it touching on any of the land borders?

Where is the hill in relation to the land: North / East / South / West?

Land looks fantastic. Probably rained recently. What is the number of acres?

Shiv

Scenic. Looks like bananas and coconuts(?)/palms in the vicinity?
Soil does not seem high in organic matter but seems rich enough to be developed.

Is it forest land around? - wild animals and clear patta land demarcations will be considerations. Are the documents clean?

Dear Sivasir,

oh my God!. what a detailed study and report just on the basis of closure looking of the photographs of the land…Millions of thanks for providing such detailed observations

My intention is to plant cocounts and some forest trees and do integrated farming with banana, and some lemons, and some Amla and do back yard poulty, goat farming and few cows for manure as well as reasonable cash flow management.

hope as you have suggested, deep tilling of 1 meter with porclaine and later add cow dung wile ploughed with a tractor. can make wonders on this land. However one doubt in your comments you have two ovbservations. one deep tilling is good and also leaving soil as it is also good. So for our above intention/plan what would be suitable. Whether saline content in soil will adversly effect its fertility?? pls advise.

Near by areas cultivated with Banana and Cocount farms. Hope I may be come though its legal clearance of the land and finally take position of this land. i will trouble you more for more valuable advises. This land doesnt have any facility and have to start from 0. can you pls help me to identify aprox cost. rough cost not land is total 80 aceres. but for me am buying on 30 aceres

for 30 aceres: land is in Alangulam Tirunelveli dist

  1. how many open wells needed and size. aprx cost of digging such well
  2. how many bore wells may needed and apx cost
  3. fencing cost per acere?
  4. deep tiiling and plauging cost per acere
  5. how much may need to spend on manuring
  6. cost of planting cocount (tender) and banana per acere

Labour cost is rs 300 per day in Alamgulam area.

I have additional expenses of EC, docs transfer…etc

Dear airfoil
thanks lot, Regarding your points basis Vastu, I will get the details and post soon

Dear Siva/Anusha farms

thanks lot. total area is 80 acere. but am buying only 30 acere. yes its raining in Tirunelveli now.

Dear chandra

Thanks lot. yes near by banana and coconut plant farms.

I got these snaps from the intermediary in Tirunelveli,. am short listing few plots there and will be doing on site visit on 2nd week of November. so can get more accurate information on personal visit.

Surely will just make 5-10k token payment only /only after government survey, title report and all legal clearance will proceed for buy.

No its not a forest land. regarding wild animals, well noted will check on personal visit.

All friends.

the given land is one of the short listed one. I will visiting 4-5 lands for final buy in this month. Request please guide what are the basic things we need to observe in buying an empty land. How to watch underground water avility and soil nature…whether fertile or non fertile. ?

rgds
mathew

[quote=rmathewsin]
Dear Mr. Mathew,
Here are my responses for the two broad clarifications requested by you:
“However one doubt in your comments you have two ovbservations. one deep tilling is good and also leaving soil as it is also good. So for our above intention/plan what would be suitable. Whether saline content in soil will adversly effect its fertility?? pls advise.”
As I informed in my earlier post breaking of soil clods after tilling is not required where you intend to take up intercultivation with agriculture crop. Most of the farmers prefer to take up intercultivation with agriculture crops in horticulture farms to get intemittant yields. They take up intercultivation in the initial years when the canopy is open, permitting light to fall on the ground. Once the canopy closes and the light does not fall on the ground no intercultivation can be taken up. Again if you go in for high density horticulture crop at closer espacement between the plants you can not take up intercultivation with agriculture crop. Intercultivation can not be taken up in horticultural crops like banana with very large leaves that cast shade on the floor. Therefore you have to judiciously decide whether to break the soil clods or not after tilling, depending on the type of treatment you are adapting for your principal horticulture crop.
As regards salinity problem raised by you, from the photographs posted I do not see salinity in the soil. My only remark in the earlier post was that in the photographs, I see Phoenix thickets and in case you have these Phoenix thickets in your land also, there is possibiliy of the soil in these patches being saline and you need to undertake amelioration measures to reduce salinity.

"1) how many open wells needed and size. aprx cost of digging such well
2) how many bore wells may needed and apx cost
3) fencing cost per acere?
4) deep tiiling and plauging cost per acere
5) how much may need to spend on manuring
6) cost of planting cocount (tender) and banana per acere

Labour cost is rs 300 per day in Alamgulam area."

Apparently you are requesting for cost estimates for raising your horticulture farm. This depends on several factors like, type of soil, depth at which you can strike water, whether you can strike water in open well or bore well, the preplanting operations like the clearance of the bushy growth, tilling, ploughing, fencing of the farm, what type of fence, the horticulture species you intend to raise, the farming practices for that particular species like espacement between the plants, alignment, staking, size of the planting pit, quantity and type of manure, subsidiary horticulture operations like weeding, soil working, watering etc., the local schedule of rates for various operations etc., To help prepare cost estimates for these operations, I suggest you consult the local horticultre department officials who have the expertise in the field.
Siva Sankara Reddy.

Dear Siva Sankara Reddy,

Well noted sir, I will keep in touch with you

by the way could you please share your profile.

rgds
mathew

Dear rmathewsin,

Please cross-check whether are any wild animals are neary to your farm. If you have Elephants, Boars etc, please remember you cannot go for Banana, Vegetables etc and you may have to restrict yourself to herbs like rosemary etc and trees thare are not part of any animals diet.

Regards
Padmanabhan Ganesan
agricultureforeverybody.blogspot.com
9840807817

Dear Padmanabhaji

Oh !.. need to check that part too regarding wild animals. thanks for reminding this check point.

have seen near by farm has banana cultivation. so trust now there would not be any issue of wild animals./

will check again on personal visit

rgds
mathew