Farm Design - Design One (Ver 2.0)

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we will concentrate on the crops section of the farm design.  We will mainly concentrate on the design structure in this blog and we will see several permutations and combinations in the next blog.

 

The entire Crops Section have been further divided into alternative sections.  The sections are called Trees Section & Open Space Section.

As the name suggests, the Trees Section will be utilized for growing Trees.  The Trees can be grown in this section can be of Long Term Crops as well as Medium Term Crops.

The Trees Section can be utilized for growing Long Term Crops like Mango, Coconut, Tamarind etc as well as for Medium Term Crops like Moringa, Papaya, Banana etc.

The Open Space Section will be utilized for growing Short Term Crops like Vegetables, Flowers, Cereals, Millets etc.

Looking in a different way, we can simply say that any crops that grow in density (like Tomatoes, Paddy etc) will be grown in Open Space Section and some of the crops may even be called Medium Term Crops based on the longevity of the crops.

Tips & Tricks

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, and in this page, you will get Tips & Tricks that will be very useful in improving your overall farming activities and benefit from the same.

Note: As usual, if anybody has anything to share, please provide the same.

Coconut

• Do's
• Dont's
• Have Compost near or in the Coconut Groove (generally palm family trees) as Rhinoceros Beetle is known to lay their eggs in the compost and multiply there and hence it will attack the plants and this may result in reduced coconut production or destruction of the plant itself.

Tomato

• Do's
• Have Sunflower as the supporting plant for the Tomato and this will help the plants to climb onto the Sunflower and no need for any other structures and as well as additional income for the farmers from the Sunflower plants.
• Dont's

Misc

• Do's
• Red Ants are very helpful in controlling pests.  To enable the Red Ants to cover the entire breadth and width of the farm, tie strings from one tree to the other tree above the height of 6 ft or above so that it does not create hindrance for movement of humans or vehicles in the farm.
• Use local Earthworms namely Perionyx excavates (surface dwellers) & Lampito mauritii (subsurface burrowers) for Vermicomposting and other similar activities.
• Have Honeybees and Chilli crops around the farm to avoid elephant entering into the farm.  Honeybees will get disturbed by the elephants and elephants are afraid of honeybees.  Also, elephants dislike the chilli crops as it is hot.
• Wild Pig menace can be avoided by placing human hair cut into small pieces in the path taken by the pigs.  The human hair will enter their nostrils and irritate them.
• Dont's
• Have Coconut Trees planted near Electricity Lines (EB).  Plant Coconut Trees atleast 15 ft away the EB line to avoid power cuts and accidents.

Farm Design - Design One (Ver 1.0)

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, I am presenting the overall farm design and will keep explaining things in detail as we go along.

We will cover the Fence Design, Crops Design, Roads Design in detail by using this picture as a base and later we will cover Livestock Sheds & Living Quarters, if possible.

By using the design, we will know the following:-

• How much land will be utilized for fencing? (Applicable only for Natural/Live/Bio Fencing model)
• What type of plants are grown in which part of the fencing area? (Very useful for tracking as it can be utilized for our own manures & pesticides)
• How much area of roads needs to be provided for?
• What is the size of each road and what type of vehicles can be allowed to travel in that road without interfering/damaging the crops?
• What type of plant is grown in which part of the land?

Design One (Ver1.0)



 

The picture given above is in Square Shape and should be considered as an illustration only and other farms which have different shapes can also incorporate this design easily without any difficulty.

Few Points to note are given below:-

1. The Crops should be planted from East to West keeping in mind the sun's direction.
2. The Livestock shed construction should also be constructed in such a way that the entrance to the shed is either from the South or North.  Also, the entire shed (length) should be from East to West.  This will reduce the heat from the sun to a greater extent.