Hello Hive

It is so sad to know that a lot of people are not on the same page when it comes to protecting the earth. Only a few people know about global warming and the need to practice safe agriculture so as not to pollute the earth by unhealthy farming practices.
Moderate use of herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides should be taught to farmers, and pepper weed control methods for their farms that will not be harmful to the earth should equally be taught. Alot of our farmers are uneducated, hence they make use of chemicals carelessly. Certain behaviors, like low bush burning, are equally common occurrences.

The dry seasons are upon us, a period when a lot of hunters come out to hunt games (bush animals for meat), and the moment I noticed that this hunger had commenced bush burning, we had to make haste to take care of our farms before they get destroyed.

Remember that we started clearing the weeds in our cassava farm last week? Well, we are completing the exercise today. Cassava and Guinea corn are some of the crops that continue their growth from the rainy seasons right into the dry season.

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The life cycle of cassava ranges from 2–3 years based on species. (Recently we have been able to get specie that grows into maturity within one year.) It takes this amount of time to grow before producing the tuber for harvest. Hence they grow both from the rainy times right into the dry times before continuing further growth the next year. We have had experiences of bush burning where hunters and other farmers wanted to hunt set bushes ablaze that burn right into our farms and burn off any crops growing during these dry seasons.

This is one of the most important reasons why we cannot afford to leave our cassava farm bushes during this season. It can contact fire from neighboring bushes and burn down the whole crop.

Whenever cassava experiences fire burns like this, it is usually a total loss with nothing to produce or harvest when the year comes around.

We have to clear every bush within and around the farm, removing anything that can contact fire into the farms. For today we both work and clear surrounding bushes.

Our cassavas are still heavy with their leaves intact; they are yet to experience or react to the dryness of the new season. I have never watched cassava plants to see how they survive the dry period of almost 6 months; hopefully this year will be my first experience.

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While we work to both clear our farms to avoid any uneventful occurrence, I hope that the government can do something towards educating the local farmers that engage in these unhealthy farming practices. Placing bans on bush burning and excessive hunting of forest animals for meat should be encouraged. If only we had more educated minds in the agriculture system to replace the crude methods of farming, it would be fair that while we both farm, we also watch out for the health of the planet.