Farm Development in New Delhi

A plot near the Yamuna in Faridabad sits on the river's floodplain, while ground closer to the Aravalli hills that run through parts of Gurugram and Faridabad is quartzite-based and rockier, with less topsoil depth. Farm development on the second kind of ground usually needs deeper soil preparation and more organic matter worked in before planting than a floodplain-adjacent plot with naturally finer soil.

Planning drainage and drip around a short monsoon

Almost all of the roughly 774mm of rain Delhi's wider region receives each year falls in just four monsoon months, which means a new farm's drainage has to handle a short, heavy season while its irrigation covers a much longer dry one. Fencing, bunding and the drip layout are planned together so the same channels that carry away excess monsoon water also carry water out during the dry months.

Mining has degraded parts of the Aravalli belt

Roughly 4.36% of the Aravalli hill area within Gurugram district, spread across 11,256 hectares, has been under active granite and marble mining, leaving parts of that ground more degraded than land further from the hills. Farm development on a plot near an old or active mining area budgets for extra soil rehabilitation, since the ground here has often lost more of its natural structure than land elsewhere in the district. Land untouched by mining, further from the hills, generally needs the standard soil test and amendment described for any new farm rather than this additional rehabilitation step.