Growing a Corn Farm

You may know it as Corn, it is also well known as maize, though i will like to know how its called where you live. Corn is just a type of cereal grain belonging to the Poaceae family.
I was surprised when i found out that it was a grass. Some people belive that its among the most widely grown and consumed crops in the world because it can be:

Consumed as Food:
It is a staple food in cultures like Cameroon, where it is used to make Fufu-corn. Other dishes made with corn are tortillas, tamales, polenta, asa-akpapa and you can add popcorn and cornflakes to the list. Its a good source of carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamin E,

Used as Animal feed:
Maize has been a common ingredient in animal feed, expecially in the making of poultry feed. The corn provides the much needed carbohydrates.

Used for Ethanol production:
Corn can be used in the production of ethanol, which can become a consumable alcohol or a biofuel that can be mixed with gasoline to power some vehicles.

Types of Corn

There are different types of corn, we have the sweet corn which is high in moisture content, sweet, and tender, typically eaten fresh and may be cooked. The sweet corn is the opposit of flint corn which is hard and dense and is often being ground into corn flour.
The Dent corn is mostly used in the preparation of animal feed, ethanol production, and other industrial products. The Popcorn is a special type of corn that will "pops" when heated with small oil.

How corn is produced

To produce corn, you need a piece of land and some corn seed and getting the corn like the one in the picture below is locally believed that that is what you will get from a good yield.

The months of March and April is believed to be most recommended for planting corn. Locally, corn is planted along with cassava, a root crop that will be harvested long after the corn.

Step 1

Prepare the ground for the corn, locally that process involves clearing and burning which adds ash to the soil. In this case, I had to till the soil and make hips.

Dig out a shallow hole by the side of the hip where the corn seed will be planted. The recommended number of corn seed per hole is 4.

Step 2

Now, drop the seeds in the dugged hole as shown in the picture below. No special kill us needed.

Some people will add some compose manure or saw dust from a chicken coop. It both provides nutrients and also mask the scent of the corn against rodents.

Now cover the hole with earth and put this curved leave which serves as an indication for you but as a scarecrow for rodents. It is believed that this leaf looks like a snake to the rodents.

Step 3

Wait for the corn to sprout, it may take from five to seven days.

Step 4

After some time, weeds will grow along with the corn and you will have to weed them off, else it may compete and eat up all the nutrent, stunting the growth of the corn.

Before the weeding.

After the weeding.

Step 5
The corn will grow faster than the cassava,

It may be attacked by pests, but the corn farm will always have food for the farmer.

Simply boil the fresh corn with salt or rostered over a charcoal fire and enjoy the fruit of your labour.

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