SANF GREENMENS PVT LTD- Road Formation Is An Integral Part Of Farm Infrastructure

Farm is the basic unit of commercial agricultural operation and the basis for a good farm goes beyond just about finding a piece of land with great soil. You’ll need a well-planned and implemented infrastructure combined with hard work, dedication, and will-power to truly succeed on the farm. In light of the continual changes in farming practices, it’s important that you have valuable insight and should work to build farms that will withstand whatever the future has in store.

A farm needs more than just good soil for you to carry out your mission successfully. The requirements range from buildings for secure storage of supplies and equipment, packing facilities for preparing crops for market, to cool storage, electricity for light, power, and pumping water; wells to provide a source of water; pipelines to distribute the water to where it is needed, and most importantly all-weather roads in your farmland.

Farms of all types and sizes rely on suitable roads in order for farmers to efficiently manage their land and run effective businesses.

Outlining a few steps involved in the formation and maintenance of a farm road:

Analyse- Start off by taking a close look at a topographical map of the land before you start forming the road. You would most probably like to follow the path of less resistance, and avoid large obstacles and steep gradients. After you’ve zeroed in on a suitable course, map it out from start to finish.

Develop a roadway- Create the road by driving the mapped route a number of times, preferably with a heavy farm vehicle. Once you have a visible track, clear it off of debris. You can use a motor grader in this regard. A reliable motor grader is one of the most valuable pieces of machinery a farmer can invest in, which is used to create a well smooth, wide-ranging, and level surface in order to be able to get around their farmlands. These roads require constant maintenance, otherwise there is the risk of areas becoming inaccessible.

A grader will allow farmers to do this maintenance themselves. You can also use these (motor grader) for building terraces and levelling the ground before laying foundations for new structures.

After you’ve cleared off the road of rubble, remove a thin layer of the topsoil with the grader blade, and widen the road to around 3 to 5 metres, and make sure fences are no more than 45 cm from the edge of the road (numbers vary according to land size). This way, the road will hardly have any impact on the available grazing or crop propagation land.

Lay the foundation- An ideal time to lay a new road is in dry conditions, since the material is less likely to mix with the top soil. It is advisable that you lay a foundation layer consisting of crushed rubble, or some other granular fill material if you wish for the road to be slightly higher than the surrounding area. This is when you should form the intended slope of the road and compact the material properly with a drum or vibratory roller. The role of the slope is to ensure that water flows away from the surface.

Lay the road surface- After you’ve created the required slope, lay the road surface using shale and sandstone dust, or any other fine material with a diameter of between 40 and 60 mm. Spread it evenly across the road to maintain the slope and compact the material.

Drainage ditches- Water needs to drain away from the road, otherwise can degrade the surface, and create potholes, ruts and corrugation. To keep surface damage to a minimum, cut drainage ditches on either side of a crowned road and create water diversion ramps to lead water from one side of the road to the other.

Road maintenance- If you wish to carry out routine maintenance with ease, investing in a motor grader is the best bet, which will help you remove excess loose material and rectify road defects. You can also do this (if you don’t have a motor grader) by dragging a heavy object behind your tractor. Chain the object in a way that it follows at a slight angle to maintain the slope.

Maintaining farm roads can save you lot of time and money. Probably the most used and abused parts of any farm are the roads in the farmland, with water being the man enemy that causes more damage than poor materials, heavy traffic or adverse weather conditions.

Here are some ways you can keep the farm roads in good condition:

1. There should be a good surface drainage system in place to steer away water from the roadway. Road crown, shoulders, ditches, and culverts are the four main parts of a good drainage system, where the crown and shoulders stop infiltration into the road surface by steering away the water to the ditches, and ditches and culverts divert water from the roadway to prevent damage to the road base.
2. There is nothing like building a firm foundation. So, use materials that form a stable foundation and do not settle when wet, and choose materials that can withstand repeated loads when the road is wet or dry.
3. Use the best available soils to avoid costly maintenance and repair during the road’s life down the line. Also, compact soils well since the denser the material, the stronger it is. Soils should be moist for best compaction.
4. A rule of thumb is to design the roads for traffic loads and volumes, the road should be designed for the largest vehicle that will use it under normal operations.
5. Roads need to be kept up regularly to keep them from falling apart. For proper maintenance, you need to blade, shape and patch the road surface; clean and repair ditches and culverts; cut brush, trees and grass along the road; and repair roadside erosion.
6. If possible, keep a record of dates and types of repair, and what materials were used, which can help you make informed decisions later.

Forming a road in your farmland is important for easy movement of farmers and their equipment, movement of plants, movement of supplies like fertilizer, seed, repair parts, repair services, feed, electrical lines, etc. When the plants will grow to be big, the roads will make it easy to take a tour of the entire farmland without disturbing the plants or the land, otherwise the biological composition of land might be damaged (soil quality, a major determinant along with climate, of plant distribution and growth, hugely depends on the topography- regional surface features and the presence of living organisms), thus reducing fertility of land. That’s why there’s no way a farmland should be used for unwanted work, properly constructed roads inside the land are for these works.

SANF GREENMENS PVT LTD after finalizing the project with client, starts off by working on infrastructure. In infrastructure, we first prepare a road inside the farmland for ease of moving with vehicles like bikes, tractors, etc. from one end to the other, then move towards fencing, borewell (water purpose), then we set up drip irrigation, then we set up a godown or warehouse for storage purpose to easily access equipment, important machinery, fertilizers. We will employ natural methods to build the road so that the farmland is not disturbed in any way or is harmful for the farmland.

# road formation in farmland

# ease of movement with roads in farmland

# farm infrastructure

# farm road formation

# farm road maintenance