Showing posts with label Onion. Show all posts
Do You Want A Farm in Your Balcony
Posted by Unknown in Gardening, Green Chili, Onion, Tomato, Urban Agriculture, Vegetable on Monday, 28 January 2013
You
can use any type of container to grow vegetables and herbs. Plastic
pouches, old strainers, curd boxes, even unused bathtubs come in handy,
writes Vandana Krishnamurthy
Have
you ever felt the joy of harvesting tomatoes, brinjals or ladies finger
from a container growing in your apartment balcony? It’s actually
possible! All you need are a few old containers, some soil, manure and
seeds or a sapling. Many vegetables and herbs can be grown in a very
small space in your balcony or terrace. Even the smallest verandah,
window sill or portico can boast a crop of vegetables or a garden of
flowers in containers.
Planter
boxes, old plastic containers, hanging baskets and large flowerpots are
just some of the containers that can be used. You can grow just about
any vegetable in a container and also save money by growing your own
vegetables. Cities that are fast expanding mean that there is very less
area for green and open spaces. Gardens and natural areas have been
sacrificed to build roads, commercial buildings and apartments.
Green
spaces not only provide us with clean air and recreation, and they also
provide a habitat for a large variety of plants, birds and insects.
Apart from the biodiversity they also protect the city from absorbing
pollutants, preventing soil erosion, absorbing solar radiation, reducing
noise pollution and maintaining the health of the urban ecosystem
overall. However, the city and this concrete jungle are going nowhere.
We need to be innovative to create our own green spaces within our
existing system.
Fun way to raise crops
Container
gardening is a simple and fun way to grow edible crops in just about
any situation. You can use any type of container. Strong plastic
pouches, old strainers, curd boxes, two-litre soft-drink bottles, old
airtight plastic boxes that have lost their lids, old trays, even unused
bathtubs, the list can be endless.
Get
creative! Apart from these recycled containers, you can also have
specific planters and terracotta pots for planting. Any kind of
container that is attracting and appealing to you and has a drainage
hole on its bottom can be an option.
To
start off, you need a container, plant, soil, manure and some water.
Make sure there is enough room for all of these. Provide good drainage
for the container by creating a hole at the bottom of the container. Do
not stack up the soil around the holes, but place some large old clay
pot pieces to allow for easy draining. Be sure to balance the size of
your plant and container. Mix the soil with some manure and make it
moist with a little water.
Fill
it into the container and place the seeds/saplings. Provide ample water
to the plant after planting, without drowning it. Water every day
initially and depending on your plants’ need, you can water accordingly.
Some people say that container gardening is best for those who do not
have the time to attend to their plants.
It
will not take so much of time and effort. There are some creative
containers called earth boxes and self-watering containers that provide
water at all times. Container gardens offer the advantage of changing
your garden with every season.
Almost
any vegetable that will grow in a typical backyard garden will also do
well as a container-grown plant. Vegetables that are ideally suited for
growing in containers include tomatoes, capsicum, brinjal, green onions,
beans, lettuce, gourds, pumpkin, radishes and parsley. Beans and
cucumbers also do well in this type of garden, but they do require
considerably more space because of their vining growth habit. Most herbs
and leafy vegetables do well in small containers. Vegetables require a
little more root space and therefore require larger containers.
The following are some plants that can be grown:
Tomatoes:
Tomatoes need tons of sunlight to grow. It would be best to grow them
in the sunniest part of your balcony. Bury the roots/seed deep into the
soil because they are able to develop roots all along their stem. Autumn
is the best time to sow tomatoes and you can harvest it 80-100 days
from planting. Gather fruits that are just reaching the ripening stage.
Do not leave it till a tiny crack appears at the stalk end, or a
softening of skin indicates complete ripeness.
Beans: Green
beans are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. They don’t take up a
lot of space and require very little maintenance. Pole bean plants need
some sort of support structure - like a pole. If you have limited time
and garden space, bush beans are probably the way to go. Sowing season
is between August and October. Such crops can be harvested in about
45-60 days. During the flowering season, be careful when it comes to
watering and drainage of excessive moisture. Flowers generally stop
falling after the pods have developed. Watering is advised on a very dry
day, because the crop is susceptible to water logging.
Chilies: This
is the most rewarding plant of the vegetable family. The best time to
harvest chilies is before the monsoon, which can be harvested after
about two months. Hot peppers are usually harvested at the red-ripe
stage; but green chilies are also required for many south Indian
recipes. Plastic or rubber gloves are helpful when picking or handling
hot chilies.
Onions:
Onions are one of the most popular vegetables for growing in home
gardens. Onions can be planted from seed or from sets (partly grown
onion bulbs). When the plant is fully grown, bend over each bunch of
foliage to cut off the supply of sap from the leaves to the bulb. After a
week or ten days the crop may be harvested.
These
are just few of the many plants that can be grown in limited balcony
spaces. You can grow your own mini pharmacy of medicinal herbs like
amrutha balli (tinospora cordifolia), curry leaves, basale soppu
(basella alba), garlic, ginger, mint, etc.
Many
people have adopted organic terrace gardening in Bangalore, a movement
pioneered by Vishwanath. He began this initiative in 1992 by providing
training to residents in their own locality and supplying the needed
inputs like seeds, manure, plant protection materials, implements,
containers, etc.
There
are many organisations in Bangalore involved in plants and gardening.
For example, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (IAIM) in
Yelahanka, Bangalore has a large nursery with all kinds of medicinal
plants that can be home grown.
Deccan Herald
Kenya is Growing Onions Using New Technologies
From
his two-acre farm, Simon Nderitu stooped as he scrutinized his red bulb
onion crop this season. “Before the project, I was farming because it
was what everybody else did here to get food. But things have changed
significantly for small-holder farmers who embraced a farming project
led by Farm Concern International,” he said. Nderitu is among
participants in an initial pilot project spearheaded by Farm Center
International (FCI) which started with 2,000 people in 2007, but has
since been scaled up to include 10,000 farmers of Kieni located in Nyeri
County, Central Kenya. A combination of holistic extension and advisory
approaches, the project instills good agro-practices for higher quality
production, treats agriculture as a means to social integration, brings
farmers and traders together in mutual business understanding, and
ensures that government agricultural officers deliver service at the
point of need.
It
also fosters new technology adoption and advises farmers on sound
financial practices like savings. Ultimately, it aims at improving the
entire value chain, through innovative approaches like linking markets
to farmers, farmers to sellers of farm inputs, creating personalized
interactions between various stakeholders. Nderitu now knows how to
prepare his land, secure affordable right seed varieties and plant based
on seasonal projections and market demand.
Yields Treble
The
project has enabled Nderitu to more than treble his farm yield. “Before
2008, I used to cultivate open pollinated varieties, which gave me on
average 4,500 kilograms in a good season. But after adopting hybrid
variety in 2008 and employing other good farming practices, the same
piece of land yielded for me 7,000 kg in my first harvest under the
project.” Convinced by this huge gain, he dedicated two thirds of an
acre to hybrid onion in 2009, and the yield shot up by 2,000 kilograms.
Today, the father of three is a proud owner of an eight-roomed decent
timber house, dairy cattle and his children have been moved from public
schools to a private academy for quality education. Coming from a
laid-back peasantry economy in a semi-arid area, Nderitu now knows how
to space seeds when planting and what varieties will fetch good returns.
“I
have learnt how to identify the right fertilizer and the amount to
apply, when to start weeding and how to cure the onions to prevent them
from rotting after harvesting,” he added. From the nursery to
maturation, onions take on average 120 days and a kilo middles at KSh.30
to KSh.50 (US$ 0.318-0.531) compared to four years ago when same could
fetch only KSh.5 (US$ 0.053) a kilo. Nderitu, the chairman of Embaringo
Commercial Village, a consortium of farmer groups within a given
administrative village, said they have seen a revolution since 2008 with
farmers moving from mainly subsistence production to commercial
farming.
Socio-economic Transformations
“Many
children are now able to go to school, good houses are coming up and
the young are turning to farming instead of migrating to urban centers
for the ever elusive promise of employment.” The project directly links
farmers to traders, eliminating crafty middlemen who dominated sale and
fleeced farmers. Nderitu said some middlemen are resorting to onion
farming after seeing the possibility of lucrative returns and others
play the role of bulking during low production within the villages. The
appearance of shopping centers in the once poverty stricken sleepy
village of Embaringo is a clear indication that the impact of such onion
growing has significantly improved peoples’ purchasing powers in the
area.
The
Embaringo Commercial Village, Nderitu explained, coordinates
production, sales, collective savings, looks into the welfare of
farmers, as well as negotiates for bulk farm inputs at a much lower cost
compared to individual purchases. Gerald Ngatia Watoro, Market and
Trade Manager for Mount Kenya Region project that combines both Kieni
West and East, said the pilot has made a huge impact. “The communities
then had no organized mechanism in production and market development.
We, therefore, decided to focus on hybrid red bulb onion having realized
that it would not only lift many out of total penury but positively
impact on development in this rural setting. On average production was
low at about 1,500 kg per acre and the quality of the onions was poor,”
Watoro explained. FCI launched the project with the involvement of the
Ministry of Agriculture Officials, the local Provincial Administration
and the farmers. “We wanted an all-inclusive process built on a
consensus rather than a top-down approach. We wanted the people to own
the concept for it to work.”
New Technologies
A
key component of the discussions was technologies that could be
adapted. These included using the right seeds, proper agronomical
practices and good post-harvest technologies. The project started with
administrative villages made up of 150-200 households and created groups
called Commercial Group, which formed an umbrella consortium called
Commercial Villages. These are members who have agreed to work together
to form an economic bloc with common leadership. Farmers were trained in
the science of small-scale commercial farming like good land tilling
methods, nursery management and transplanting, weeding, use of herbicide
and proper spraying methods and program, especially more effective and
less costly preventive spraying.
It
also includes lessons on natural resource management and soil
fertility: how to keep soils fertile through practices like crop
rotation, water management through harvesting of path and roadside water
run-offs into their gardens, digging of trenches to conserve water in
farms and to check soil erosion. They have been trained on record
keeping, both at the individual farm level as well as for the village
groups. Today, project participants release on average 10,000 kilograms
of onions per acre and this fetches up to US$ 3,194. Farm inputs and
overhead costs averages US$ 532 leaving a farmer with a profit of US$
2,662 from an acre of hybrid onion. They plant seed verities like Red
pinoy FI, Jamba FI, and Red star, marketed by different seed dealers.
Commercial Village Concept
Even
more interesting about the project is the Commercial Village concept.
It is an association of groups within a village known as Commercial
Producer groups with various sub-committees and functions as a business
hub. According to Watoro, the FCI market development strategy directly
links farmers to traders and thus eliminates middlemen influence in the
value chain. Farmers now have a growing database of onion traders in
Nairobi, Mombasa, Karatina and Kisumu accessed easily from cell phones.
Onion traders are also trained in cash flow management, business
development plans, transportation, customer selection and formation of
traders associations. “What we want is sustainability, which is only
possible if all the components are working efficiently and making
profits,” Watoro explained.
Kieni
has largely been considered developmental backwater. Yet Watoro said
banking institutions were moved in and marked an increase in number of
those holding accounts. According Stanley Mwangi, FCI Strategy and
Partnership Director, they have focused on giving farmers the right
knowledge and changing the attitude of farmers to see farming as
commercial venture. They seek to make farmers develop habits like making
savings and linking them with research institutions. Their new frontier
in extension services will be the ICT.
Source: onislam.net
