Need advice on how to go ahead with this land

Hi All,
Myself Prashant and soon will be a proud owner of 18 acres land in northern Maharashtra .

Brief of the land that will help you to provide better ideas and suggestions.

Land is at downstream of dam almost 7 kms away on the bank of river . One of gates of the dam will be always open and plenty of water will be there in riverbed always.

In Recent developments some of the farmers got electricity nearby riverbed and pumping water for few hundred acres in surrounding .
This land is having pretty good slopes and entire land can be divided in 4 pieces depending on slope .

This land is having a big cone shaped gulley almost 100 to 150 feets max depth, length 900+ feets and width of 300+ feets on wider end .
So overall land will be like 2 flat pieces of 3 to 4 acres each, 3rd piece of 5 to 6 acres nearby gulley with sharper slope and fourth piece of 4+ acres of gulley itself.

Land is not cultivated for past 4/5 years and prone to grazing of neelgaay (Protected animal by forest department).
Soil is reddish and nearby farmer are planting banana, sweet lemon, lemons, groundnut, onions etc .
Farmers say land is ideal for fruits . This area is famous for world class bananas (Jalgaon/Bhusaval district ).

I won’t be able to visit frequently since I work in a metro city so my farther will be looking after the land along with some caretaker .
I have strained by financials already enough to own this piece of land and am a absolutely new to farming.
I need to have combination of some cash crops and majority of fruits plantation which will yield good in long run with minimal laborer requirement and lesser personal attention.
I remember words from one of the boarders “remote management of farm is disaster” but my father will be helping to keep watch.
My inclination is towards organic farming to reduce input costs and earn more on long run.

Immediate things that I will take up are as below.

*Clear land using earthmover (clear Bushes few bigger trees at gulley am willing to spare).
*Soil testing
*Electricity and permission to use water from river .
*Avail government scheme for subsidy on horticulture and get help for plantation.

In long run I am planning for below things in this piece of mother earth.

Servant quarter
Water tank(Not elevated one) on place with highest elevation .
A Gulley dam to develop a watershed .
Shed for few cows .
Place for developing compost or gober gas .
I am looking for effective usage of slopes at the land for irrigation and chandra suggested a s/w for drawing landscape which I will take up soon.

I have tried to make you all aware of my situation .
Please suggest the course of action in terms of combination of plantation to take up on how much piece of land.
I thought of UHD mango plantation, lemons, sweet lemons, pomegranate + some cash crop if possible .
Awaiting for your valuable inputs so that I could start my journey .

Thanks & regards,

Hi ,

Consider yourself to be lucky, man. Lot of guys from Maharastra wants to buy land in TN & AP. You from TN buying in MH. :astonished: :astonished: I saw your location as Chennai.

Am told MH also has some crazy laws like KA. How did you circumvent this ?

Buying land is half the victory !! ;D ;D

Regards

Murali

Hi Murali,
I am born and brought up in Maharashtra but madrasi from past 8+ years :slight_smile: .
My father’s maternal grand father was a farmer and he proved that her mother is farmer by providing documents of his mother and other relatives (Land records). Children of farmer are treated as farmer. Also I got good contact to move the file ahead .

I did tried lot of things to prove that my father is farmer .
Now a days maharashtra laws are pretty tough though there are always ways to get the things are done.
Even I considered buying less than half acre land in AP, TN or jalana district of MH (Different laws in this maharashtra district) .

Thanks

Dear Prashant,
Going for UHD mango plantation, lemons, sweet lemons, pomegranate are seasonable crops in different times around year.
You can also add other timber, fodder crops along with these crops fro long term returns.

Crops like Vegetables, leafy vegs, spicy crops like curry leaves, Pudina etc can fetch daily income everyday. However it will depends on demand, distance to local market & your choice.

Importantly you can grow theses short term crops in between lines of main plantation crops which can commonly share water, manure etc. By growing these short term crops, maintenance of main crops will be decreased to lowest level & returns also will be started as soon as possible in 30 to 45 days from the date of planting them.

Congrats on buying the land.

It would be good it you could share few details like the 1) place of land, 2) price you incurred and 3) was it re-sale or buy from farmer directly.

I also have a similar profile like yours and prefer to use the team domicled maharashtrian. I have tried the rajastan route to get the farmer certi and the land i have bought is still to be transferred in my name - the struggle is on.

Horticulture is a good idea, interspersed with cash crops like brinjal, okra, capsicum etc., You can also consider using the gulley area (if it does not get flooded) to plant melia dubia.

UHD mango will need close monitoring and pruning to ensure they do not grow tall and wide. In any case do not start any plantation prior to getting water source ready, electricity and a shed ready.

Do share the progress.

Place of land : Jalgaon district of maharashtra .
Price : 2lacks / acre .
A party who had legal contract with farmer for sell is there in between me and farmer .
This place is having a excellent connectivity with Mumbai by road and rail (400+kms) and Pune by road (350+ kms)

Regards,

Congrats! and all the best for future endeavours. Have seen couple of videos of Jalgoan farmers with lemon. Hope to see your farm too doing good.

Hi,

All those MH guys grunting about buying lands and legal hassles can take the services of ppb. Looks like it had been a cake walk for ppb. Or luck favors the brave ;D

I am still sweating and praying to all those 33 crore gods, >:( >:( after paying the money, yet to make a round figure of 10 Acres.

Regards

Murali

PPB:

Any progress on the land since you have bought it ? Has the 7/12 transfer been effected in your name?

Hi,
Let me clarify bit here, I got this land on my fathers name since his mother and my grandmother was a farmer.
So now legally I will be farmer since my father will be farmer .

We are done registration just 2 weeks ago and it will take 1 or 2 more weeks to get 7/12 .
Middleman is asking for few more thousand rupees that we need pay, to make sure we get 7/12.

Meanwhile below is my plan.
I have tried to visit Agri market and understood drip costs 25k/acre and G9 banana tissue from Jain irrigation costs 11rupees/plant (Need to pay lamost 50% advance for booking) .

Peoples in our area says we could have 1500 to 2000 banana plants/acre and G9 been giving produce of wide range of 20 to 70kg.
Looks like for me its late to think of banana.

So my plan is just prepare land by a rented tractor (700rs/acre) and give it to neighboring farmer for 50-50 produce sharing basis for a short term crop (7 to 8 acres land which is comparatively flat ).

Meanwhile once I get 7/12 in next 2 weeks immediately start process for EB connection, permission to use river water,setup submersible 5HP water pump with pipeline and create a bigger water tank (Recently peoples complaining of irregular EB supply).

I will share further progress with boarders .

Thanks,

Hi All,
please find lay out of the farm I am refererring attached.

Area outlined with red color is the only flat piece of land (6 acres out of 18 acres land).
Black colored arrows shows the slope of the land towards a big gulley.

Recent Activities:
My father made this 6 acres land ready for a short term cash crop (Local peoples referred soyabean).

I need suggestion on better usage of rest of the land .
Apart from this 6 acres flat land, rest all land is having bushes and need to clear it using a JCB machine.

Please let me know if its fine if I clear it during month of August or it will be a good idea to do it now (Its peak summer now )
Only reason am trying to delay JCB work is financial reason .

I will be ready with EB connection and water pump/tank etc during month of July/August.
My plan is is to go for Banana, lemon, sweet lime mango, pomegranate planation (Start during Aug month).

Please suggest how do I use this remaining land with slopes effectively. Any preference on plantation, methods etc ?

I will keep updating group on further development.
Please help.

Thanks & regards,
Prashant


Right next to the river bed, lucky guy! :smiley:

On my similar JCB work, I am being advised to wait for the first rains if the work is to do with moving the soil; the soil is too hard now.
I think it should be ok to go for clearing the bushes now, though.

Hi Chandra,
thanks for the reply .
I don’t want to move the soil . This gulley area will be usefull for developing a water body in future .
Yes next to the riverbed is best thing, this riverbed was having plenty of water even in peak summer since this place is just 4kms away at downstream of the dam. I am looking for better usage of remaining land with slopes .

Thanks,
Prashant

PPB:

You may want to consider JCBing the land prior to rains, the advantage being the land will be turned and all the bushes/small trees etc., will not become messy to collect and through as compared to when the soil is wet.

Looks like you have plots on all sides other than the river side - so is the river bed side your formal access to the land?

Like you have mentioned, the gulley seems to be large enough for you to consider converting it to a pond and then start fish culture. Pomogranete is one of the recommended crop (apart from the famous banana) for Jalgaon.

Hi,
thanks for your reply .
Regarding JCBing - Shall I create contours (in laymans language steps wide enough for plantation) now itself ? What should be the width of the these flatter steps ?
But if I create these steps right now and remove bushes, during heavy rain there is risk of finer top layer of land being washed away .

Formal Access to the land is from exactly opposite side of river . Riverbed is almost 200+ feets deep from land .
Riverbed is accessible from the land (Through gulley area) .

Dear Prashant

Have u considered opening a dairy farm there ?? Its quite profitable these days…

Regards
Sumit Chandla

PPB:

Given that you have not decided on what to plant in that part of the land or the strategy (UHD/Standard etc) - it would make sense for the ground to be cleaned up and probably get the internal roads laid using JCB. The internal roads can if laid/flattenned now will force you to think the layout, which is immaterial of the horticulture you would plan to a large extent.

You may also think of getting the digging work for a large tank (say 2 lac ltrs) for storing water to be built as part of this exercise - storing water centrally helps in managing drips in case you plan to go for it.

Thanks for the reply .
It makes sense to clear all bushes to have clear idea on land .
Bigger water tank similar to techie2aggie.blogspot.in/2011/07 … html is in my mind .
But I am trying to check option of having a water tank atleast 4 to 5 feets above land, so that in long run a gravity fed irrigation can be planned (All theory part :slight_smile: am not sure if its feasible), .
When my brother talked to a local JCB person he says 700rs/hr for JCB work .
Before monsoon sets in atleast I could clear all bushes .

Thanks & regards,
Prashant

Any ball park on the tank cost?

Hi Chandra,
according to saverafarms it costs 1 to 2 Rs per Liter of tank volume .

Thanks,