10 — Farm Operations

The Sustenance pillar in operational depth. This document is what an agronomist or junior farmer can use on the ground. Read alongside 11_FARM_ZONING.md for the spatial map, and 13_GLOSSARY.md for any term you don't recognise.

Living document. Each section is meant to be edited as the playbook learns from the field. Ops owns the source of truth.

0. Principles

1. Polyculture over monoculture. A handful of crops per zone, in

rotation. No zone is a single crop forever.

1. Closed loops. What the farm produces should feed the farm:

cow-dung feeds compost feeds soil; urine feeds preparation feeds pest management; crop residue feeds the cattle. We buy from outside what we cannot produce internally (rock phosphate, bio-pesticides for emergencies only).

1. Native breeds over imported. Local cattle (Malnad Gidda /

Hallikar where available) and indigenous seed stock. Cross-bred or exotic stock only for clear agronomic reasons.

1. Practice over product. The Homa matters because of when and why

it's done, not because it's data. We log it for our records, not to chase a metric.

1. Document one thing a day. A junior farmer writes one line in a

notebook — a weather note, a pest sighting, a cow's mood. The platform absorbs selected notes later (Phase 3+).

1. Gau Shala (the cattle integration)

Why

The cow is the centre of the farm's nutrient cycle. She gives:

• Dung → dung cakes (fuel + Homa offering), gobar slurry (biogas +

liquid manure), compost feedstock.

• Urine → pest-deterrent sprays (with neem), Agnihotra vessel

liquid, soil activator.

• Milk → household consumption + value-added (ghee, soap).
• Bull-power (when present, with bullocks) → ploughing, carting,

sugarcane-crushing, oil-pressing. Eliminates diesel for many tasks.

• Soil biology. Standing livestock in a rotational paddock is one

of the cheapest fertility inputs we have.

Herd size — for a 1-acre seed farm

Recommended starting herd (Phase 3): 4 cows + 1 bull / calf

Why 5 animals on 1 acre of *zone* land:
- A cow needs roughly 15–25 kg of green fodder per day.
- 4 cows × 20 kg × 365 days ≈ 29 tonnes of green fodder / yr.
- That fits in Z4 (Gau Shala pasture / fodder zone, see
  `11_FARM_ZONING.md`) of roughly 405 m² — but only if Z4 is heavily
  intercropped with hybrid napier, sesbania, and seasonal grasses.
- The 5th animal provides non-cyclical stall periods, drying-off, and
  bull-power without forcing the herd to be productive at all times.

Herd growth is a Phase 4 decision (the seed farm might cap at ~8 head on this acreage; further growth requires more land).

Daily routine (proposed)

05:30   Homa (see §2)
05:45   Cows released to day paddock; water replenished.
06:00   Milking (if lactating); cow-dung collected, water troughs
        cleaned.
07:00   Dung cakes shaped (round, sun-dried on a sloped pad with
        roof). Dung slurry prepared for compost.
09:00   Cows tethered in sun for part of the morning (winter) or
        kept in shade (summer). Water offered twice more.
12:00   Mid-day feed of dry fodder.
15:00   Afternoon water.
17:00   Cows returned to paddock for night grazing; closed in only in
        extreme weather or predator pressure from the BRT.
18:00   Evening milking. Second dung collection. Cow-urine collected
        into jerry-cans (used within 24h for sprays; remainder in
        sealed drums, not plastic).

Fodder plan

• Perennial. Hybrid napier on bund lines; sesbania for protein;

subabul (Leucaena) on a hedge.

• Kharif. Maize + cowpea intercrop; sorghum.
• Rabi. Lucerne + oats.
• Dry fodder reserve. Always 3–4 months of paddy straw / ragi straw

baled and stored under roof.

Health

We are not a vet clinic. The health rules:

• A registered local vet visits monthly and on-call.
• Vaccinations follow the state schedule (FMD, HS, BQ).
• Tick management is manual with a daily grooming pass; we do not

use synthetic acaricides on milking cows.

• An animal in distress is separated, not tied.
• Calving happens in a clean, straw-bedded pen with the herd in

earshot; no human intervention unless the cow cannot deliver in ~4 hours.

What we explicitly do not do

• No oxytocin injections to "let down" milk. A calf or the natural

let-down reflex does this.

• No synthetic growth hormone.
• No early-weaning for milk yield. Calves get the first milk for at

least 3 months.

Outputs and where they go

2. Agnihotra / Homa

What it is

Agnihotra is a Vedic fire offering performed at sunrise and sunset, in a copper pyramid, with a measured offering of cow-dung cakes, ghee, rice, and specific dried twigs (samidhas). We treat it as one of several integrated atmospheric and pest-management practices — not as a panacea, not as a marketing ritual.

We commit to it because:

1. The historical record from Homa farms in Maharashtra, Karnataka,

and elsewhere reports measurably lower pest pressure and improved soil biology within 1–2 seasons of consistent practice.

1. It disciplines the day. Two fixed points (sunrise, sunset) bookend

the agronomy team's work.

1. It feeds the soil and the cattle (ash from the offerings is a

micronutrient source and an ingredient in foliar sprays).

What we promise

• Two daily offerings at the seed farm: at sunrise and at sunset,

defined by local solar time (not clock time). We do not skip.

• The Homa is open to visitors — it is a small ritual that anchors

the day, not a performance.

• The ash is collected and used: mixed with cow urine for foliar

sprays; dusted on seed beds; given to the cattle in feed.

What we do not promise

• We do not promise absence of pests. We promise they are lower.
• We do not promise higher yields than input-driven monoculture. We

promise different yields — healthier soil, polyculture buffers, fewer input costs.

• We do not turn it into a brand asset on the homepage. The /journal

section can show the day's Homa, but the homepage stays a story about food, not metaphysics.

Records

We log one Homa per session into HomaRecord (see 07_DATA_MODEL.md, Phase 3). The point is continuity, not data:

• who performed it,
• the local solar conditions,
• the offering sizes,
• a one-line intention (optional).

If we ever miss a session (extreme weather, no trained staff), we document the gap. Continuity is what makes the practice effective; consistency of record is how we keep ourselves honest.

Materials

Training

Two team members must be trained and able to perform Agnihotra at any given time. We invest in training, not in ritual secrecy.

3. Composting & soil biology

Why we don't buy fertilizer

The seed farm will not purchase synthetic N-P-K. The principle is the same as for Homa: we're not ideologically opposed to inputs; we are structurally building a system that doesn't need them. That's the sustenance.

Composting recipe (sheet compost + windrow)

Inputs:
  - Green: kitchen waste from Bamboo Cafe, fresh crop residue, weeds
           (pre-seed), cow-dung (1:10 by volume).
  - Brown: paddy straw, dried leaves, sawdust.
  - Catalyst: cow-urine slurry + a handful of mature compost / soil.

Windrow: ~ 1.5 m wide × 0.9 m tall, length as needed. Turned weekly.
Maturity: 60–90 days in summer, 90–120 in monsoon.

C:N ratio target: 25:1 to 30:1 (a handful test — if it smells of
ammonia, more brown; if it doesn't heat up, more green).

Place: a sloped, roofed, brick-bottomed yard near the cows. Leachate
drains to a sump and is reused for composting.

Vermicompost

A second pile, fed with pre-composted material, hosts Eudrilus eugeniae or Perionyx excavatus. Useful for kitchen-waste side streams and seedling nurseries.

Bio-fertilizers (small-batch, recurring)

• Jeevamrutha. Cow-dung + cow-urine + jaggery + pulse flour +

soil. Fermented 4–7 days. Applied as a soil drench at fortnightly intervals in the growing season.

• Panchagavya. Cow-dung + cow-urine + milk + curd + ghee + jaggery

+ banana + tender coconut water. Foliar spray at 3% solution.

• Beejamrutha. Seed-coating solution before sowing: cow-dung +

cow-urine + lime + water.

The three together are cheap, recurring, and replace most "plant tonic" purchases we might otherwise consider.

Soil testing

• Annually, before kharif sowing, send a composite sample per zone

to the nearest KVK or private lab.

• Track N-P-K, organic carbon, pH, electrical conductivity, and any

micro-nutrient trends over years.

Mulching

Every inter-row in every zone gets a thick (5–10 cm) mulch of dried leaf + straw during the dry months. In the wet months, mulch is thinner (3–4 cm) to avoid waterlogging.

Composting on the platform

• Phase 1 has no soil-feature on the website.
• Phase 3 may publish a yearly soil report per zone — written, not

viz-heavy — as part of the brand promise.

4. Seed-saving

A seed is not just a yield. It's the next season.

What we save

• Self-pollinated crops first: ragi, horsegram, toor, cowpea,

greens (amaranth, fenugreek), sesame.

• Cross-pollinated crops require isolation distance: we grow them

in larger blocks in Z4 (Gau Shala fodder) where seed purity matters less.

Process

Select → Tag → Dry → Thresh → Winnow → Grade → Store → Test

• Tag the best 5% of plants in a subplot before harvest.
• Dry on cloth, not on the bare ground.
• Store in clean, dry, airtight tins or glass jars, labelled with

crop, lot number, year.

• Germination test before each kharif; discard any lot below 75%.

What we buy

Only what we cannot save: hybrid napier (perennial, sterile), foundation seed from a known source for cross-pollinated crops like okra and brinjal, and some vegetable hybrids for kitchen use.

5. Pest & disease management

Sequence, every time:

1. Cultural. Spacing, timing, intercropping, trap crops.
2. Mechanical. Hand-picking, sticky traps, pheromone traps, bird

perches, netting.

1. Botanical. Neem oil (5 ml/L), neem-garlic-chilli emulsion,

cow-urine + neem foliar.

1. Microbial. Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescens,

Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium, Bacillus thuringiensis — applied preventatively, not curatively.

1. Mineral. Bordeaux mixture (1%) only when fungal pressure is

measurable. Sulphur dust in extremis.

We never use neonicotinoids, organophosphates, or synthetic pyrethroids on the seed farm. There are no exceptions.

6. Water

Sources (likely on the seed farm)

• One open well or bore well (existing).
• Roof catchment from all buildings.
• A small recharge trench along the boundary.

Use

• Drip for Z3 (Millets & Pulses) and Z2 (Greens).
• Flood-bed for paddy block, if any (Phase 3+).
• Sprinkler for Z4 (fodder).
• Mulch + interculture everywhere possible to reduce direct evaporation.

Discipline

• Watering only at dawn or dusk in summer.
• A weekly crop-water-budget per zone, written down.
• A target ET-reduction of 25% over two years (mulch + drip + better

species mix).

7. Labour, cadence, rhythm

Staffing (1 acre)

Minimum paid roles for a Phase-3 seed farm:

We commit to at least one team member from the surrounding villages on payroll, including from the Soliga community. The platform does not parachute in.

The community liaison — what the role is not

To be explicit, the liaison is not a brand ambassador, a market researcher, or a sales rep. They are an operational owner on the community side of the marketplace — the bridge between the producers and the platform's rails. If the role drifts into the former, it has failed.

Cadence

• Daily. Homa × 2; cattle routine; pack-house tasks; one

photo-update draft.

• Weekly. Subscribers' photo digest (Tue/Wed); weekly delivery;

agronomy walk-around and notes.

• Monthly. Soil + pest scouting; compost turning audit.
• Seasonal. Crop plan resets; rotation planning; community

gathering.

8. Do's and don'ts for new team members

Do.

• Walk every zone at least once a day.
• Hand-write one observation per day, even if it's small.
• Ask the elders before trying a new practice.

Don't.

• Apply anything to the soil that was not produced on or near the farm.
• Promise a subscriber an item that isn't in the soil test result.
• Skip Homa.
• Buy seeds of questionable origin because they're cheap.
• Use a weed-whacker when a hand-hoe will do.

9. Open operational questions

• Q-14. Herd breed choice for Phase 3 — Malnad Gidda vs Hallikar.

Soliga elders may have specific guidance; we should ask.

• Q-15. Biogas plant: invest now or wait until herd grows?
• Q-16. Whether to publish a yearly soil report on the website

(sensitive data — could expose trade secrets / invite critique).

• Q-17. Whether to maintain a public live feed of Homa timing.