Friday, December 2, 2011

Business Line : Industry & Economy / Agri-biz : Farmers' Notebook: Farmers go to college to brush up their knowledge

Business Line : Industry & Economy / Agri-biz : Farmers' Notebook: Farmers go to college to brush up their knowledge
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अध्यात्म

सुखरूप चाली । हळूहळू उसंतिली ।।
बाळगोपाळांची वाट । सेव्यसेवकता नीट ।। धृ ।।
जरी झाला श्रम । तरी पडो नेदी भ्रम ।।
तुका म्हणे दासा । देव सारिसा सारिसा ।।

भक्तिमार्ग हा सुरवातीपासून शेवटपर्यंत सुखरूप असल्याची ग्वाही तुकोबांनी दिलेली आहेच, त्याचेच स्पष्टीकरण प्रस्तुत अभंगामधून दिसून येते. ""झडझडोनी वाहिला नीघ । इथे भक्तिचिया वाटे लाग ।'' असे ज्ञानेश्‍वरीही सांगतेच. त्याच वाटेचा व वाटचालीचा हा तपशील. भक्तीचा मार्ग हा सेव्यसेवकतेचा, सेवेचा मार्ग आहे. परमेश्‍वर हा सेव्य असून, जीव भक्त होऊन त्याची सेवा करणारा सेवक असल्याचे हा मार्ग मानतो. अशा सेवक सखे-सवंगडी गवळ्यांच्या घरातील ही मुले कृष्णाची अनन्य भक्त होती. ""कोण ती भक्ती केली गोपाळी । काय ती सोवळी वोवळी । त्याचे उच्छिष्ट कवळ मी गिळी । प्रेम सप्रेमेळी डुल्लत ।।'' असे या बाळगोपाळांच्या निर्व्याज भक्तीचे आश्‍चर्ययुक्त वर्णन एकनाथांनी केले आहे. योग, ज्ञान, कर्म यांच्या वाटा वाकड्या आहेत. त्यांच्यात विघ्नेही भरपूर येतात. मात्र, ही बाळगोपाळांची वाट सरळ आहे, तिच्यात अडथळा नाही. तुकोबा सांगतात, की आम्ही याच वाटेने चालले आहोत. आमचे चालणे सावकाश आणि सुखकारक आहे. सेवाभक्‍तीची ही वाट ज्यांना माहीत नाही ते अडचणीत सापडतात. ""तुका म्हणे सेव्य सेवकता ठावी । पडती तरी गोवी न पडती।।'' असे सखेद उद्‌गार तुकोबांनी अशा लोकांबद्दल काढले आहेत. विशेष म्हणजे ही वाट चालणारांची सोबत करून देव त्यांची पाठराखणही करीत असतो. तो आपल्या या दासांच्या सतत बरोबर असतो. स्वतः तुकोबांचाच हा अनुभव आहे. ""जेथे जातो तेथे तू माझा सांगाती । चालविली हाती धरूनिया ।। चालो वाटे आम्ही तुझाची आधार । चालविसी भार सर्व माझा''
भक्तीची ही वाट सरळ असल्यामुळे ती चुकायचा संभव नाहीच; पण समजा चुकलीच, तर ""चुकली ते वाट । पुढे सापडवी नीट ।।'' असे त्यांना सावरायला देव उभाच आहे. या वाटेने चालणारांना श्रम झाला, थकले तरी त्यांना विपरीत ज्ञानादी भ्रम मात्र होत नाही, कष्ट झाले तरी भोवळ येत नाही. तो त्यांना सतत जागे ठेवतो.
""तुका म्हणे दृष्टी । उघडितो नव्हे कष्टी ।।''
सेवाभक्तीच्या मार्गात अहंकाराचे पूर्ण विसर्जन, देवावर पूर्ण विश्‍वास आणि त्याच्यावर अवलंबिला त्याचा समावेश होतो.
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भाजीपाल्याने भरली परसबाग...

आमच्या बंगल्याभोवती सुमारे 3000 चौ.फू. आणि गच्चीवर 1200 चौ.फू. अशी आमची बाग आहे. बंगल्याभोवती जमिनीमध्ये गुलाब, शोभेची झाडे, वेली, विविध प्रकारचे हेलिकोनिया व फुलझाडे आहेत. त्याचबरोबरीने शेल जिंजर, ऍन्थुरियम, ऑर्किड्‌स अशी शोभेची फुलझाडे आहेत. या बागेत छोटे लॉन केले आहे. त्याचबरोबरीने बोन्सायही केलेले आहे. बंगल्याच्याकडेने केशर आंबा, चिकू, सीताफळ, पेरू, नारळ इ. फळझाडांची लागवड केली आहे. गच्चीवर गुलाब व भाजीपाला लावलेला आहे.

फळझाडे, भाजीपाला, फुलझाडांना आम्ही सेंद्रिय खतेच वापरतो. बंगल्याच्या शेजारी उंच इमारती झाल्यामुळे घराभोवतीच्या बागेत ऊन कमी येऊ लागले. त्यामुळे आम्ही गेल्या दहा-बारा वर्षांपासून गुलाब व भाजीपाल्याची लागवड गच्चीवर करू लागलो.

भाजीपाल्यासाठी तीन फूट लांब, तीन फूट रुंद व केवळ सात इंच (दोन विटा) एवढ्याच उंचीचे वाफे बनविले आहे. या वाफ्यामध्ये तसेच कुंडीत आले, लिंबू, आंबेहळद, कांदा, लसूण, भुईमूग, शेवगा, बटाटा, घेवडा, वांगी, टोमॅटो, पालक, कोथिंबीर, आंबट चुका, मुळा, कढीपत्ता, मिरच्या, कोबी, फ्लॉवर, श्रावण घेवडा, मेथी, मोहरी, मका इ. सर्व भाज्या लावलेल्या आहेत. घोसाळे, दुधी भोपळा, कारले यांचे वेलही चांगले वाढले आहेत. यंदा कारले, आले, आंबेहळद व रताळ्याचे चांगले उत्पादन मिळाले. या वर्षी केवळ कारल्याच्या दोन वेलांवर 100 कारली लागली. परसबागेतील भाजीपाल्यामुळे घरच्या घरी ताजा भाजीपाला मिळतो. फळमाशीसाठी सापळा लावल्याने चांगला परिणाम दिसतो आहे.

सौ. आशा उगावकर,
पिंपळे निलख, पुणे

Ref. Link: http://www.agrowon.com/Agrowon/20111126/5507413605321988189.htm
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माझा अनुभव इतरांनाही मार्गदर्शक आहे

पदवीधर होऊन गावी आलो. आमची तेरा एकर शेती एकाच ठिकाणी आहे. मी एकुलता आहे. वडील मी सात वर्षांचा असताना एकाएकी वारले. माझे वडीलही एकटेच होते. आमच्या भावकीत सर्वांत जादा शेती माझीच आहे. चुलतभावांना एकर - दोन एकरच वाट्याला येते. वडील वारल्यानंतर आईचा भाऊ आमची शेती कसायचा. माझ्या मामाचा आम्हाला मोठा आधार होता. तो जर मदतीला नसता, तर एकट्या आईला शेती कसणं कठीण होतं. आईने कधीच कोणता व्यवहार केला नाही. ती एक साधी बाई आहे. अशा बाईला कोणीही फसवू शकला असता; पण आमच्या भावकीतील सगळ्यांचा तिला आधार होता. याचं कारण माझ्या वडिलांनी भावकीतील सगळ्यांना आधार दिला होता. आपल्या शेतातून जे काही येईल, त्यातील काही भाग ते भावकीतील प्रत्येक कुटुंबाला स्वतः नेऊन देत. आमच्या भावकीची सात घरं आहेत. आमचे खापरपणजोबा या गावात मजुरीसाठी आले होते. त्यांनी मजुरी करून गावात राहण्यापुरतं दोन खणांचं घर बांधलं. त्यांना तीन मुलं होती. त्यांनीही आयुष्यभर मजुरी केली. सर्वांत जो लहान होता, त्याने अंगावर काही काम घ्यायला सुरवात केली. त्यातून त्यांनी शेतीही विकत घेतली. एक पिढी केवळ राबण्यात गेली. दुसऱ्या पिढीत एक हुशार निघाला. त्याने शेतीवाडी कमवली. माझे ते आजोबा होते. माझ्या वडिलांनी आपल्या वडिलांचा आदर्श ठेवला; पण त्यांचं एकाएकी निधन झाले. त्याचं निदान काही झालं नाही. शेतावरून आले होते. हातपाय धुऊन धोतराने पुसत होते, तोच खाली कोसळले. मी सात वर्षांचा होतो. त्या वेळी मी हजर होतो. वडील अशा पद्धतीने गेल्यावर सगळ्यांचा आधार मिळाला. मला जसं कळू लागलं, तसा एक अनुभव मला नेहमी येत होता. गावातील लोक माझ्या वडिलांविषयी फार आपुलकीने बोलत. गावात असा एकही माणूस नसेल, ज्याला माझ्या वडिलांनी मदत केली नाही. मदत करताना त्यांची भावना चांगली असायची. गोरगरिबांचा फार मोठा दुवा त्यांना मिळाला होता. काही लोक म्हणायचे, "चांगली माणसं अशी लवकर देव कशासाठी नेतो?' तर काही म्हणायचे, "जो सर्वांना आवडतो, तो देवाला आवडतो.' खरं तर यामागील लोकांची भावनाही महत्त्वाची आहे.

पदवीधर होऊन गावी परत आलो. गावातील इतरांपेक्षा आमची परिस्थिती चांगली आहे. आईने काटकसर करून दोन पैसेही साठवले आहेत. आता सगळी शेती बागायती आहे. मामाने शेती इतकी वर्षे कसली; पण त्यांनी काही अपेक्षा ठेवली नाही. उलट ते म्हणायचे, "आमचं हे कर्तव्यच आहे. आम्ही आमचं कर्तव्य केलं आहे.' त्यांनाही काही कमतरता नाही. त्यांची चारही मुलं शिकून मोठ्या पदावर काम करीत आहेत. त्यांचीही बारा एकर शेती बागायती आहे. माझी इच्छा कोणतीही नोकरी न करता आपल्या शेतीत पूर्ण लक्ष घालायचं. त्यामागे माझा हेतू हाही आहे, की गावातील काहींना आपण मदतही करू शकू. आपण आपल्या वडिलांइतकं जरी कार्य करू शकलो नाही, तरी आपल्या वडिलांच्या नावाला कमीपणा येईल असं तरी आपल्या हातून काही घडू नये. कोणत्याही प्रसंगी माझ्या डोळ्यांसमोर माझ्या वडिलांची प्रतिमा उभी राहते. ते मार्ग दाखवीत आहेत असं वाटतं. याचं कारण माझ्या मनात सतत तोच विचार सुरू असतो. जर आपल्या मनात चांगले विचार सुरू असतील, तर आपल्याला स्वप्नंही चांगलीच पडणार! जे मनी वसे, तेच स्वप्नी दिसे.
माझे मामाही आता थकले आहेत. त्यांचीही शेती बागायती आहे. त्यांनाही कोणाची तरी मदत हवी आहे. मामांनी आमची शेती सांभाळली. आता मलाही त्यांना मदत करण्याची इच्छा आहे, कारण त्यांची मुलं नोकरीच्या निमित्ताने बाहेर असतात. एक मला जाणवतं आहे, आपण जर इतरांच्या उपयोगी पडलो, तर आपलंही काम कधी अडत नाही. खरं तर मी इतरांना मदत करीन असं म्हणत असलो, तरी इतरांचीही मला सर्वप्रकारे मदत होते. मला असं आयुष्य लाभलं. मी जसं वागतो आहे, तसं वागल्याने कुणालाही असं आयुष्य लाभू शकेल, असाच माझा अनुभव आहे.


Ref. LinK : http://www.agrowon.com/Agrowon/20111201/4989459279140643064.htm
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Usefull links

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Solar greenhouses, Chinese-style

In Europe and North America, eating fresh perishable produce out of season usually means hauling it in refrigerated containers from regions where it’s in season, or growing it locally in heated greenhouses. Our large greenhouses tend to use technology developed in Holland: Huge boilers burn through prodigious amounts of natural gas, coal, wood, or other fuel to fill a network of pipes with hot water, radiating heat into vast leaky structures clad in a single pane of glass. Although these greenhouses boast extremely high yields, the amount of fuel needed to heat them generally far exceeds the amount that would be needed to haul an equivalent amount of produce from a region where it’s in season.

Chinese Greenhouse

There are alternatives. One is the high tunnel, a simple unheated hoop structure clad in clear plastic. Small farmers in North America are increasingly building high tunnels to extend their growing season without spending a lot of money on energy-intensive technology.

Another alternative is a greenhouse design developed in northern China in the mid-1980s that relies primarily or entirely on solar energy for heat. By 2000 these greenhouses already covered about 260 thousand hectares (650 thousand acres) in northern China, and by 2004 they were supplying residents of northern China with 90% of their fresh produce in winter. That’s when Manitoba vegetable farmer Wenkai Liu first brought the technology to North America. Other Manitoba growers have adopted the design since then, but, to my knowledge, it has yet to be tried in other regions of Canada or the United States.
I learned about the Chinese-style greenhouse from horticulturist Sanjun Gu, who worked down the hall from me between 2004 and 2007, before being hired as a state horticulture specialist at Lincoln University in Missouri. In the late 90s, when I was working as a pest management consultant in gigantic Dutch-style houses in southern British Columbia, Dr. Gu was working in the newly-developed Chinese-style houses at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences Vegetable Research Institute in  northern China. He showed me the picture above, taken in April, 1998, when we worked together in 2005. Those are ripe cucumbers on the vine in April, nearing the end of a growing season that started in September and stretched through Shandong’s winter, with peak harvests targeting the New Year and Chinese New Year (early February) holidays. Shandong is about the same latitude as Frankfort, KY, where we have to wait until late May to get our first cucumbers from the high tunnel, and late June to start our field harvest. That caught my attention.
Greenhouse specs
Cross-sectional view of a solar greenhouse with dimensions in meters (from Tong et al., 2009)
The Chinese greenhouse design is simple. A thick wall and partial roof on the north side act as heat sinks to absorb solar energy during the day and radiate it back into the house at night. Arched struts extend from the peak of the roof to the soil surface, up to 12 m (39 feet) south of the north wall. These are clad in a single layer of plastic. An insulating blanket rolls down over the plastic at night to retain heat.
Researchers in China and Manitoba have documented remarkable effects of these passive-solar greenhouses on indoor temperatures. A team led by G. Tong, at Shenyang Agricultural University, recently published a complex set of models that successfully predict temperature variation within a Chinese-style greenhouse from incoming solar radiation, windspeed, air exchange rates, and temperatures of sky, air, and soil.
On a chilly mid-February night, the temperature inside their greenhouse remained 10-15 °C (18-27 °F) warmer than outside. The effect was even more pronounced in Manitoba, where indoor temperature on a cold February night remained 30 °C (54 °F) warmer than outdoors. In Shanyang (northern China) and southern Manitoba the greenhouses kept conditions favorable for cool-season vegetable production through the depth of a very cold winter without burning fuel for heat. In Shandong, a little further south, they grew warm season crops — including cucumber, zucchini, tomato, pepper, eggplant, yard-long beans, and bitter melon — through the winter using only passive solar heat.
Temperature inside and outside a greenhouse in Shenyang
Temperature inside and outside a Chinese-style solar-heated greenhouse in Shenyang, China, February 18 & 19, 2004 (Data from Tong et al., 2009).
Manitoba greenhouse
Temperature inside and outside a Chinese-style solar-heated greenhouse in Elie, Manitoba, February 19, 2005 (Data from Zhang, 2006).
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Click images in the gallery below to expand.

References

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BioChar Stove How To: Become a Pyroneer


Rob's Quick & Dirty TLUD Stove. $50 and one hour of fab time. About 20-30# of char per firing, 2-3 hour burn time.
I garden for many reasons, but mostly to Be the Change I wish to see in the world.  And the more I read about our need to relocalize, the more I hear about how screwed up our climate is getting, the more I read about how very real the pressures of Peak Energy are going to be, the more convinced I am that Bio-Char is an absolutely critical component in any transitional farming system.  The hard truths of our age are that we have far too many mouths to feed, we have far too much carbon in the air, our soils are denuded to all hell, and we will need local means to produce energy cause the cheap, easy stuff is gone.  Guess what – biochar can help ALL of these.  By growing coppice biomass plantations as windbreaks around CSA farm plots or in unused/unusable portions of our farms we can tap into fast growing plant’s abilities to pull carbon from the air and “fix” it into biomass.  This biomass can then be turned into biochar, which reduces syck amounts of heat that can be captured for use in myriad ways from making maple syrup and canning tomatoes, to methane and ethanol.  Best of all, the resulting char can be run through a composting regime, charged with nutrients and micro-organisms, and added to the soil for simply incredible results that increase fertility over millenia – your yeilds go up and and your farming goes regernerative as you sequester the airborne C02 in the soil.  Congrats – your farm is now Carbon NEGATIVE.

So after reading The Biochar Revolutionand getting some great hands on tips from it, I decided to become a “Pyro-neer” and I built my own Top Lit Updraft Gasifier (TLUD) last week.  A TLUD stove is simple as all heck.  Take a metal container (gallon tin can, trash can, 30-55 gln drum), cut some holes in the bottom so it can draw air in the bottom, fill it with biomass, light it, and put a chimney stack on top.  The heat from the top lit fire will rise up the chimney, causing fresh, oxygen rich air to be drawn in through the bottom of the stove (hence the “updraft” in the name).  The flame front slowly burns down the biomass, and as it does it consumes the oxygen as it burns.  The burning results in pyrolysis – where hydrogen and carbon monoxide is released from the biomass (along with some tars and other gases) – what we know as smoke.  But as the flames have used up all the oxygen – as the flame front moves down the barrel, the char is unable to further combust and thus remains as char.  Most TLUD’s then reintroduce oxygen above the char layer by drilling holes into the base of the chimney stack or raising the consolidating area ( the lid of the barrell / can) a bit to let fresh air in.  With the O2 reintroduced into the system, the smoke can be re-ignited for a secondary burn which burns up the rest of the smoke (the emissions are clear when it works right) and returns the gases into C02 and H20.  At this point, heat can also be captured and used to do work- such as heating water, cooking, or space heating a home or greenhouse as a furnace.  If you are able to do this you rock; congratulations, you have created a CHAB stove – (Combined Heat And Biochar) which is awesome because more acronyms are always better.  Plus you are function stacking.
Now my stove is not perfect, it is easy to let it burn too much, and my secondary air inlets are not sized right so it can have imperfect afterburn (working on that).  BUT I built it for $50 and it took less than an hour to fab up.  THAT is awesome.  Before we get going, if you are not in possession of enough common sense to use proper protective equipment (safety goggles, gloves, hearing protection) and have proper skills to safely use power tools to cut metal, and if you are not comfortable around fire and all the common sense safety rules therein, you should not do this.  Don’t blame me if you get cut or burned; Darwin gives his own awards… you have been warned.  That said, this is not a complicated build if you are comfortable with tools and lighting things on fire.  If you are not, perhaps find someone to teach you – we all need to reskill.
Have drill? MAKE HOLE.
First up get yourself a 55 gln (200l) drum with a removeable top.  The used one hereabouts are $10 on Craigslist.  You can also find them free on freecycle once in awhile.  I have 2-3 laying around from various projects- this one was from the Methane Midden.  Drill a crap ton of holes in the bottom – in my case I had a 4″ hole saw from my rainbarrel building days so I grabbed my 9 amp uber drill and had’atr.  Nothing beats drilling on steel with wicked huge drills.   Put the hole low on the barrel as anything below the hole will not really burn.  I would also drill some smaller holes into the dead bottom of the drill to let water out (I quench the fire by dumping water down the chimney – that is a great way to get scalded with steam – repeat my insanity at your own risk).  At this point I attached a small 4″ pipe – about 6″ long to the hole.
6" air inlet. The inlet smooths the air flow and helps keep embers from flying out and burning your toes since you forgot to put on boots and are still wearing your flip flops. That was dumb - you are burning 75# of biomass and should wear proper footgear!
My Big Box hardware store also had a slick mounting ring for this – pretty sure this is a setup for a dryer vent.  It was like $6 total.  Make sure you don’t have any plastic bits anywhere – your a BURNING 75# of wood hear and this shit gets HOT.  Mount the bracket with some self tapping screws.  Easy, peazy.  Don’t worry about air leaks, you WANT air to get into the stove.
There are easier/better ways to do this, but you go to war with the army you have.
Next up make an 8″ hole in the top of your barrel lid.  This is MUCH easier to do with a saber saw.  My saber saw is broken.  So I drilled 3 holes with my 4″ hole saw and connected them with “precision” cuts with my reciprocating saw.  This was loud as all hell and shook my fillings out.  Plus the cut was ugly as all get out so I ended up filing it ‘smooth’ by hand.  Also wicked loud.  If I were to do this again, I would offset the hole for the chimney as much a possible to make a larger surface for heat reclamation (a.k.a. cooking).
Now its time to attach your chimney stack.  For this I used cheap stove pipe.  It is relatively heavy gauge to stand up to the heat of the secondary combustion and its not too expensive.  I bought a 24″ x 8″ piece as well as an 8″ “T” peice.  About $20 total.
I put chimney sealant around the base. DON'T. Leave the cut ragged- you want air coming in anyhow. I used 3 1" "L" brackets attached with self tapping screws to keep the chimney stack on.
After 2-3 burns I am still working on fine tuning the secondary air inlet.  This is why science meets art.  For now I can tell that the 8″ opening is wicked overkill and lets in turbulence which effs up the afterburn.  That said, I LOVE the ability to pull off the cap on the “T” and see how the burn is progressing.  Cutting out the “T” piece would save $8-10, and lower the stack which is likely overly tall.  for secondary air, I plan to play with either raising the “gas condenser” (aka barrel lid) by putting it onto a few pieces of rebar, and/or drilling some 1/2″ holes around the base of the chimney stack.  I will start with the rebar as drilling is hard to undo.
Once the 24″ chimney pipe is put on you are essentially done with the stove.  I recommend putting a grate in the bottom to allow the inlet air to disperse through the entire biomass – my first burn had a large amount of unburned biomass around the edges as it looked like the O2 wasn’t reaching all around.  Luckily, a standard BBQ grate is the PERFECT size to fit into a 55gln drum.  $8.  I also bought 6 fire bricks to put the grate on.  $10.  You could also use field stone – some rocks will explode in the heat, some won’t.  Could be fun!  Fill your stove with biomass (dry and similar sized pieces for a consistent burn) and light the top like a campfire.   I used a blow torch, but I have no patience.
Fill your TLUD with biomass- make sure it is dry and of uniform size lest the smaller, dryer bits burn faster than your larger/wetter bits.
Once the fire is burning well, put the lid on.  USE GLOVES – fire is, well, fire is hot.  The chimney stack will start the draft almost immediately and soon you will be producing syngas (CO + Hyrdrogen) which will then form a secondary combustion with the O2 from the secondary air inlets.  Here is a little video of the whole affair.

The stove is a bit testy – it is somewhat easy to over/under burn it, but on the second burn I was able to get about 20# of char (about 15 gallons). Once you think the burn is done (I  do this by checking to se when the fire is visible through the air inlet, then letting it burn for another 15 minutes or so for everything to char) I then pour 5 gallons of water down the stove pipe.  This is rather stupid as steam scalds quickly, but it does quench the fire enough to remove the top for a second quenching.  I also really need to mount some better (hell ANY) handles to the stove lid for easier/safer removal and installation. The nice thing about this stove is that it is easily converted to a retort – which is allegedly more self regulating and will likely be the next phase of this project once I am done playing with the secondary air inlets.  All in all, thrilled to pieces with the little stove – make a TON of heat, creates biochar, and was rather easy to build.  Win:Win:Win!
Be the Change
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