Good evening my fellow steemians @hive-118902, it's an wonderful to share my thoughts with y'all. We all know that agriculture is the back bones of many countries especially Nigeria 🇳🇬 .

Cassava

Today I'll be discussing on a popular tuber plant known as cassava and it's mostly used in my country to make floured food for swallow

Cassava is a starchy root crop that's is widely grown in the western part of Africa (Nigeria, Ghana etc). Cassava falls into the tuber family of crops . Cassava is rich in carbohydrates and also provides moderate amounts of vitamins and minerals.

Planting Of Cassava

We all that have being planting cassava plants know that cassava is propagated from it's stems because it does not have seeds for planting .

On the process of planting cassava,the stem is cut into small pieces that have nodes.so the nodes contain growing point on the stems which enables the stems to sprouts into stems and leaves and before making the heaps and ridges 1 meter between rows and 1 meter between plants within rows should be maintained.

Before planting cassava a suitable location needs to be selected with a fertile soil that's reflect from sunlight. After the location has been selected the farm needs to be cleared by falling down unwanted plants with the use of machete or cutlass and then the soil needs to prepared by using hoes to loosen the soil with a depths of 5 to 10 cm down yo enable the stems to sprouts out ,or sometimes the farmer can choose to make heaps or ridges to plant the stems.

After the soil preparation has been settled , it's now time for planting, planting is carried out by cutting the stems into 10 to 15 cm long . After the stems has been cut into small pieces 2 to 3 stems(depending on the health of the stems)should be covered on the loosen part of the soil. The cassava stems should be planted during the beginning of the rainy season to prevent the planted stems from dying

Weeding is the process of clearing off unwanted plants in the soil that hasn't been planted by the farmer. We all know that after planting our crops weeds is also grow on the same soil to that we planted to share the nutrients that's supposed to be allocated to our planted crops. So to get rid of the weed, weeding is practiced by the farmers 2 to 3 months time after planting to uproot the unwanted plants so that the nutrients on the soil can reach out to the cassava for proper growth . It's advisable that after planting cassava weeding should be carried by the farmers two to three times before harvesting.

After planting our cassava ,the farming process yet over , the farming process still continues till harvesting or till when the stems of the cassava has grown to height of 2 to 4 meters high. After the planting of the cassava has been carried out if the soil isn't riched with nutrients the farmers can add nutrients to the soil by fertilizing tye soil with fertilizer that contains organic compost. And sometimes chemical fertilizer can be used to add nutrients to the soil .

Another way of maintaining our cassava after planting is by watching out for pests , diseases and animals like squirrels from destroying our cassava farm

• Pests and Diseases: for pests and diseases pesticides is used to prevent pests and diseases on the farm .

• Animals: animals like rodent and most time squirrels uses our cassava to feeds themselves and most time this make the cassava to die off ,so the farmers can use traps to prevent animals on the farms .

As a human we all know that we'll surely reap what we sow ,so after the farming process has been carried out the cassava plant is advisable to be harvested on a duration of 8 months and above depending on varieties after planting which will enables the planted stems to yield.

To harvest the cassava just need to use cutlass and cut of the the stems and them you use your two hands and pull out and the root will be uprooted and then you cut the cassava off from the stem.

Cassava is consumed in country by using it to make cassava flour which can be used to eat any varieties of soup .

Cassava can be preserves by using it to make garri with a fermented procedures ,Garri is also popular popular food in my country which is crunchy in texture with a little sour taste . Garri can be served as staples good by adding boiled water to it to make Eba which can be used to eat any kind of soup .Garri can also be soaked with water for drinking and it's always sweetened with milk ,sugar and groundnut

It was really an amazing contest I'll be appreciate the community for organizing such amazing contest for fellow steemians to share their knowledge on farm crops. I'll be using this privilege to invite some of my steemit friends to participate on this contest @mirinda1,@law-obi,@cornell25,@charybabe

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