1 year of blogging..and finally some cash in pocket !

It was exactly one year ago when we started blogging about our activities at Savera Farms. The journey so far has been truly thrilling. As we venture into new activities, technologies and experiences into the second year, we hope that the readers find this blog informative and interesting. I appreciate the inputs, questions and queries from all of you..so keep posting!!

Lastly, all this would not have been possible without the support and encouragement from my parents and my brother - our NRI think tank from the US. Given that he has so much time to think about our activities, future initiatives and overall road map of Savera Farms, I suspect US economy must be really slowing down :)

Coincidentally, today is also the day when we had our first sales..Well, you can call it a sample/prototype sale (It turns out that even village folks need a sample..).

This was the first fruit that was spotted at 80 days - seeds are Kiran by Ankur company.

This was at 90 days (today) and is almost 1.5 times the size of an egg..it turns out that this is overripe and the buyer rejected it.. I shall be consuming for dinner in a few minutes from now :)

Karnan, one of the people we hire rotavator from, demanded a sample of 1 Kg before 'sealing the deal'. On an average, one fruit weighed around 80-100 grams.











Although all of us are thrilled with the inception of harvest, we had our own set of battles to fight..against the shoot and fruit borers.

Shoot borer is a common pest and we had a bunch of them to eliminate. Typical symptom is wilting of leaves above a shoot. If you break open that shoot, sure enough you will find one these bugs.










The remedy is to mix Carbaryl (Sevin brand) and Wettable Sulphur (Sulfix), 2 gm/L each and spray on the veggies. 5ml/L Neemoil (Nimecidine from T.E. Stanes company) is also being sprayed every 3 days - this is organic..

A fruit affected by a borer.

Farmer Profile : V. Veeraraghavan (Watermelon)

Mr. V. Veeraraghavan from Mudaiyur village,Tamil Nadu, is a good example of how a farmer with only 2-3 acres of ancestral property to his name successfully grew his watermelon cultivation to over 120 acres.

"From childhood I wanted to achieve something big. After my diploma in mechanical engineering I decided to do farming. I knew that farming in 2-3 acres would not help. Luckily, I came into contact with a private agricultural consultant who advised me to take up large lands on lease and cultivate short-term crops which fetch a good price.After some initial hunting for lands, Mr. Veeraraghavan took 120 acres on lease for cultivation and started growing watermelon.

Why did he choose watermelon when there are hundreds of other crops? “Watermelon is a short term crop (60 days) and if done in large acreage a farmer can earn a good profit,” he says. Unlike the regular (red flesh) watermelon variety, this farmer is growing the yellow (mythila) variety, also called next generation or ice pack variety and orange (devyani) varieties as well.“There is very good demand for the yellow and orange varieties, especially from star hotels, as the supply of these two varieties is low,” he says.The most distinguishing feature of these varieties is that they grow all through the year, unlike the red ones which are available only during summer.

Chemical fertilizers are applied in 100 acres and Humic acid used in the remaining 20 acres to grow the watermelons.“Mr. Raja, the private consultant, initiated me into the beneficial effects of using Humic acid. I decided to experiment in 20 acres and surprisingly found the yield increased from 10 tonnes to 12 tonnes per acre after using the acid. I soon plan to cultivate all the 120 acres using Humic acid alone,” he says.

But what about the cost of cultivation using this acid?“If a farmer cultivates a crop in 20 acres, the expense for buying the fertilizers and sprays comes to about Rs. 10,000. But if he uses Humic acid, then he needs to spend only about Rs. 1,000.“My expenditure in 20 acres after using the acid has drastically come down. Other farmers should also start using this acid and realize its benefit,” he emphasizes.

In the last one year Mr. Veeraraghavan has sold nearly 10,000 tonnes of fruits and has made a net profit of more than Rs.50 lakhs. For details readers can contact Mr. V.Veeraraghavan at his mobile : 9894145143.