The reason I didn’t comment for a long time is that I am no expert or a practicing farmer but I have decided to be one very shortly ( I know many would say that only a practicing farmer can preach or has the right to talk)
I have been following the discussion and is turning to be extremely useful for a beginner like me 
In the past one month I have visited over 15 farms and yes all of them are natural farms ( some say they follow palekar some say they devised it themselves as this system is very old). True that this method doesn’t belong to Palekar it’s just that he is promoting it. Yes, I do agree with the fact that he comes down too strong on other systems and is very repetitive ( I am also one of the vicitims of buying all his five books, I finished it in a week as it was highly repetitive….LOL 
) .
In this farm trail I learnt some golden rules:
- Distant farming can only be a distant dream. One needs to be there 24/7 in the farm to be successful, stepping out is asking for trouble.
- Don’t trust anyone or Don’t rely on labors be ready to get your hands dirty.
- There is no fixed formula for all the fields, you need to find the right technique and formula for your farm (No copy paste
)
- Do all your dirty work yourself.
- It must be a family run unit and not a corporate model.
- Trench irrigation is better than any other method.
- Invest nothing or rather keep it negligible .
The last rule was the one which made me do this trail, I knew this last rule even before starting the farm visits. My policy was simple “even if didn’t gain a penny I wouldn’t lose one either”
All the farmers I met are luckily making a good sum of money with the least amount of efforts.
- Making 6 lakhs an acre.
A dream for me too and no one but Krishnappa promises that kind off amount. All the others say they earn anywhere between 1.5 to 2 lakhs an acre. The specialty of Krishnappa’s farm (atleast according to me ) is that he is only guy I have seen who has grown his farm exactly the way Palekar says. I mean the field plan (3636 method) is implemented only in his field. The rest of them have modified their fields but none has replicated the 3636 method, simple reason being they don’t want to chop down a fully grown coconut or areca nut tree. All of them do multicrop and do practice the 5 layer method. The most common combo that I have seen is Coconut, areca nut, Banana and turmeric( yes I know one layer is missing but they seem to be satisfied with this income itself, don’t ask me why 
).
All the farms that I have visited have been converted from chemical to Natural farm. Thus the 36*36 method has not been implemented very religiously but yes they have planted in more than what should be (at least as per agri univ).
One of the famers I met in Andhra has converted his mousambi orchard into a multi-crop farm.
(viewers who know Telugu can view the link below)
youtube.com/watch?v=qa0wd98h7OU
He has modified the 36*36 model and implemented it in his farm pretty well.
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“There are 6 farmers I know that have moved away from Palekar and 2 have modified the method.”
Dear Sir,
For my own benefit and for the benefit of others can you please give me the details of these farmers. I will visit them and add them to my farm trail.
Post my farm trail I was thoroughly convinced that ZBNF is the ahead 
, until I bumped into this post, 
thus I kindly request you provide me the details of those who moved away from ZBNF.
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“Regarding the 5 layer model. It seems that Krishnappa has implemented it, why does he not come out with yield & revenue data from the past 5 years, why does he dodge the question. The same with his sugarcane model. Let me give you a contrasting example. There is a sugarcane farmer called Suresh Desai, of-course he is an organic farmer and developed a water efficient way of growing sugarcane with inter-crops. He clearly demonstrates that hard data backed by experience of income and costs. I’m trying to get his presentation and will post it here for record.
If I’m claiming an income of 6 laks per acre, the burden of proof is on me and I have to present the data. Why don’t people question Krishnappa and request him to explain. “
Well I have an answer for this one for sure. I visited one farmer who is situated around 75kms from Mettur dam. He is a follower of “Namalvaar” ( south india’s Palekar but a very interesting a knowledgeable man, he has done his bachelor’s in agri before doing all this). This guy (the farmer) has documented all is expenses and earnings in a book and he says the only reason for documenting it is to show the world that ZBNF works. His farm was magic, as his was the only farm which was green while all the rest of the farms around where not so green or almost dry ( 95% of them depend on water from Mettur dam, even he was depending on the same. When I was visiting his farm he was having a well dug up, he said the well will be ready in a weeks time ).
He said he hadn’t watered the farm for a year as there was no water from the dam, and thus his yield for that year was very poor. I was blown away by the fact that a banana plantation didn’t die even after not watering it for a year ( hard to believe, sounded like a Rajinikanth movie story 
), but there was no other water source in the farm so I had to believe . He says his soil structure was so good that water retention was very high and even he was talking about the capillary action. Also he says that his intercropping saved him.
Anyone can visit him and he will be happy to show around his farm and his account books.
He says one can easily make 1.5 – 2 lakhs per acre.
Now after doing this bit of research I was thinking I was on the right track, but now I feel a bit dizzy.
Can the forum members provide a tried and trusted fool proof method which I can implement and be it anyway Chemical, organic or anything else and be sure that I will win for sure.
My goal is to be successful farmer and not a messenger of any particular method.
Seeking guidance from all the Forum gurus….
