Organic Farming

Organic Inputs

We use several organic inputs from the farm as a natural fertilizer for the crops. This enables us to grow all the crops in a fully organic way without the use of any chemical fertilizer. Our main organic input is the cow dung from the indigenous farm cows. Apart from this, we have used green manure namely Sunhemp, green leaf manure from Pungam, Glyricidia, Calotropis, etc. Azolla is also grown in paddy fields with standing water.

Field Crops & Rotation

The primary field crop at Iniya Farms is Paddy which is rotated with a pulse or oil crops such as groundnut or sesame and a millet crop such as Ragi. The rotation enables us to keep the pests and diseases under control. We cultivate several traditional varieties of rice namely Seeraga Samba, Mappilai Samba, Poongar, etc. We soon plan to also introduce Kalanamak and explore several other varieties. Traditional varieties have also been cultivated for oil and millet crops as well.

Horticultural Crops

The farm cultivates several fruit and vegetable crops mainly on the broad bunds. We have mainly 200 Coconut palms, 32 Jack fruit trees (different varieties) and 130 Mango trees (Imampasand). Other fruit trees in small numbers include Guava, Citrus, Pomegranate, Sapota, Custard Apple. Vegetable crops include Tomato, Ladies Finger, Chilli, Broad Bean, Radish, Pumpkin and Greens.

Farm Machinery

A lot of machinery helps us in carrying out routine agriculture tasks. Our main workhorse is a John Deere 50HP 4WD Tractor with several implements namely Cultivator, Rotavator, Multi-crop Seed Planter, Baler and Tipping Trailer. Additionally, we have a walk-behind Paddy Weeder. The inventory has been growing at a steady pace and we keep adding several other useful types of machinery regularly to reduce dependence on labour and bring down costs.