1,2,4.Sri NR. Shetty
3.Sri Shivana Pura Ramesh,
5. Sri Ramesh is presenting a sapling of “JABOTICABA” as token of honor.
6,7, Farmnestians,
8,9,10,11,12 Litraute on Agri. SahaSamrudha Publications.
Rest of the pics are members with speaker and pics at lunch.
A short and quick report on seminar, gghedge wrote this and I added few points. Members feel free to add any pointers if we missed or correct if you find any discrepancies.
May 11, 2013, Farmnest Meet @ Teja Farms.
This was one of the finest farmnest meet i would say ( though we did not have too many yet). Held at Teja Farm, owned by Shivanapura Ramesh’s farm, attended by lots of farmnest members.
We had interactive session with Mr Ramesh, and a short sweet talk by Mr N. R Shetty.
Let me start with N R Shetty, he is 70 years young man, who is president of Shahaja Samrudha, (www.sahajaorganics.com), he has a model farm of rain fed irrigation(yes, you read correctly NO IRRIGATION other than rain), ably guided by Mr Ramesh ( also one of the Director’s of Sahaja Samrudha).
Mr Shetty, started his 1.5 acre farm, 8 years back, his idea was to show the farmers that Rain Fed Irrigation is possible and it should be helpful to farming community.Those were the days farmer wer telling with out a bore well horticulture is impossible. Started with fencing, he dug a little trench along the border of the farm, he has grown, 8 major plants for commercial Sustainability, Mango, Moringa, Sapota, Gooseberry, Tamrind, Jamun (NeraLe), Jack fruit and all other fruit plants to enjoy the fruit and also to show all fruits can be grown. Now he has more than 150 verities of fruit plants. Latest addition is Jaboticaba, the sapling was presented to Sri.N.R. Sheetti by Sri. Shivanapura Ramesh.
First 2 years, he added compost around the plants every 6 months ( may/june and oct/nov), after that there is nothing which is bought from outside the farm. Now, he also grows legumes to sustain the input requirements.
As his farm is rain fed, he has placed one earthen pot in each near the roots of the plant, this pot can store around 3-4 liters of water, this is completely immersed in the pit and watered every 2 weeks. It also has earthen lid that covers the pot. He does not have any water source in his farm, and whenever required to refill the pot, he buys the water from outside.
He believe that there if any weed is grown, if this is cut and put back to ground, it would yeild 3 times the nutrients it has taken.
He also told about his farm having visitor, mouse, snakes, peacock and owl and he firmly believe that we should not tamper with the nature and let it balance itself.
Sri Shivana Pura Ramesh is a traditional farmer, Office bearer of many boards, He is founding member of Lalbhag Jaivik society. Travelled in Forest trekking on the pretext of seeking nearness to nature. Spent time with Tribal, gaining natures knowledge etc. Etc.
Session by Mr Ramesh was mostly question answer based, and here is the sample.
How to avoid wild animals entering into farm?
Collect human urine in earthen vessels and keep on the entrance of the farm(animal entrance, this has to be identified by watching foot prints). Usually animals enter only from one or two places( this is animal behaviour). After smelling human urine they get suspicious on human presence. They return back to forest.
For monkeys effective way to disturb them during night time. They will be in the trees, disturb them with crackers. The arrangement of crackers has to be made during day time and cracker must be ignited silently. They hate these surprises during night and get confused from which direction danger is coming. They scatter in all direction.
How to start a farm?.
First of all, get it ploughed deep, this should be 2 feet deep, this is to ensure that soil is loosened. In case a tractor is used by the weight of the tractor, the land will be hardened and if the top layer is only scrapped this would not help. So, he recommends deep plough by JCB,(remember you will digging only once i.e. for new farms only) after which he does not recommend to get any heavy vehicles into the farm. For ploughing, he recommends to use traditional plough with the help of bull. If that is not feasible, he recommends to use light weight tiller. He mentioned 3 prominent weeds, ( garike/Cynodon dactylon/ Bermuda Grass, tunge these are mere grasses) which needs to be eliminated permanently as this would consume all the nutrients from the soil. This activity has to be done during winter so that the seeds of weeds get chilled and get destroyed. If they get deeper than 2” in top soil, the possibility of germinating is very less. Later he also said that if the weed is cut and put back to ground, it would give 3 times the nutrients taken by it.
How to prepare the pit for growing fruit plants?.
Dig the pit 2.5 X 2.5 X 2.5, when you start digging, keep the top layer aside, after the pit is dug, use any device to loosen the soil below the pit at-least 1 feet. And then, put back 1/2 portion of the top soil that you have kept aside, then add the following.
Above mixture must not be exposed to sunlight. After gigging bottom of the pit must be loosened with crowbar, While filling the pit, water the pit first, fill top soil which was kept separately. Fill the above mixture, make a hole which is 2” wider and deeper than the poly cover of the sapling. Fill Have fine river sand of 2” at the bottom of this hole, keep sapling. Remember the hole is 2” wider, we have to fill river sand. i.e. 2” thick insulation of sand must be provided for the sapling. This will help for hardening of the root caps.
Why is plouging needed all over the place when you are going to have a pit for planting plants.?
This is not required in all places, but in most situations this is applicable, in some places where there is heavy rainfall, it may not be advisable to do this, but perfect for Bangalore and nearby Bangalore areas.
How does drip work when you have a single dripper placed to one side of the plant?.
Based on the soil structure, water moistens the area, if there is well formed soil structure, it would spread, (like a large onion) and if the soil structure is not so good, it may seep down completely. Based on these we need to plan the dripper. And after 4 years of growth, 2 drippers would be needed, one of each side.
What is recommended for live fence?.
Jatropa, Lukky( I will give botanical name later), Bore HaNNina gida(ber fruit/Ziziphus mauritiana), Gliricedia(gliricidia sepium) etc.
How should be plan the short and tall plants for the fence?.
Tallest plants should be placed at the west, morning sunlight from east-side is best for the trees, so, plan accordingly.
My land is having elevation around 4 ft for 200 ft width, how should i plan for leveling?.
It is always better to have a level land for cultivation, so for each 50 ft, try leveling and make the terrace land.
Some of the other things that he said that needs mention are.
One of the main reason for water level going down is failed borewels ( apart from all other reasons). We do not have any clue what is benith the ground, there are possibilities that there is a great void, so you do not get any water and this will suck all the water around that area and the water level goes below. So, ensure any failed borewell is refilled, show the same interest you should to dig the well while filling it back and ensure it is filled properly.
Preparing the land ( /pit) is very important, this is the base on which you grow the plant that will survive long years. Ensure proper method is used while preparing the base.
Plant needs to be placed in the prepared pit, this need to be covered completely in the newly done pit, ensure, you place one layer of sand around the area of the plant ( this the area which was used by the plant growing bag).
We could not do any farm visits, during discussion Sri Ramesh mentioned it is too early to understand anything by just looking. We were running out of time also.
Bangalore boys have done. Who is next?
Congratulations, Bangalore boys! 
Thanks to Sri and GP Rao for organizing this braving a number of reschedules and other constraints. Our thanks are due to Sri. Shetty and Sri. Ramesh for the information and for the venue.
P.S. hegdegg - is it okay to grab the pics straight into this thread?
Sure Chandra, you could do anything with the pics, it would be helpful to tag the people too. Sorry, for want to time i just loaded it, without even tagging and describing the picture.
Thank you for the write up Sri. I doubt if I have the patience to pen down the whole event. Hats off!!
Just a quick introduction: refer from right to left
GGHegde and Smt Hegde. Rameshv, behind Gunda,Behind Mohan(agri-lover), Subramanian.g.r,rameshv’s friend, behind Prasadbldr, Little girl is G.G’s daughter. Sri Shivanapura Ramesh, Sri2012, front Vinay(the apprentice) behind(in spects) is his friend. Yogesh(grey jersey), Keshav Reddy and his friend.
folks no offense let me know any corrections.
few additions: refer from right to left. GG’s little angel. Sri G.P.Rao. Sri.NR Shetti and Gunda
Hi Team,
It was a wonderful meet. Learnt a lot, but ran short of time to interact with each one of you.
Thanks Sri & GP Rao sir, for arranging such an event. Thanks Ramesh for the commute and Mr Hegde for the photographs and writeup.
As Mr Ramesh said, We should plan a follow up of this event to gain the next steps of farming…
You guys rocks… All the best.
Regards,
agr_lover