The forum introductions

Hello FarmNesters

Greetings. This is geekgardener from Bangalore. I run the website: geekgardener.in/ which focuses on urban gardening and hydroponics. My interests include Planting in limited spaces, Hydroponics/Soilless agriculture. I have been a silent spectator in this forum since long time. Looking forward to learn and share.

-gg

Hello,

Wellcome to the Forum. We are happy to hear new things from you.

Thank you

Biofarms
09947892496

Hi,

I am Girish from Karnataka and from agri family, currently abroad. We have around 50 acers. We have one plot with 36 acers with 5 borewells, fensed, gated and has a 1000sq ft farm house and others are like 5 acers, 2 acers…

Initially we leases leased the farm to monsonto for research maize plot and other short term leases.
We did lot of work/investment for the infrastructure and almost done as per my dream plot with few more works in progress.
We have constructed a water tank of 60ft X 60 ft X 9 ft which can store 8 lakhs liter water in the 36 acer plot.

Our stay abroad got extended and we found that its very hard to maintain the farm sitting remotely and we are looking to lease the farm till we are back in India.

Thanks,
Girish

Girish: What kind of tank have you built? ferrocement, underground or overground? please could you share the details on cost of this as well? do you harvest rainwater into this tank?

Hi Brijesh,

We spent around 5 lakhs, with concrete to the floor and cement brick and plastering to the wall. The soild dugged to make the tank is being used to make the road through the length of the farm.The tank is at the ground level and the land has a good elevation at the center of the farm where we have the tank, which has head of 20 feet and we can irrigate around 20 acers without pump. We have plans to have a booster pump in future if we need to use the water for drip/spinkler/rain gun.

We have seperate pits(4) for rainwater harvestment and its working good and able to harvest most of the water.

Thanks,
Girish

what do you mean pits for rainwater harvest? you mean recharge pits? how do you know if they recharge into the aquifier? did you use the services of an hydrologist to figure out where to dig these pits or did you dig them at random near your borewells? apologies for all these questions as I am trying to gather data for my farm project

regards,
Brijesh

The recharge pits were already there when we acquired the land. 3 pits are near(around 30 ft) to the 2 borewells and other is little away from the borewells. Two recharge pits are has the lot of stones underneath.

Thanks,
Girish

hi,
I am Anand, from Bangalore. I am a farming, armchair enthusiast. I have some experience gardening in my terrace though :slight_smile:. I am professionally in the User Experience field. So I like to see even farming through that angle. Simple things like, how lobbying for a particular food, like soyabean can make it famous in an area alien to it. Or how people’s food preferences change over time. Earlier (say 50 years ago), the more refined some food stuff was (for ex. wheat flour) it was considered much better socially. It was also linked to economic status, the more you are up the ladder, the more refined things you would eat. But if you see right now, people have again gone back to whole-wheat bread, and brown rice, towards unrefined and the natural. ‘Unrefined’ in turn becomes ‘More Natural’.

I would love to learn a lot from active farmers, as I have also this dream of having a farm someday. And if I find something in my field which might be related to farming I would pass that along as well.

Cheers,
Anand

Hi! everyone,

I am from Kolkata, West Bengal. I have a small consulting business in investment. So no background in farming! But I am originating from a village and have a keen interest at farming in a commercial way. Recently I am taking my time read about hydroponics farming in this forum. I want to know more about this technique in a cost effective commercial way. So I decided to join this forum to learn from experienced fellow. I solicit the favour of your guidence.

My objectives are:
Be able to set up a model small farm which ends up making money workable even in small land holdings.
Find hydrophonics very interesting, but is it workable in cost effective commercial way.
Looking for start up funding.

You may contact @ sudip_mfa@yahoo.co.in or +919830510546

Sudip Dutta

Hi All…

I Vinod Kumar Jain, introducing myself as seed sellers or exporters of niger seeds, sesame seeds, basil seeds, tamarind, sunflower seeds, linseed, cassia tora seeds in India.

Today, I have joined the group to share my experience in this agricultural commodities field and also to explore my knowledge about agri seeds from you all.

perhaps, it could be kari jali. it is a very useful medicinal tree. its bark, pods, are of good medicinal value. its timber is of great value.
the presence of this tree in a place indicates that the soil is very fertile and water is not stagnating.
we have been using this since long time in vidharbha.
if it is bili jali then the soil is very sandy. it has also medicinal uses.

Hi i am Isabelle Bichindaritz from Washington and i am newbie
in this community hopefully to learn lot from you guys

Best Regards,
Isabelle Bichindaritz

Hi Welcome on board of this Forum & have attached gift for you.

Please let us know what best we can do for you?
Will you help us to know anything related to agriculture there in US?

Hi, I am Sridhar Purohit from Hyderabad, India. A farming enthusiast but with whole lot of In-experience in farming :slight_smile: being born and brought up in a city. Have been looking out for a small farm land for sometime and so far unsuccessful.

Hope to learn from you all and inch towards my goal of being a farmer someday.

Warm regards

Sridhar

Hai Friends,

I am Tony Thomas, an organic farmer since 1994. I live in my farm near Mannarkkad of Palakkad District, Kerala. Finding that organic farming is the only way to survive, now trying to spread the details in Kerala. Also working as an Environment Activist, realizing that any change to the environment will firstly affect the farming.
Regards
Tony Thomas
tony.indian@gmail.com


One of my retirement plans was to do farming. I have no farming background. But farms always attracted me. I had good support from my wife. In April 2010, we got approximately 2 acres (5 guntas less) of land near Hyderabad - 60 KM from Begumpet. The exact location is Yellakonda Village, Nawabpet Taluk, Vikarabad, Rangareddy District, Andhrapradesh. Plain land with red soil and its east is tarred road connecting Mubarakpur village to Shankarpally and Sangareddy. Our land is 3 KM away from main road and is 13 KM from Shankarpally. Nearest Railway station is Ravulapally Railway station, 3 KM away. Passenger train stops here and the commuting time between this place and Begumpet is 1 hr 15 mts.

Prior to my buying, maize, jowar and cotton was cultivated during rainy season. My plan was organic farming. We dug 200 pits and planted different varieties of fruit plants. Installed a drip irrigation system through Jain Drip Irrigation. These plants are now 3 months old. In between these plants, which are 21’ apart, I plan to do some vegetable cultivation, which is yet to start. Before that I need to have a small shelter for me there. I may go for a portable cabin to start with.

I need to find out source for good quality vegetable seeds, farm tools, organic fertilizer and pesticides, etc. If possible, I would like to make a small house with locally available material like laterite stone (red stone) for walls, Tandur or Kadappa stone for flooring, Granite stones, etc. I am not sure how far I will succeed. I am interested to know availability of Desi Cow near this place and buy one or two. I have been extensively browsing and finding so many useful information which I think I may be able to implement at my place.

Looking forward to help from all of you,

With warm regards and assuring you all of sharing whatever little I know,

T Shanmughan
9849983969

P.S. Latest photo of my land attached






Dear Ahanmugam,
Well come to forum and have a great ahead with forum.
It is nice to know that people like you are interested to serve mother earth after JOB.
Iam sure that you will get such a happiness in farming that you might not got from the past.

Iam alway for you to see you success in farming and eating your healthy food grown with your own hands.
Search with nearby villages for desi cows.
It is nice to know from you that you are going to utilize all the materials of your own land itself, that is good news.

Dear Sway,

Thanks a lot for your encouraging note.

As suggested, I will look out for nearby villages for Desi cow.

I find a picture of a grass below your mail. What is it? Is it any medicinal grass?

By the by, I have also started a blog (Blog address is shanmughan@gmail.com) to record my farming experience and other areas of interest. This way I got some exposure on how to make a blog. Similar way I started to design my farm house and later stumbled on a free tool named Google sketchup. With this tool, I could translate my ideas very easily to 3D pictures. 2 byproducts of farming!!

Looking forward to more helping tips on farming for novices…

With warm regards,

T Shanmughan

Hi/
That is Ragi aged about 45 days.
I will try to do needful from my end for seeing you happy in farming.

Hi FellowFarmers,
I am a graduate in computer science going for my MBA now. I am very interested in farming and and anything related to the food industry. I have researched the topic of vertical farming very deeply. Although I don’t have any experience in actual farming I hope I will learn a lot from you guys.