VHSLegends Farms Visit

August, 15, 2019

VHS Legends - Field trip to Farms

Team: Facing Left to Right

N. Vijaysaie – Forest and Tree Expert

V.N. Prabhu - General Mentor (Business, Career & Life) - 

P.B. Sunderasan – Owner – SriVari Coirs 

J. Govindraj – Owner – Splendour Seeds - 

First Farm Visit -  Mr. Murali and Dr  Karpagam’s Farm:

NOTES - The place that we visited at Papampatti 13 KM's from Chettipalayam is so dry. Coconut trees have dried in this  place.  The well is also fully dry with no water at all. Here they have followed the pot method to grow vegetables. The place is 20 acres of barren land. 

To this next is the agro-forestry where they grow trees using the Japanese technology – Miyawaki Forest creation. Here the plants are divided into 3 types like short medium and tall growing trees. They are grown mixed with spacing of 3 feet between plants. Water is poured to each plant once  a week. 

During Aug 15, 2018,  they planted and this year they are grown to some extent. They have hired one person for watering the plants and he has done a good job to make the plants grow successful. It is in a 2 acre area. The soil is black soil. By 2 years from now it will have a very good green cover. These farm  owners have shown it, it is possible to grow even in a very dry area.  We found with Sai's help that few type of trees were growing very well in that soil like malai vembu  and some fruit plants.  Sai also suggested growing them in large scale with necessary growing tips like soil depth etc. They were so impressed. We too said we can provide necessary plants if needed . Even though we don't have now we can arrange. They grew teak in nearby field and after inspection by Sai, we informed them  it was not of commercial grade and not worthy, so we suggested changing the crop. 

They gave us a send off with a small treat of puffs and sweet. They were so kind and very friendly.

Second Farm Visit – Prabhu. C’s Farm – another VHS Legend:

NOTES - 

C prabhu has done lots of research in tree planting using trial and error method. He has dedicated much to the study of trees,  it's climatic and soil requirements and has learned a lot from failures to give share out his experience for over 15 years. His 90 acres of lands are filled with more of trees than that of any crops. His field has to undergo many droughts and some trees have survived while some cash crop trees has failed or totally dried out. 

He has first tried out with few trees for some years before going for large scale plantations with some new species in this area. He has introduced Jack fruit (Pala), mahogany, red sandal, teak, sandal, nila vembu mango, eeti to name a few. These trees are planted in large areas.  He also informed some plants such as Nelli, Vanilla, Agar were total failures in his area. Some varieties of Nila vembu were failures to be known and to be removed after a few years of planting. He has successfully grown two acres of red sandal wood with age of 12 years for 2 acres. He shared the difficulties in bringing up the trees he faced. Introduced pala in his field and one could see the tree which is to produce fruits in near future. The seeds were sourced as fully grown fruits from growers directly after thorough inspection of parent seeds of Parent trees. He has dug up and strengthened the existing pond for rain water harvesting 

and to recharge wells in up to 1000 feet radius.

Third Farm - EAFarms

At ea farms we were welcomed by Sekar, 

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another VHS product along with some naatu Koli family, a little dog , few cows 

and the greenery of the farm. Sekar informed about bore recharge and about the vethallai plant, teak trees and took us through the tall bushes towards the newly dug pond of 30 X 18 Meters.  He explained about methods adapted to distract peacocks from ground nut plants. 

Just told that he saw a big snake of the size of a hand to keep us awake and alert. Many trees in the social forestry area vanished because of drought conditions and the survived trees have grown well. The pond near to the shed was deepened and Sekar told had 3 feet of water during the rain and had seeped down to ground.  We had a bunch of spinach to take home that too organic.

A NATURE STROLL AT EAFARMS AGRO FORESTRY AREA 

After stepping outside EAFarms, we saw this farm pond near the river fully filled up after the recent rains.

Finally after great farm visit and gathering knowledge and information  the team was tired and hungry. The team had great sumptuous biriyani and meals  and  mint-ginger mocktail. 

Thanks to PBS & family.

Great Independence Day 2019 and we will move forward.