Presentation
Agricultural activities at TTK during the year 2010
The area of the farm covers 27 hectares (68 acres) of cultivated lands and portions which does not produce grains: the farm buildings, the cows and goats stables, the country hen poultry and the 7 chicken batches huts, the place for the Spirulina culture, the land occupied by the programme Nila Illam [houses, 2 playgrounds, kitchen, etc] and to welcome the children of Parrainage, all the roads. Then a quite large part of the area cannot be put in culture due to the poor quality of the soil, in spite of all our efforts].
The cultures made in 2010 mainly were paddy, fruit, vegetables, coconuts, spirulina, casurina trees [for firewood] and special grass for the cattle. [In 2010, the area of paddyand banana trees was reduced as we planted casurina trees in order to reclaim the soil that is why the paddy production decreases compared to the previous years.] The farm is making the breeding of different animals: the chicken poultry for the meat, a poultry with country hens for eggs and turkeys, goats and, very recently, fish farm in a water tank. [The number of cows reduces compared to data of 2008: we sold the male calves and all the aged cows.]
The productions consist in rice, meat of chicken and goats, eggs, fruits and vegetables, coconut oil and spirulina.
Production data :
Chicken meat : 27,5 tons
Milk : 16700 liters
Paddy (non husked rice): 27 tons (18 tons of rice ready to cook)
Bananas: 141 bunches
Coconuts: 1716 nos
Lemons: 1165 nos
Other fruits (sappota, mangoes, goyavas, etc): 320 kg
Vegetables (chilli, egg plants, tomatoes, etc) : 1120 kg
Palm trees shoots : 2475 nos (for Selvanilayam kitchen)
Coco oil : 86 liters
Green leaves: 262 bunches
Spirulina: 200 Kg
Meat of goats: 92 kg
Fish: 46 kg
Eggs: 770 nos
Some more data:
For the milk production, there are 26 animals, including 7 milking cows
Goats: around 23 nos
Broilers: 3300 on average, in 7 batches of each from 400 to 500 chicks.
Poultry with country hens and turkeys: around 50 nos
To insure all these productions, the farm needs women and men workers, in the fields, supervisors and at the office; permanent workers, casual and outside workers to plant the paddy or during harvesting time [which is today mostly made by machine as it is very difficult to get daily workers]. During the year 2010, there were 8257 days worked, an average of 22 people per day and 57% of women.
