Farm Design - Design One (Ver 3.0)

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we will be covering an important design aspect by which rain water is harvested as part of the design. Water as a resource is becoming scarce and every farmer needs to ensure that water is saved for future use.

We can easily incorporate Rain Water Harvesting in this design without much difficulty.

Each of the Trees Space can be utilized for this purpose.  We need to dig  trenches of size 2 Ft Width and 1.5 Ft Depth and the Length is the entire length of the Trees Space.  This method of farming is called Trench Farming.  Please note that the Trees are grown in these trenches only.

• The advantage of this method of Rain Water Harvesting is that we do not have to sacrifice/allocate land for the purpose of Rain Water Harvesting separately.
• It helps reduce soil erosion due to rains/water run-off.
• Improves the ground water levels.
• During the non rainy season, we can use the trenches for putting the broken twigs, fallen branches of trees, leaves etc and this will become compost.

Please note that the excess water after filling the trenches, if any, should be collected in wells, ponds etc or should be made to leave the farmland in a graceful manner.

Note:  Rain Water Harvesting is possible only when there is a Run-Off of Rain Water.

Farm Design - Design One (Ver 2.2)

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we will cover the various permutations and combinations of Long Term Crops (mainly Trees) & Medium Term Crops (again mainly Trees) and their placement at a basic design level.

So far, we have covered where the Trees will occupy the spaces in the field.  But now, we will see the different options within the Trees Space as well.

I have provided 6 options above and we will discuss them in detail below.  The Options that marked with * can be applied for Long Term Crops & Medium Term Crops as well.

Option 1

• This option is a very generic option and no specific crops have been mentioned.  The Long Term Crops specifically means that we should only plant crops that are long term in nature and similarly Medium Term Crops specifically means that we should only plant crops that are medium term in nature.
• The only requirement in this option is that we have to alternate between Long Term Crops & Short Term Crops in each row.
• The advantage is that the entire row needs attention at the same time whether it is pruning, manuring, pesticide requirements, harvest etc.
• This option is very simple in nature when compared to the other options.

Option 2*

• This option has Single Type Fruit Crops in one row and Single Type Timber Crops in alternate row.
• The only requirement in this option is that only one Fruit Crop (eg Mango) has to be planted in one row and followed by one Timber Crop (eg Teak) in the next row.
• The third row can be a different Fruit Crop (eg Coconut) and the fourth row can be a different Timber Crop (eg Red Sanders) as well.
• The advantage is that the entire row needs attention at the same time whether it is pruning, manuring, pesticide management, harvest etc.
• Another advantage in this option is that the alternate row is occupied by Timber Crops and the crown size generally will be very less and hence the Odd Rows (Fruit Crops) will get sufficient space to grow.
• This option is again very simple in nature.

Option 3*

• This option has Single Type Fruit Crops (eg Mango) in one column and followed by Single Type Timber Crops (eg Teak) in the next column.
• The second row can be a different Fruit Crop (eg Coconut) as well as the same or entirely different Timber Crop (eg Teak or Red Sanders).
• The advantage in this option is that the alternate column is occupied by Timber Crops and the crown size generally will be very less and hence the Fruit Crops will get sufficient space to grow.
• The complications starts here as we have 2 different crops in the same row and hence has to be managed differently.

Option 4*

• This option has Single Type Fruit Crops (eg Mango) in one column and followed by Multiple Type Timber Crops (eg Melia + Teak + etc) in the next columns.
• The second row can be a different Fruit Crop (eg Coconut) as well as the same or entirely different Timber Crops (eg Melia + Teak + etc or Pencil + Red Sanders + etc).
• The advantage in this option is that the alternate column is occupied by Timber Crops and the crown size generally will be very less and hence the Fruit Crops will get sufficient space to grow.
• The complications starts here as we have 1 fixed Fruit Crop and 2 or more different Timber Crops in the same row and hence has to be managed differently.

Option 5*

• This option has Multiple Type Fruit Crops (eg Mango + Sapota + etc) and followed by Multiple Type Timber Crops (eg Melia + Teak + etc) in the next columns.
• The second row can be the same or entirely different set of Fruit Crops (eg Mango + Sapota + etc or Coconut + Tamarind + etc) as well as the same or entirely different Timber Crops (eg Melia + Teak + etc or Pencil + Red Sanders + etc).
• The advantage in this option is that the alternate column is occupied by Timber Crops and the crown size generally will be very less and hence the Fruit Crops will get sufficient space to grow.
• The complications starts here as we have 2 or more different Fruit Crop and 2 or more different Timber crops in the same row and hence has to be managed differently.
• Those who use this option has to maintain records properly to knows which crops stands where.
• A mini forest is being created in this option.

Option 6

• This option is a very generic option and no specific crops have been mentioned.
• One of the  requirements in this option is that we have to alternate between Long Term Fruit Crops & Long Term Timber Crops in the same row.
• The other requirement in this option is that we have to alternate between Medium Term Fruit Crops & Medium Term Timber Crops in the next row.
• The advantage in this option is that the alternate column is occupied by Timber Crops and the crown size generally will be very less and hence the Fruit Crops column will get sufficient space to grow.
• Another advantage in this option is that both the crops (more or less) will attain maturity at the same time since we are going for the same type of longevity of the crops and hence the entire row can be managed properly.
• A mini forest is being created in this option.