After a long wait , finally have purchased a small peice of agri land - 3.5 acres in Maharashtra - Raigad
Looking forward to your advice.
Some facts.
Soil - Red
1.5 acres - slightly rocky/hilly - but good red soild after the top rock is removed , has 40 mango trees - all Alphonso - 6 years, 8 guava, 5 pomegranate – similar age. Other assorted trees - gooseberry, wild mango, jackfruit, etc - about 20 (6yrs)
2 acres - paddy fields
Dam nearby , no scarcity of water through the year
live fence of 10 yrs + , cactus , some patches are open , need to fix this, thinking of replanting cactus there
Climate - Konkan, but interior, not coastal
Manpower - available but costly about Rs200-Rs250 per day - if kept on daily basis - monthly wage about Rs 6000/month
Electricity - not a major worry, available for 5 - 6 hrs a day
2 borewells - mainly to get drinking water, otherwise not necessary
Background - non farming
Strength - We have a food joint within 50 kms from the farm.
Will put some pics next week, when some basic work starts for cleaning bunding and leveling.
We have a food joint run by the family , which needs a continued supply of fresh veggies and provisions all the time.
The reason to mention this is that, there is no searching for market, there is a ready market as long as we produce what is required for the food joint.
Will give some basic details of the place.
This land is in Maharashtra, need Khopoli which is an interior of the the Konkan belt, hence not near the sea.
Just to give a perspective - have attached a Long shot and a closer shot of the place where the land is.
From here would like to give my perspective of the work we need to do:
We have a food joint near by, hence the produce of the land should support the needs of the joint.
Largest fresh produce consumption is - chillies , garlic, ginger, onion, potato, tomato, rice and pulses - i do understand that all this cannot be produced in one place but these are the things that we will target. And then ofcourse dairy.
Out of the above - Chilly, Tomato, Rice, Garlic and Pulses, i know can be easily done, people in the place do it, so i am sure, this is possible.
As you can see in the second picture there is a dam nearby, so water is abundant and through the year.
The soil is red ( sorry but - dont know anything more than this) , sampling is on the way.
The land outside of the trees is almost virgin soil, very few crops have been taken.
Agri practices - dont know, really dont … attracted to Permaculture – but the land too too small for these jargons. I feel i must have a judicious mix of conventional wisdom and modern times.
Hi Santosh,
you can plan for farm pond in lowest area, it can be used for fish farming . Since it rains good in this area 3 acres rain water is enough to make pond functional . Maharshtra goverment has various subsidy schemes for “shet tale” but most of the work happens in summer under NAREGA. Please follow up with taluka krishi adhikari for this scheme . I am following up for our land bit long but its not working out .
Dear Prashant, thanks for your response - shet tale is a very good idea for this place - infact don’t need rain water , there is a tiny leak from the dam near by which goes thru the outskirt of the farm. this has to be diverted to the place we want it.
Only question is the in the process i will have to sacrifice a part of the land for the lake (this is a very tiny piece of land…), Actually in this place water is never a problem cause of the dam nearby.
So my question is what can a shet tale be used for other than storing water and maybe fish farming (sorry but i am a vegetarian - so this part is out .
Is there any other use?
Will check about more details of the scheme if it is going to help you.
Can we grow coconut palm in the interior ? that will be a good side crop… what is the veteran opinion on this?
.