Hello everyone. Welcome to my blog. I am Ubong Francis writing as @rubee2as1. I would love to be a member of this community because I am very passionate about farming.
The month of March has come, and we have some rain, signalling the start of the rainy season. The soil has been baked hard by the sun for some months now. The first set of rain in the month of February is a signal to farmers to harvest their crops as it softens the soil.
Planting in February is risky because the rain will stop again. I am only sure of rain when we are halfway through the month of March. To get ready for that, I had to take time off from work to prepare my farm.
At the school farm, we can allow the land to fallow because we have enough land. The fallowing period allows the land to replenish its nutrients. But coming back after having abandoned the land for a year or two means some plants will grow wild and will have to be removed.
This is what the section of land allotted to me this year looks like.
It was full of different plants. Some good farmers can tell how fertile the land is based on the weeds and small trees they find on the land at the end of the fallowing season.
I had to cut down the bush and hope the sun would dry it out. The timing must be right. In this part of Nigeria, we believe in the positive effect of burning the bush after clearing it. It must be timed right, giving it time to dry so we can come later and burn the dried plants before the rain finally comes and wash the ash into the ground.
Failure to clear the bush, dry and burn on time will make the work very difficult. If you insist on farming late, you will miss the benefits of burning and may have to work under the rain.
Here is the picture after clearing the land.
The clearing process needs a lot of energy to swing the cutlass and requires skill and determination to work under the sun, which is the reason I am putting on this hat.
The hat is a portable shade made from a plant material, it is light and can hold firmly on the head even when you bend over.