Farming at NJH

Since the last 3 months, we had been doing a bit of farming on the land we had received as a donation from Sr. Masih. The initial efforts has been a mixed experience. Snaps of the same . . . 

That's our damaged potato field . . . The cold ensured that almost all the plants dried off . . . However, we got about 40 kilograms of produce. 

The mustard field . . .

Another view of the potato field . . .

The tomato plant section

Spinach . . . and wheat (done by System of Wheat Intensification

And look here . . .  who's coming . . . 

The potato field being ploughed to plant the next crop . . .

Vegetable Garden

Over the last 2 months, Shalom had been quite inquisitive about how vegetables come into being.

When we had first arrived at NJH, we had started off a vegetable garden. However, because of Simian menace, we did not continue our enthusiasm. 

However, over the last 2 weeks, our farmer genes kicked on and we were into some serious amount of backyard vegetable gardening. Snaps of the efforts . . .

Our only prayer is that the monkeys will spare us this time . . .

Potatoes in empty cement bags

The first tomato plant. We found this growing wild and transplanted it to our backyard.
If you look carefully, you can see the first fruit . . .

A close up of the first fruit . . .

Cauliflower . . .

A seed bed . . . 

Other forms of seed beds . . . made from discarded medicine cartons

Broccoli plants coming up . . .

Cold . . . Wreaking havoc

Many of us think that it’s only drought that destroy agricultural crops. A downside of the very harsh winter which also brings about beautiful scenes of nature is the havoc it wrecks on agriculture. 

Kindly see the following snaps.

This is potato crop which has been destroyed because of extreme cold in villages around NJH.

Below is the very small potatoes which have been dug up from the destroyed crop.

However, there are crops which does not get much affected like green peas, cabbage.

Another way to prevent such sort of damage is to do inter-cropping like the snap given below. If you look carefully, you can see tomato, potato, brinjal and mustard in the same vegetable patch.

We hope that the temperatures would not go down any further . . .  However, the farmers tell us that it is not about the temperatures going down . . . rather, it is the severe fluctuations in the temperature that is causing all the damage . . .

That's climate change for you . . .