Irrigation

As with everything else on the farm, irrigation is done by hand. There are hoses which are connected to a central electric water pump, which pumps groundwater upwards. We water the plants in the evenings, because the daytime sun is so strong that surface water would very quickly evaporate. There is also a rainwater collection pond situated on an elevated part of the farm, with hoses coming down.

A lot of the plants on the farm are sheltered by plastic tarp. This is because during the rainy season (around June-August) it rains so much that many plants wouldn’t survive. So many of the crops (such as cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes) are under cover and watered with collected rainwater at a more controlled rate. Other plants such as the rice and the asparagus gladly welcome the downpour.

Rainwater collection

Asparagus is a plant that wants a lot of water, or else the stalks will be too thin to go to the market. We dig ditches in between the beds and flood them and the water slowly permeates the beds