DIARIES OF A SMALL SCALE FARMER - IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR

By David Kabani

Dear Diary

If you grew up in the village like me then you must be accustomed to the unconventional lessons that are there in the villages. From those lessons you should know that when there is no consistency in the weather patterns that is between 6 in the morning to 6 late in the day it would have been extremely hot, and somewhat by afternoon all of a sudden there is wind all over with some forming in the eastern side, but only to disappear after a short period. When this happens, it is an indication that the rains have come and it’s just a matter of time before the skies give in to gravity and drop the most precious commodity you and me need.

Dear diary the rains have come, and this time I hope you are ready for them. Dear farmer what have you put in place in readiness of the farming season?

Let me share with you a few things that you must do or at least that I know can help revamp your production this year.

(1)  AVOIDKANGAROO FARMING

Dear farmer, you have heard of kangaroo courts, kangaroo driving, kangaroo planning, well it will interest you to know that there is also kangaroo farming. This is the kind of farming where you the farmer have the resources, probably from your salary or any other business, you have a small piece of land, and you have saved up some money for fertilizer and you can actually afford the money for spraying programs and you even manage to farm and harvest the 10 bags of maize that you eat for the rest of the second quarter of the following year.

And then the following year the cycle begins again, you save money from your salary or other incomes and follow through the same pattern and you have been doing this same cycle for years.

Dear farmer, this kind of farming lucks sustainability and is actually bad business, and any business that fails to propel itself from the take off stage to the next is poor business and lucks good principles from whoever is running it.

Dear farmer, can your small piece of land begin to sustain itself? Get the start up capital once and for all and begin treating your small holding with so much respect and the much needed healthy farming habits that those exceling farms are practicing.

Dear farmer, let this farming season be the last you are borrowing money to inject in your farming from your husband, wife, salary or business. Create a system that will enable your farming ventures to sustain themselves.

(2)  PRACTICESMART FARMING

The state of being mad is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

Dear farmer, there was a time when I was a mad farmer, until I embraced the smart farming concept. Smart farming is all about making sure that every move that’s undertaken is done with efficiency, and in an effective way and ensuring that it’s done at the lowest cost.     I am a true believer of (DIY) whenever I can I do it myself.

Dear farmer, I make sure that every seed I put in the ground grows in such a way that it will give me something to eat, something to sell and it should grow to make me be able to plant 3 more seeds of its kind in the next cycle. Even further, if I can, it should be able to bring a balance in an imbalance that might be caused by some external factors beyond me. When you plant your soya and maize and whatever else, may you use the profits you’ll make in 4 months to sink a borehole at your farm so that instead of just waiting for the rains next year, you can as well start doing winter maize.

Dear farmer, farming in the 21^st century is all about smart farming.

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