VINTAGE Cum HARVEST

Dry Season and light vegetation

Since soil is the greatest asset of the farmer, he adopts a number of measures to get the best out of it. These include pre-planting, planting and post-planting operations. As per certain crops, the three are running concurrently now that the first rain to mark the beginning of a new farming season is being expected.
Yam is being planted; cassava is being harvested while site selection and clearing of farmlands are being done at the same time. Thus vintage follows harvest and vice versa. In certain crops like oil palm, harvest is done all year round as it has no fixed season for it. By the end of the month we plan to start Nursery Practices to raise Garden Eggs and Pepper seedlings for transplanting when the rain comes. Site Selection has already been done. Meanwhile arrangement has been concluded to start clearing now that the bush is dry due to harmattan. Clearing is better in dry seasons, when the vegetation is light and the bush easily accessible.

It has been observed that Maize planted just after the first rain sells high due to high in demand at that time when very few farmers took the risk to plant just after the first rain. The crop performance and yield are also better because of availability of more plant nutrients, since there was not much leaching during the preceding dry season. Cassava also thrive better too if planted just after the first rain. But if after the first rain the dry season resumes, the cassava cuttings may fail to germinate while maize that might have managed to germinate would wither. This is why many farmers would not take the risk. At times if you don’t take the risk, you take the other risk of being overtaken by full swing rainy season, beginning from the first rain. So at first rain farmers are always in a dilemma. Some Christians would opine to the Scripture that says he who observes the weather would not plant. Even the Scripture encourages risk taking in order to succeed in farming enterprise.