Going organic - Experiment 101 - Replenishing carbon in the soil

Biochar is a 2,000 year-old practice to convert agricultural waste into a soil enhancer that can hold carbon, boost food security, and increase soil biodiversity, and discourage deforestation. While doing at the field can be harder, we tried to find possible alternatives.

In the processing of paddy into rice, normally the husks are a waste. Now, the mills have found a use for this waste - they use them as fuel to generate steam for boiling. The husks are fired within a chamber and come out as fine charcoal. 

We enquired around and thanks to Mr.Ravanan, owner of Best Builders in Kumbakonam, we identified a rice mill that was happy to let us have the charcoal (our version of Biochar).

Getting it to the fields was easy, but distributing it was whole another story. The tractors got loaded with the ash right from the furnace - the ash at that point was fiery hot. So, we had to unload it outside the field. The mounds remained piping hot for almost 2-3 days.

Right around that time, we had some rains - which made the fields soggy. We could no longer get a loaded tractor trailer into the fields. :(

So, finally, we settled for the next best alternative - here's a video of how we distributed the biochar in our fields. 

Applying Bio-Carbon Supplement from Anand Panimaya on Vimeo.

Perks of being a Farmer #1 - Farm-grown Produce

There are many things I enjoy about our fields and our efforts. I plan to share some of them with you through this series. 

வாழை - கற்பூரவல்லி (Banana - Karpuravalli)

Even though you can get bananas in the market, nothing compares to the joy of cutting down your own banana bunch. 

This bunch is of the variety karpooravalli, a very tasty fruit.

வாழை - மொந்தன் (Banana - Mondan) 

Karpuravalli is for fruits. This is for cooking. Makes for tasty bajjis, and an excellent fry.

புடலங்காய் (Snake Gourd)

The pandal (did you know pandal is an actual English word? I didn't) really looks as if a bunch of snakes hanging in the shade. Especially, the ones without stones tied are very gnarly and curled up, just like snakes.

கொத்தவரை/வெண்டைக்காய்  (Cluster Beans/Okra or Ladies Finger)

 The taste of tender cluster beans is very different from the slightly overripe beans we normally get in the market. Same goes for okra too.

பூசணிக்காய் (Ash Gourd)

 At home, we make a sambhar (curry) with this gourd, that is delicious and goes well with idlis.

கத்தரிக்காய்/பாகற்காய் (Egg Plant/Bitter Gourd)

Our favorite, and most used vegetable is the egg plant. Bitter gourd remains bitter in our preparations, since we slightly undercook it.

காஷ்மீர் மிளகாய் (Chillies - Kashmir)

The chillies were really pretty, but were a bit disappointing, since they were supposed to be really really hot. Instead, they turned out to be just borderline hot. 

Tempted a bit? A little envious? 

Will continue the series...

Start of Kuruvai

We started Kuruvai season with a mix of paddy, sesame, and mixed vegetables on our farm.  

The fields were being prepared for paddy transplantation and I caught a few snaps of the landscape.

A beautiful morning

A panoramic view of a part our farm

My Trusted Royal Hound (Royal Enfield Bullet 350)

This Monday, the paddy seedlings were transplanted into the fields. We used an automated transplanter from Thanjavur. Below is the video:

A Happy Harvest...

We completed harvesting the paddy crop on our Anandham Farm last week. Overall it was a very satisfying exercise for many reasons.

Higher Yield

We got 4.5 tonnes/hectare this season. So far, this is the highest yield for us. We usually get around 24 bags of paddy per acre (each bag is 60kg) - this time it was 30+.

Good Weather

Towards harvest season, we are usually very anxious about rain showers. A single downpour can cause significant damage to the well-grown crop - grains fall to the ground, crops get flattened, the less-expensive "tire machines" harvester cannot be used (when fields are wet, we have to use the "belt" machines, which are almost double as expensive as the alternative). This time there were no significant rains and we were able to utilize harvesters with tires. 

Quick Harvest 

Another major concern is the time taken from the start of the harvest to either selling the paddy or storing it in a secure location. This time, harvest was completed in two days - within those same two days, all the produce was bagged and sewn up. On the third day, we moved everything to the mill for conversion to rice. 

Escaped BPH

There was an extended period of cloud cover during December 2014. This leads to pest infestations and there were severe infestations of BPH (Brown Plant Hopper, Pugayan in Tamil) all over the delta area. Many fields looked like this. However, we had chosen a hardier variety of paddy (CR1009 - naturally resistant to BPH), and also applied bio-pesticides (mainly neem oil cake, and my dad's concoction of indigenous herbs) in anticipation of pest infestation. We had a minor infestation of False Smut (nel pazham in Tamil), but contained it with the above mentioned natural means.

Some thoughts

The Marketing Model

Even though the yield for many farmers was very much less than average (due to the BPH infestation and other reasons), the procurement price set by merchants/middlemen was very low (lower than last year's prices). Price for a 60kg bag of paddy was quoted anywhere from INR800 to INR870. For reference, we sold our paddy last year at INR900/60kg bag. 

One of the reasons was that the cultivated area, especially in the delta region was higher than in the previous few years. So, overall production expected to be more; price set less. The other reason is the chronic inavailability of affordable, and safe storage space. Additionally, many small and medium farmers depend on the proceeds of this crop to run their family for the next 4-6  months, and repay their loans. The merchants/middlemen make the most of these reasons and collude to set the price. 

We had already decided to stock part of our crop for sales later in the year and direct marketing of rice. Given the poor prices, we worked out the economics and decided to store the entire crop. This is possible since we are not dependent on the sale of this crop for sustenance. 

Role model?

Since we started Anandham Farms 4 years back, we've practiced the NPM model. This has been met with a strong dose of skepticism from the local farmers, which is partly due to the nature of the organic movement. 

The organic farming movement advocates extreme practices for a crop to be termed "organic". This includes immediate and complete cessation of use of any chemical inputs. However, for small and medium farmers, a single crop failure often stands between financial bankruptcy and wellbeing. So, they just ignore the call to turn to organic farming. 

My dad has been a staunch believer in the middle road of just abolishing the direct poisons (pesticides, weedicides, and fungicides) used in the field. We use green manure, manure, neem oil cake as base fertilizers. We augment this with natural preparations such as panchakavya, and agniastra. We watch the crops carefully and supplement them with fertilizers only when needed. We use less than a quarter of the agri department recommended levels for fertilizers. 

Using these techniques, we have never lost our investment on any of the major crops since the beginning. Our higher yields this year, I hope, will encourage more farmers in the area to try our approach. A couple of medium farmers have already started experimenting on small sections of their fields.