Naija Travels Part 24 The Need to Podge to Manure the Land as Opposed to Purging the Land.
On the farm today, after all the heavy rains, my cassava has started sprouting leaves, & the last lot of ploughing and planting of cassava & sweet potatoes is being done.
This is a major achievement for my first foray into medium-scale farming as a Diaspora farmer. I want to let you know it is possible and you can do it if you are determined and have a passion for it.
Today I learnt the hard lesson of not taking sales pitches seriously when it comes to personal health. Yesterday I bought what was sold as fresh lime juice, Osan, from the market; of course there was no Nafdac number. I asked the lady, I hope it is pure & not with untreated water. She said it was pure & even drank some herself.
This morning I made Ogi cornflour custard and added a touch of the lime juice for flavour. On my way to the farm today, I felt my stomach rumbling, and I stopped to buy two toilet rolls.
I then asked my Okada man, Alaye from Alamutu operating from Randa, to take me to the nearest hotel, the Femga Hotel, where I hurriedly eased myself.
As I got to my farm, I continued purging, going into the bush to add my personal manure to the soil. I did this another 2 times before my body settled down as I got back to Abeokuta.
Whilst I was enriching the soil with my podging some, like Sunday the charcoal maker, parading as a farmhand, goes around daily, like many Nigerians with their chainsaws purging the land of trees, burning them to make charcoal when we have vast untouched reserves of smokeless coal all across SE, NC, & NW Nigeria. It’s no wonder Nigeria has the fastest rate of forest reduction in the world. Who is monitoring this deforestation or stopping reckless cutting of trees for charcoal in a gas- & coal-rich country?
While in the UK, I was led to believe most subsistence farmers in Nigeria work with hoes and cutlasses to feed Nigeria.
This may well be true in other parts of Nigeria, but in this axis from Abeokuta to Ibadan via Igbo Ora & Ewura farming is medium-scale to large-scale, with holdings starting from a few acres per farmer to those with a few hectares to those with hundreds of hectares.
All those farming with 2 acres & above do so with part mechanisation. Clearing, ploughing, tilling, or harriwing are largely mechanised, while planting is still manual. Spraying & pest control is done by using modern spraying; some even use drones This may be due to proximity of Oyo State College of Agriculture & Tec Igbo Ora & Obasanjo Farms near Oyan Dam.
I’m using manual spraying for now. There are vast deposits of mica stone, gravel, granite, laterite, sand, etc. all around being mined daily. How much tax is being generated by the Fed, state, or local government from these mining activities? Very little, I suspect. Yet the government complains of low revenues Opari
Lessons:
I have learnt how to secure government land for agriculture, how to clear land, plant seeds, and control weeds.
Make sure the farmhands focus on your instructions & not the extras they want to gain without your permission.
My farmhand left the small trees to focus on chopping down some big trees I said should be left, just so he can use it to make charcoal, delaying my job.
I’ve been advised to have a borehole with a solar-powered pump and a series of linked raised water reservoirs across the farm linked by pipework to irrigate via gravity pressure.
I have spoken to some people who arequoting for drilling a borehole. If you have any advice or suggestions of any good borehole contractors you can recommend, please chat with me.
There is a stream at the back of the farm, which I’m looking at damming to create more water reserves and a channel to feed a central excavated lake for all-year-round farming. Anyone know any contacts for this?
You must be thorough in keeping records of expenditures and accounts to run a farming business. It is a business, not a charity, and should be treated as such. A feasibility plan and monitoring are essential for success.
If you have a large harvest, I would suggest you consider starting a processing plant, as processing will add value to your product and you will not be subject to huge price fluctuations in harvest time.
It is important to join farmer associations and cooperatives and get improved seed varieties from government agricultural development centers and agricultural educational institutes, and also apply for any government assistance you may be eligible for.
We can and must all help to make sure we can feed ourselves. Naija go bettao. Whats your view? Please share, thanks.
Femi Oke Betta9ja
