A crop that “usually works in this district” can still fail on your plot. Start with three facts you already know: how reliable the water is, which season you are planting in (Maha or Yala, or a short catch crop between them), and who will buy the harvest.

Then check the field itself.

• Low-lying, poorly drained ground favours paddy. Raised beds and well-drained red or sandy soils suit chilli, onion, groundnut and many vegetables.
• A short, dry spell in the middle of the crop is harder on shallow-rooted vegetables than on a well-established perennial.
• If the only buyer in your area wants one grade or one size, growing a variety they will not take is a loss even if the plants look healthy.

Farmey’s Crop Plan tool, inside the app, scores a crop for your district and zone. Use these pages for the “why”; use the app when you want a score for a specific planting.

Most “the seed did not come up” stories start before the seed went in. The bed was hard, the trash was still there, or water sat on the surface after the first rain.

• Remove last season’s stubble and weeds. Burning is common; it also kills organic matter the next crop would have used. If you can, compost the trash instead.
• Loosen the topsoil so a root can push through. A hard pan under a few centimetres of powdery soil is worse than a field that looks rough on top.
• Level enough that water neither ponds in one corner nor runs off the bed before it soaks in.
• For vegetables, a raised bed sheds heavy rain. For paddy, the bunds have to hold water, so leaks are the thing to find now - not after transplanting.

Do this work when the soil is moist, not when it is dust or mud. Wet puddling of vegetable ground packs it; dry ploughing of paddy ground will not puddle later.

A wet leaf in the midday sun is not the same as a wet root. Overhead watering at noon loses water to the air and can scorch tender leaves. Early morning is usually kinder; evening watering that leaves foliage wet overnight can invite fungus in humid months.

• Feel the soil a finger’s depth down, not just the crust. If it is cool and holds together, wait.
• Give a thorough soak less often rather than a light sprinkle every day. Shallow watering trains roots to stay near the surface, where they dry out first.
• Mulch (rice straw, dried weeds without seed heads) slows evaporation and keeps rain from sealing the surface.
• If you irrigate from a canal or well on a roster, plan the day’s field work around that slot - not the other way around.

The Weather screen in the app shows the forecast for the field you are standing in. It does not tell you when to spray; it tells you whether rain is likely, so you can decide.

Most leaf diseases are cheaper to stop in the first few plants than after they have a wind or splash of rain to ride. A weekly walk - the same path, looking at old and new leaves - is more useful than a photograph of a field that already looks sick.

• Note where the damage is: new leaves, old leaves, fruit, stem, or only the plants at the wet end of the bed.
• Turn the leaf over. Many mildews and mites start on the underside.
• Yellowing that starts between the veins is often hunger, not a fungus. Spots with a ring, a fuzzy coat, or a wet rot are more likely a disease or a pest.
• Remove badly infected leaves from the field; do not leave them in the irrigation furrow.

Plant Doctor in the app can look at a photo of a leaf. It is a check, not a lab result. If the crop is valuable or the damage is spreading, take a sample to your Agrarian Service Centre or an extension officer and ask them to look.

What you grew and what you get paid for are not the same thing. A mixed bag of large and small, ripe and green, or damaged and sound, will be priced as the worst of the lot.

• Sort by size and condition at the field, in the shade. One extra hour of grading often pays more than an extra hour of picking.
• Look up today’s price in Farmey before you leave. A collector’s first offer is a starting point, not a fact of nature.
• Weigh if you can. “A bag” is not a unit you can argue about later.
• Keep harvested vegetables cool and moving. A load that waited in the sun on the road has already lost weight and shelf life.

If you sell to a dedicated collector every week, write down the date, weight and price. Memory favours the person who does this every day.