The last 24 hours have been a busy time for me. I engaged in many activities but the one I would like to talk about is my three hours work on my farm.
Four months ago, I took advantage of vast land in my institution to engage in farming.
Farming was the profession of my father. I grew up to meet him growing varieties of crops and as a result, I can say that the first profession that I learn by imitation is farming. As I came of age, I started helping him on the farm. This experience made my love for farming to be a strong one. I look out for every opportunity for me to grow what I eat. I realized that the advantages of doing so are enormous. It saves me the funds that I would use to purchase such food items in the market. It also helps me to exercise my body.
When I joined the service of my current institution, I met many staff going into farming. Fertile land abounds everywhere within the institution. I spent a year studying the system including access to labor and many other important areas that would make farming convenient.
At the beginning of the farming season this year, I got a piece of land which I divided into two to grow bambara nut and beans. I planted the bambara nut (Vigna subterranea) in the third week of June. I used the subsequent four months to hire workers to weed the farm twice.
I went to the farm last week to know the level of the maturity of the crop and I found that it is matured for harvesting. I decided to start the harvest last weekend.
I closed my office at about 2 PM and after resting for an hour, I decided to go to the farm and do some harvesting. I worked from 3 pm till 6 pm. I chose to write about this because I was very happy with the yield. It is beyond my expectation. I harvested just a small portion and I got a 50 kg bag.
The importance of this action to me is that it gives me the hope of having food security for my family for the next one year. My plan for engaging in farming isn't for commercial purposes. I want to grow what I can feed my family with.
After harvesting the whole farm, I will process it and sell it. I will use the money to buy rice, beans and some other food items that will last my family for the next year. This will relieve me of budgeting for food items monthly or bimonthly. The money I would have used to do that would serve another purpose for the family.
The expectation of every farmer is to reap a bountiful harvest after sowing seeds. When such expectations are being met like in my case, one would be overjoyed.
I was smiling while harvesting it because of the realization that my fund and efforts aren't in vain.
It is a motivation for me to scale up the farm in the next farming season.
All the pictures are mine.
