The severity of dryness we are currently experiencing in our farm is really worrisome. And as the years pass by this has been on the increase. Global warming is affecting everything and more surprising is the fact that riverine areas are also now becoming so dry like the deserts. The month of March is coming to an end and the rain has falling only once or twice which is not even enough to water the ground deeply.
I can remember in the past when myself and my mum engaged in vegetable farming, it was a bit easier to wet the crops manually with buckets and still have them survive but for this year only those who are able to water their veggies with machines can keep vegetables alive
These are fluted pumpkins grown by some peasants who couldn't afford to use machines to water their crops.
The idea is that they are growing only a little portion for family consumption. The stress it takes to water the crops is so enormous and the water dries off so quickly from the ground. It's very stressful to put in so much labour and have your veggies growing so slowly like this
In contrast to the ones above, you can see how healthy these other set of pumpkins look like. Irrigating the crops with machines helps to generate much quantity of water into the field to keep the crops alive and growing fast.
Every since we relocated to this community I have noticed that this very one river that runs across the community has been very useful for both domestic and agricultural purpose during the dry seasons.
This year makes it the first of it's kind that I will see the river bed. The river completely dried up such that we can see and walk upon the river bed, the only source of water now remains the deep pools within the river that are still containing water. A lot has happened to our climate and weather which is directly affecting Agriculture, animals and humans as well.
The few persons who couldn't afford using a machine to wet their crops are really having a hard time growing anything in this season.
Personally I had grown some vegetables in my compound at home in the previous years. Those veggies were at my door step and easily accessible but this year I couldn't do that due to extreme dryness and each time we need veggies this time around we have to visit the farm.
I just hope that things do not get any harder and that farming, gardening and growing of crops should become more easier with the technology on ground rather than otherwise.
