Good day, everyone. Is good to be part of this week's prompt. I want to share the story of my experience when I first started farming. This is a piece of creative nonfiction.
So before now, I wasn't used to farming. In fact, I had never really engaged in farming. What I usually did was wait until the harvesting season, when farm produce became cheaper in the market. I would then go to the market, buy some of these products at reduced prices and take them home.
However, this year, I decided to change that habit. Instead of waiting for other farmers to harvest their crops before going to the market, I decided to farm myself.
I got a piece of land from my neighbour and decided to plant only groundnut. The farmland was quite big, almost 100 by 100 in six places. So, I considered it big enough for what I had in mind. Because of its size, I decided not to make ridges before planting.
Fortunately, most of the trees on the farmland had already been cut down, and the land was cleared. All I needed to do was get something that would help me get rid of the weeds. So, I bought a weed-killing chemical called Crossfire and apply it to the farm.
Since I was new to farming, I always ask questions before doing anything. I didn't want to make unnecessary mistakes simply because I lacked experience. Whatever I wanted to do, I made sure I asked people who knew more about farming.
Before applying Crossfire, I went to the farm with some of my friends and neighbours, and we planted the groundnut across the farmland. The following day, I returned and applied the chemical. Within seven days, the weeds had dried up, and the groundnut began to come out fresh.
As the plants continued to grow, I started asking questions about fertiliser. I wanted to know if there was any particular fertiliser I needed to apply to help the groundnut grow better. My neighbour advised me against using any. According to him, the farmland was already fertile, and applying fertiliser might encourage excessive leaf growth without producing enough groundnut seeds. He said I might end up with plants that had plenty of leaves but very little groundnut to harvest.
I listened to his advice and decided not to buy or apply any fertiliser.
When the time came for weeding, I initially thought of using the same chemical I had used earlier. But my neighbour advised me against it. He suggested that I should look for money and employ people to weed the farm manually with hoes because that would be a better option.
So, I called some of my friends and also invited other people to help. I paid them for their work, and within two days, we had successfully weeded the entire farmland.
After the weeding, I was very happy that I had listened to my neighbour. Everywhere was clean, the farm looked beautiful, and the groundnut plants were growing well. I was already becoming excited about the whole farming experience.
When the harvest time came I was very happy because I never expected what I saw. I harvested about three bags of groundnut from that farm land. I was genuinely surprised and excited. I couldn't believe that I had been able to produce that much from my first attempt at farming.
After the harvest, I decided to appreciate my neighbour for giving me the farmland. I gave him two basin of groundnut as a way of thanking him for giving me the farm land to farm.
Honestly, farming is a very good thing. When I compared what I spent on farming with what I would normally spend buying the same produce in the market, I realised that farming was a better option for me.
I'm still going to farm next year and I hope I do better. I am already thinking of planting groundnut, maize, guinea corn and even yam. I hope to expand my farming activities and become better at it.
Oh, before I forget, I also planted beans. They call the variety Thirty Days because it takes only thirty days to become ready for harvest.
I planted the beans after removing the groundnut, and it was just last month that I harvested them. To my surprise, they also did very well. I harvested about seven basin of beans.
I am genuinely happy that I decided to give farming a try this year. I would love to continue. I have learnt a lot, and wish myself best of luck next time
I hope to do even better next year.