In the last week of October, We finished transplanting gliricidia in the far northwest of Annapurna plot 373. This comes after good rainfall overnight that finally pushed the planting work in motion.
Here are a few images from the gliricidia plantation from the previous year, a part that has been shredded down for composting.
The natural diet of bovines largely comprises wild grass, tree leaves and weeds. Increased domestication, however, has motivated farmers to rely on grain-based diets, as it makes it easier to maintain large herds of cattle and harvest higher yields of produce, be it meat or milk. Grains, in comparison to grass, are easy to store, to purchase in bulk, as well as to produce. Second-grade-broken grains are often easily available (read: cheaper) for dairy.
Annapurna dairy currently relies on grains, i.e. millet-based concentrate as well as home-grown fodder and paddy straw. While fodder (greens) is much more nutritional and natural to cattle, the quantity needed for consumption is relatively higher. To grow such quantities, one would require advanced pastoral management (optimum grazing), water, land, as well as protection of the land from other wild vegetarians.
The often asked question to us is how one farm off 135 acres, the answer is to make a system that serves the need of sustaining an organic farm.
A closer look at gliricidia 323BB will help to understand this better as it aims to sustain the rotational fodder for the dairy along with irrigated food crops, such as green gram, late sesame and corn.
For years, Annapurna has been cultivating the most outlying pieces (15-20 acres) of the land under dryland gliricidia plantations to produce fodder and biomass. These gliricidia were originally planted as a dryland crop to biomass for composting-mulching, and nitrogen-fixing to the soil, create organic fodder for the dairy along with far-off land protection and erosion. Food crops used to be grown between the lines of gliricidia as well.
In the month of June 2022, with the help of increased rain harvesting capacity over the years, we prepared alleys (spacing) between gliricidia to cultivate fodder under irrigated conditions. This plot was prepared by shredding down gliricidia alleys to provide the biomass for the first rotation with fodder crop 一 Phaseolus Tribola and perennial fodder Sorghum.
This system was visualized by Tomas years ago as a mean to reduce yearly compost input (creating biomass | organic matter). In the coming season, we intend to observe if the plot will be able to sustain itself with the biomass created from the gliricidia and legume crop rotation. This plot will further rotate into food crops and eventually into a fruit plantations; banana.
The aim is to slowly move towards minimizing the reliance on millet grains to having the herd predominantly fodder (grass)-fed while extending the land under long-term cultivation. As of today we harvested about a ton of leguminous fodder – Phaseolus Tribola and test cut of the perennial fodder sorghum from 392bb.
Alley Cropping System*
Hedgerow intercropping, also referred to as Alley cropping system is a type of strip cropping or agroforestry practice, in which fast growing trees and shrubs are established on the arable lands and annual food or forage crops cultivated in the “alleys” between the hedgerows. The shrubs or trees are usually planted in rows of 2.0 m to 6.0 m apart, with crops cultivated between rows. The trees or shrubs managed as hedges are pruned periodically during cropping phases to prevent shading of companion crop and the pruning applied to the soil as green manure and / or mulch. This improves the organic matter status of the soil besides proving nutrients, especially nitrogen. This system also creates a more favorable microclimate for crops by shielding them from drying winds. Trees or shrubs and crops components are managed to be complimentary rather than competitive.
Rice cultivation and dairy work are the two most intensive activities at Annapurna Farm.
Dairy is thriving throughout the year with a daily need of attention and work to be done. Paddy cultivation is happening for about 7-8 months per year in the field, and is very intensive with peak labor needs at planting and weeding time.
This starts in August with the first paddy seedbed and a small puja (= ceremony) to invoke the gods for good fortune, field preparation, planting, weeding and finally harvesting. We make about 8-10 seedbeds in a period of 80-100 days to be able to plant 20 acres over a period of 3-4 months. We are trying to speed up this process by organizing the work better and use our resources more efficiently every year.
In fact, preparation for this season’s paddy has started directly after the harvest of the previous rice crop by applying compost and establishing a green manure crop (to enhance soil fertility) on the fields since we had late rains and the rainwater harvesting ponds had lots of water. Then there was the preparation of nursery soil in May/June.
Every year we do some experiments and tests to learn, improve and keep our minds from getting into a rut. This year we are introducing a few new varieties of rice which our volunteer Madhuri organized for us last season. Then we do a few plots of direct sowing of paddy with a paddy drum seeder which Tarun, another of our volunteers, borrowed from his farmer friends.
Both these volunteers have moved on but were very helpful in the work here and we are still very much connected to support each other where possible.
Direct sowing of paddy is not new to us, but the drum seeder is, and we want to see if this method of sowing seeds in rows on the field helps us to cut costs of transplanting which is a major expense in the cultivation.
We try to find paddy varieties which suit our conditions and can be sown at any time around the monsoon time so we are more flexible when weather is erratic and unpredictable. Most traditional varieties are very time-bound.
Very slowly we are trying to make the paddy cultivation more resilient and economically efficient, it is a wonderful and endless endeavor and totally in line with our work in Auroville.
Hi there,
A weekly blog to give you a glimpse of our reality at Annapurna farm.
It will sometimes be a bit more elaborate and philosophical, at times short, practical, and to the point.
Right now we are developing more land for green fodder cultivation for the dairy. Our aim is to slowly reduce the concentrate feed which we purchase and replace it with our own-grown nutritional greens.
Since the plot of 1.25 acre had many roots from the previous tree crop it needed a more powerful tractor to rip plow and open it up. We do not have such heavy tools so we got a contractor to do it.
Next, we will put on farm yard manure (fym) which will be plowed in after the next rain.
After this we will install an irrigation system, fence the land with an electrical fence against deer and pigs, and prepare for the fodder crops.
At this point in time Annapurna’s dairy has several cows which are retired and two of them, Welli and Malli, are really getting old and can not keep up with the herd anymore.
These cows were born here and served us their entire lives; we feel it will not be good to sell them to a butcher, which is a common practice.
We have been looking at the different sides of this reality and will continue to do so.
The discussion veers between economic repercussions, emotional attachment, practical reality, animal wellbeing, Indian cultural values and more. It’s not an easy deliberation, and we want to share it with you, in this small note, to give people who do support us in various ways, another understanding of the complexity of farming with our dilemmas, restrictions and possibilities.
In short, if we really want to eat food from happy and sustainable farms, which are managed more humane and are less economical oriented, this will have a serious impact on our lives. Can we, do we want to change our lives for this? What are we willing to do to cultivate such places?
Personally I think, looking at todays reality and taking into consideration public health and the earth’s ecological boundaries, we actually have no choice.
On the ground we have been busy with the usual grain processing to fulfill the weekly incoming grain orders from Foodlink (Auroville’s farm distribution center) and individual communities, then we are bringing in fym to the rice fields for the new season to come, irrigating fodder and fruit crops, and cleaning up the nursery area for a new Gliricidea nursery and fence plants.
