A quarry that produces organic fruits

Those who visited the laterite quarries near the industrial park at Ganjimath in Mangalore taluk three decades ago would not have imagined that they would see an organic farm in the years to come.

Efforts by U Rajesh Naik, owner of this 100-acre Oddoor Farm, have made it an integrated self-sustaining organic farm.

Now most of the fruit-bearing trees such as mango, papaya, cashew, rambutan and commercial crops such as coconut and arecanut along with a man-made lake and a dairy are the main strengths of this farm.

 

Naik told BusinessLine that though he inherited family property, he wanted to do something on his ownand went ahead with buying dry land at Ganjimath 27 years ago. The quarries were levelled and a cultivation plan was made after that. He planted coconut, cashew, mango and arecanut.

Taking into consideration the immediate requirements such as irrigation and manure for farming, he began working on them simultaneously.

Water

Thankfully, there was a small well on the land he bought. Slowly and gradually he converted the water body into a lake. Now it is a 60-ft-deep two-acre water body. It sustains the entire operation of the farm and his house.

 

Even during the last summer, water level did not go below 25 ft, he said, adding that the water table has gone up in nearby areas in the recent years.

As he was determined to make the farm organic, he began rearing a few cows with an intention to provide manure to the farm.

Dairy

The total number of cows has crossed 200 now after 27 years. With pride, Naik said he is a major supplier of milk to the Karnataka Milk Federation’s dairy in Mangalore. His dairy supplies around 800-1,000 litres of milk a day to the federation.

 

Three veterinarians visit the dairy regularly to care of the health of cows. The green fodder for cows is grown in his farm only. Naik is getting multiple benefits from the water used in washing the cow sheds also. The slurry from the dairy, which contains cow dung and cow urine, is stored in a tank near the dairy. Fermentation in the tank leads to formation of methane, he said.

Power

One of the outlets from the tank collects the methane to run a 65-kv power generator. Power for farm operation and house is generated that way. The methane-free slurry is sent through two different outlets as liquid and semi-solid manure.

 

Naik claimed that he gets around one lakh litres of liquid manure a day. There is good demand for this in the nearby areas also. Semi-solid slurry is used for the production of solid manure through composting.