Update from the polyhouse

Its been close to 2 months since I started the plantation in the polyhouse. The Journey has been quite eventful, to say the least. I say this since apart from the taking care of the plants, I was also busy tackling some administrative issues.

As I started the 2 months back, the monsoon season had just started. In this part of the world, it rains quite heavily and I was ready for that. However planning on paper and actually facing a situation are 2 different things. As heavy rains continued, I kept the polyhouse windows closed to prevent rain water from entering inside. This led to lack of ventilation inside. Higher humidity all around compounded the problem and I realised that plant growth was slow. However remedial steps have been taken in time.

A weekly schedule has been drawn up for sowing seeds and vegetables are being planned in different rows. Both direct sowing and transplantation methods are being adopted. However currently I am seeing better results with direct sowing than with transplantation.

This week I have started the harvest for the produce. The first Cucumber and Basil from the polyhouse was harvested this week. But the quantity is very less right now. 

Basil

Coriander

Cucumber

Okra

In the coming fortnite, I am looking forward to coriander, Okra (Lady’s Finger) and Karela (Bitter Gourd), apart from Cucumber and Basil.

Vegetable Chain - Farm to your plate

Weekend vegetable shopping features high on the “must do” activities for most people. And the first point of contact is invariably your friendly “sabjiwala” in the mandi. You choose your veggies, haggle a bit about prices complaining how vegetable prices have shot through the roof and how he is not rewarding his loyal customers, friendly banter, cribs and bargaining done, you finish your weekly errand.

The interesting part is we never ever ask/ or are aware of the travails of the poor tomato or for that matter any vegetable, in getting into your hands; price is just one part

So here is Ratan. Ratan grows vegetables on his land, some distance away from my farm. He harvests the produce late in the evening and then carries the produce to Bhiwandi APMC the next morning. The transportation cost is borne by the farmers themselves.

Vegetables are packed and transported in these bags

Vegetables from the farm are packed in bags like these, that result in more damage down the supply chain. Cabbages survive the assault of packed like tin of sardines in netted bag lifted on shoulders and flung around..well!

Here these vegetables are weighed and sold to the middle men, after price negotiations. This could be a one-to-one negotiation or some kinda-auction. The quality of the produce is checked and anything that is damaged or unlikely to get sold is taken out before weighing. Here the farmer is a price taker. So even if the price does not cover his cost, he has to accept the price. And mostly that is the case.

Vegetables are kept in sun that accelerates their damage

The middlemen aggregate the produce and this is then taken to the Vashi APMC market, to the wholesale traders.

So much physical labour means that some guys do need a bit of rest. What better way than using the produce as cushions for resting. 

Nice bed for resting

The wholesale traders at Vashi then pass on the vegetables to the retail shopkeepers. The online portal sellers typical have tie-ups with some wholesale traders that help them to get the vegetables at competitive prices.

The damaged produce is just thrown off, without a proper disposal system

At each stage of handling, due to the multiple loading/unloading and passage of time, the vegetables get damaged. This results in some amount of wastage at every stage.

Accounting for the losses at each stage and the profit margins, about 30 –50% gets added to the vegetable cost. It is estimated that close to 30-35% of fresh vegetables are damaged in transit, before it reaches the end consumer.

Finally we consumers end up paying for multi-level inefficiencies of the system. And then, even after shelling out money, there is no assurance on the quality of the produce. The manner in which the vegetables are handled in the supply chain impacts the quality of produce reaching our plates.

Imagine now a situation where you get vegetables from a farm that you know about and directly delivered to your home. The inefficiencies don’t exist, quality is assured and what is more you get it a much better rate. My mind is ticking!

Engineering Solutions

Last few days were quite busy in closing smaller aspects of the infrastructure setup. But these smaller aspects are typically large in numbers and you end up spending a lot of time on closing them.

In the last post, I mentioned about the installation of the fogger system. Though the system was installed, the testing was still pending. After I procured the motor for the fogger, the entire system was ready to test.

The pump was switched on and voila ... the fogger system was working. But the next minute it stopped. The motor was still on... and I could hear the water flowing. And then we realised that the fogger line end caps had come off, thereby dropping the pressure in the entire line and stopping the fogger. Thinking that the end cap was not fitted properly, we again “properly” fitted the end caps. However the same sequence continued, Motor on, fogger works for a minute and then the end caps pop off..... leaving me perplexed...

Now it was time to approach this in a more scientific way. The fogger line, connections, fittings were checked ok. And then, the pressure gauge reading at the pump output, in the fogger line surprised us. The foggers were to be operated at rated pressure of 4.5 kg/cm2. But the foggers were activated when the gauge showed a pressure of 2.5kg/cm2. And as the pressure approached 4.5kg/cm2, the end caps popped off. This observation was indeed surprising since the foggers were getting activated well before the rated operating pressure.

That took me back to the drawing board, to analyse the design of fogger system. Each fogger is designed to operate at 4.5kg/cm2 and discharges 22lit/hr. With nearly 60 foggers, the discharge is about  1320 lit/hr. But the fogger pump discharges upto 1800 lit/hr, at the desired pressure of 4.5kg/cm2.

This implied excess water of 480lit/hr was getting accumulated in the fogger line, and creating the additional pressure which was getting built up in the fogger line.

Now with the problem identified, it was down to getting a solution for the same. The solution we zeroed on was to provide a return path to the excess water in the fogger line. With the pressure release valve in place the fogger system was now up and running.

Other smaller issues like connecting the main line to the power fence (as alternate power source, especially during rainy season), tweaking of the drip lines, electrical connection inside the polyhouse etc. were also completed during the last few days. Waiting for the next round of challenges that nature is going to throw at me during the rainy season.

Get Set Go ....

While the “battle” was on with the dogs, the internal work of the polyhouse was continuing. A mixture of red soil, cowdung and rice husk was spread inside the polyhouse. Red soil is used since it drains the water easily. Cowdung adds to the fertility of the soil. Rice husk ensures that the porosity of the planting medium is maintained.

 

Rice husk added to the soil

After the soil mixed with cowdung and rice husk was spread, planting beds were prepared.

 

Beds are ready

On these beds, the drip lines were laid. The drip lines ensure that only enough water is given to the plants and unlike conventional farming methods, water wastage is avoided. The Fogger system was also installed, that would help in maintaining the temperature and humidity inside the polyhouse.

 

Drip irrigation lines installed

The final step in the infrastructure preparation was fumigation of the beds. The fumigation was carried out with a 3.5% solution of Hydrogen peroxide. This would reduce the incidences of soil borne diseases.

And so finally after much trails and tribulations, the polyhouse is ready. And I am ready to plant the vegetable seeds in it. As already decided, I am adopting the organic method of vegetable cultivation.

Now there is a huge debate on what exactly is “Organic” – check out this article that appeared in Mint few days back. http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/3XsC4njkOUmz29mZGlKeQO/Trend-Tracker--The-great-green-wash.html

At my farm, vegetables will be grown without use of chemicals. The inputs used would be certified organic inputs and I am also planning to go for an organic certification for my vegetables.

In the coming few weeks, the organic produce will be ready for consumption.  And Yes this can be a part of the food on your table too. Watch this space for more details

Who let the dogs out

That planning alone doesn’t yield best results was something that I had learnt quite the hard way in the corporate world . Therefore to not expect such a thing on my entrepreneurial venture would have been foolhardy to say the least. But I hadn’t expected it to come so soon!

My external structure for the poly house was ready; work had started on the work to be done in the internal section of the polyhouse.

But unfortunately, we had a new problem on hand.

We have few wild dogs around the farm that have had a history of creating trouble. Anticipating this, I had planned an electric fencing for the polyhouse. But with a lot of material movement expected during the polyhouse installation, I had only put the foundation for the supports and the fencing was scheduled for a later date.

With the plastic structure in place, the dogs found an easy target. They did not stop at just rolling in the soil. They forced their way into the structure by tearing off the plastic at 2 places on the first day.

I was disappointed to see that when I visited the farm the next day. Assuming that the dogs are intelligent, I thought they would use this as the path to enter the polyhouse on subsequent day till I take care of the fencing part.Guess that was asking too much out of them!. I was not too worried about the dogs at that point since there were bigger issues to tackle then.

However to my surprise, the next day, the dogs tore off the plastic at 2 more places. This was enough to trigger a “war-like-crisis” situation. I quickly reached out to the vendor who had to complete the  wiring work. However it took 2 more days before the guys could come over and fit the fencing wire. Till then the dogs inflicted further damage. In all the dogs had damaged the plastic at 7 places.

It surely was a bit of a setback  and frankly I didn’t know how to fix the damn thing. I was already delayed on the sowing season and didn’t want such irritants to crop up. It needed some quick thinking on my part. 

With some inputs from experts, the problem was ironed out…literally. We used a clothing iron to stick together plastic sheet pieces, covering the damaged sections.

The fence that I have now put around the polyhouse is a solar powered electric fence. The details are fascinating so here goes

• The Security Fence System produces a high voltage in the range of 6.0 KV to 9.9KV to deter, detect and deny physical intrusion by giving the intruder a short, sharp and painful shock.
• The Energizer will be able to check the fence around 50 times a minute and the instant the pulsated wires are cut or tampered, a built-in-alarm will immediately alert the monitoring personnel and the seucrity authorities.
• External Audio Alarm will be activated if anyone touches/ breaks the fence.
• Solar PV Module will charge the Lead Acid Battery. For handling the issue of lack of sun in rainy season, Auxiliary supply of 230V AC is also provided.

Post the installation of the fence, the dogs have tried to intrude but they have been unsuccessful.  Mission accomplished.. Phew!

Polyhouse - Work in Progress

As I researched more on polyhouse, I was convinced that it would indeed be a very effective infrastructure for my commercial farming activity. I decided to get formal training in this. As a result, I completed greenhouse management training at Horticulture Training Centre, Talegaon near Pune.

There I came across a group of farmers who carry out vegetable cultivation in polyhouses using organic methods. This was a perfect combination for me. I went ahead and attended a 3-day workshop that the farmers group conducts on organic vegetable cultivation.

With the backing of knowledge from 2 formal training courses and my 3 years of agriculture experience, I was ready for the big plunge. I decided to go ahead with the polyhouse construction.

I decided to begin with a smaller one, so that I can carry out my experiments here. I chose an area of 450 sq.m. Though the work should have been completed in a short time, the actual construction took longer than expected. This was primarily due to unavailability of skilled labour for polyhouse erection.

At the time of this writing, the external structure of the polyhouse is ready and internal work (bed preparation, drip lines etc) needs to be completed.

Attached are the few snaps of the polyhouse erection.

Frames are formed using the pipes. You can see the foundation pipes with the concrete.

The frames have been put together

The first plastic sheet has been put on top

The structure is ready. Double door entry

An insider’s view. The heaps of red soil and cow dung will be spread inside

From Weekend Farmer to Agripreneur

Start of Season III was on a silent note. I decided to skip paddy cultivation; I wanted to get into this full time; I was realising how most people in cities were unhappy about the quality of vegetables, grains etc they were getting and there maybe an opportunity there- a good commercial opportunity. The entrepreneur in me was working overtime. My brain was now working more on how I can commercialize the activities at the farm.

I started putting down the major obstacles that I had encountered during the last 2 years. I realized that the biggest 2 constraints for me were

Non-availability of labour

Labour is unavailable to work on the field. They prefer to work in godowns around my farm, where they say “atleast we get to work in shade, unlike agriculture”. Despite these problems, if one is successful in getting labour, it is prohibitively expensive.

Production all round the year

During the rainy season, only rice cultivation and only limited vegetables are possible. In the Summer season, again only a limited set of vegetables can be grown, considering the heat and limited availability of water. That leaves out close to half the year not very favourable for vegetables

The optimum solution for the above mentioned issues is polyhouse.

Wikipedia describes polyhouse as “A polytunnel (also known as a polyhouse, hoop greenhouse or hoophouse, or high tunnel) is a tunnel made of polyethylene, usually semi-circular, square or elongated in shape. The interior heats up because incoming solar radiation from the sun warms plants, soil, and other things inside the building faster than heat can escape the structure. Air warmed by the heat from hot interior surfaces is retained in the building by the roof and wall. Temperature, humidity and ventilation can be controlled by equipment fixed in the polytunnel.”

Though the labour issue is not eliminated here, automation can be introduced for numerous polyhouse activities, thereby reducing the need for labour. Polyhouse structure allows for growing of vegetables round the year, and also helps to increase the yield.

Why vegetables ?

Vegetables are consumed fresh, unlike cereals or pulses. However by the time these vegetables reach our home, after changing multiple hands, they lose their freshness. Also the food miles (distance travelled from farm to plate) is much higher.

I saw this as a great opportunity due to proximity of my farm to Mumbai. If I grow vegetables at farm and directly sell it to consumers, I will be able to reduce the food miles and also ensure freshness of the vegetables delivered.

A quick check with friends and acquaintances around strengthened my hypothesis. A lot of people expressed their concern that they are unaware about the source of vegetables. Quite a few folks in Mumbai mentioned about the vegetables grown alongside the railway tracks. The water used for irrigating these plots and for cleaning the vegetables was unhealthy. 

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/jan/280113-your-vegetables-are-grown-and-cleaned-in-gutter-water.htm

Even Amir Khan on his show Satyamev jayate had discussed about the poison on our plate. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9uForVzTOA

So my research for polyhouse and organic farming kicked off .......

Weekend Farmer - Season 2

With a fairly successful Season-I, I was fairly confident of paddy plantation in season II. I was ready to shrug off my amateur experiments and sort of roll up my sleeves and get some knowledge on how to do this better.

Over the last season, I had researched on new techniques for rice production and wanted to use the same in my field. I even got a very good grade of paddy for sowing. From the 1.5 acres last season, I decided to scale it up to ~5 acres.

But alas, plans are only as good as they are executed. And execution risks in agriculture are much more than what we city folks can imagine. First I had to face a labor that did not understand the different technique that I wanted to transplant the crop. So I ended up paying more than twice for them to take up the assignment. The weather played truant that encouraged growth of weeds. After 3 weeks, my field had weeds taller than paddy. Labor was unavailable for de-weeding the field and I decided to leave the 3.5 acres and concentrate only on 1.5 acres. Thus a straight loss of 70% in production. In the end, I got paddy of about 200 kg and rice of 75 kg.

During this time, I also tried setting up a small vermicompost unit. Procured special earthworms that are voracious eaters of organic waste matter, from the agricultural department .

Vermicompost Pit

Ginger, that I had planted in the end of season I, also seemed to be going the paddy way. Initially not a single one sprouted for the first month. However with the advent of rains, the sprouting started. In hindsight I realised that I had given less water to ginger in the initial days. By the 9^th month after planting, ginger was looking good. I had initially planted around 3 kgs of ginger and I was able to harvest around 22 Kgs of ginger. Not a bad yield for a first timer.

The vegetable production in season II was not too different from season I. I added few more vegetables like French beans, tomato to the vegetable portfolio. After the failure of karela in season I, the yield in season II more than compensated for that failure.

By the time season II ended, The sole labour that was helping me execute my plans left. This impacted the work. (And now all that hype about attrition in the corporate world started to make sense;-) )

Now that I had 2 years of farming experience under my belt, labour issues got me thinking about how I could utilise my knowledge of technology and improve yield as well as reduce dependence on manual labour.

Birth of the weekend Farmer

When I was growing up, we learnt in school that India is an agrarian economy with 70% of the people involved in agriculture. To a city-bred lad like me, the closest we came to agriculture was the vegetable market or, if you were lucky, a trip to one’s ‘native place’ which could be in a village with farms. I never understood (or maybe didn’tcare) where the atta that went into my chapattis came from, where the toor dal that went into the dal at home came from or how did a cucumber plant look like.

Cut to then life in the 21^st century; I had checked all the boxes that went into making a ‘good boy’ for a middle-class Indian family – an engineering degree topped up with an MBA and a cushy corporate job with an MNC. And while spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations could answer questions about the best investments and when to enter/exit the market,I realised I still didn’t have the answer to ‘where does the dudhi that goes into dudhi halwa come from?’

It began as a weekend activity. It was cool to do something other than work/sleep/watch movies over the weekend ;). I had access to the most critical resource i.e land, not very far from Mumbai. I was willing to carry out some “experiments” over the weekend. And thus was born the weekend farmer in July 2010.

I was a complete novice to agriculture. And looked like I wasn’t getting any help from beginners’ luck;  I was already late for the current season of crop. I didn’t want to start the experiment with an ‘out of the box’ idea, so chose to start with rice (since that was the common crop taken during rains).

Initially I took advice from the local experts. They had divided opinions. “We own numerous acres of land here, but we have never attempted cultivating it. It is no longer remunerative “. While there might have been merit in their advice, frankly what did I have to lose., I just wanted to get a first hand experience of what it feels like to be a farmer ; the piece of land indulged me!

Paddy Crop after transplanting

With a lot of hiccups and numerous hours of phone co-ordination, I managed to plant around 1.5 acres of paddy. In October, I harvested around 400 kgs of paddy, which post dehusking and cleaning was about 160 kgs. My first Win!- I had produced enough rice to consume and sell.. err was I getting somewhere?;-)

Paddy getting harvested

Harvested Paddy

I was super charged now; my initial success was just the kind of kickstart I needed. I thought of experimenting with vegetables and surprise my mom with home grown carrots for home made gajar ka halwa perhaps. In November 2010, I planted Palak, Methi, Dudhi, Karela, Cucumber, Brinjal etc. as a first attempt. By early January, the first produce of cucumber was available. I had a mixed luck here, with not a single Karela seed sprouting while Dudhi and Cucumber were fairly successful.

The problem with produce like vegetables is the shelf life; it has to be consumed quickly. Given the experimentative nature of my idea, I wanted to move to  a crop  that had a long shelf life post harvest. So I chose Ginger. Ginger requires soil that does not hold water and is typically a 9 -11 month long crop. With heavy rains in this part, Planting ginger was indeed a challenge for a novice like me. But I persisted by constructing a shed and planting ginger  on the slopes to ensure water-logging does not happen.

Ginger, vegetables, rice- I was getting somewhere ; closer to a  getting a complete meal on the table through my home grown produce; perhaps not a pipe dream anymore