CONTEST: Planting and care

INTRODUCTION

It is another time to participate in this amazing contest. As we all know, Agriculture is the main sustenance for living and farmers are the ones who are making it possible.

The food we eat is a product of the seeds we plant. Without planting, there would be no food to eat. But to ensure that the seeds we plant do well, it has to be really taken care of. When the seeds are well taken care of, then they would have a better chances of producing quality crops.

I now come up to make my contribution to this contest as I make my presentations below.

The factors that Should be taken into account when planting seeds or plants

As a farmer, there are factors that should be looked at before we go into planting such land. Some of the factors will include:

• Site or land selection:
  The farmer should carefuly look for a good and fertile land before any other thing. Soil fertility is important to give a good crop yield or plant.

• Land Preparation and soil test:
  After the farmer must have gotten a land or planting site, the next line of action would be to clear it. This has to do with cuting down unwanted plants and grasses. The soil ph should also be tested in order to know what kind fertilizers or soil nutrients to add up to the soil.

• Stock up or buy quality seeds for planting:
  Ensure you have good quality seeds to plant so that you would also have quality crops to harvest.

Other steps taken also are:

• Source for farm inputs like the fertilizers or manures to help boost the soil fertility

• Get your farming equipments ready:
  Planting can not be done without the use of equipments. Get the right and appropriate farming tools for the kind of crops that you want to plant.

Plants need a lot of care to thrive
This is a very important aspect of farming. Without adequately caring for plants, they would not do well as the farmer may expect. Caring may involve a continues process of removal of weeds that competes with plants nutrients.

Watering the plants is also a way to care for the plants. This is highly needed especially during the dry seasons when water dries from the soil. It would preveng the plants from dying.

Controlling pests and diseases:
Pests and diseases pose a great challenge to plants in our farm. They should not be allowed to penetrate to the farm. A recomended pesticides or herbicides should be used to the pests from attacking the plants so we would have a good harvest at the end of the season.

What motivates me to plant and what my goals are?

I am just a small scale farmer and I do plant different types of crops. Rather to leave the small portions of the land that I empty, I put them to use by planting of crops.

The cost of food items in the market is so high. Planting some of the food crops in the empty spaces that I have, saves me some cost of buying them in the market.

Secondly, it pays to be a farmer! Farmers make a lot of money from their labor. Even though they may eat some of their farm produce, they take some to the market to sell and make money. So for as a small scale farmer, I engage inro planting for food also, to make some money by selling the farm produce. These are two major reasons that I engage into farming.

My Experiences

Planting seeds is both fun and challenging at the same time. From the challenge perspective, there are times the soil may be so hard to till for me to plant. It makes me to lose a lot of strength. By the end of the day, I may not be able to plant enogh crops.

Again, Planting during the rainy season could also be challenging. I may set out to plant on the farm and after few planting, the rains may start. By this, every planting operation would be suspended till the rains are over. Another ugly experience I have during planting is that, there are sensitive animals that notices when seeds are planted into the soil. During the night hours or when I am not around, these animals digs right into the soil and remove the crops being planted into the soil. This is a worisome experince to have it makes to start planting again.

On the side of good experience, I would say that planting is really fun to do. I am so happy seeing myself being able to plant different kinds of crops which servs as source of food for me and my family. The good harvest that I have at the end of the season, is a joy giving factor to be a farmer.

I invite the following to participate:

@iqlimaa
@zisha-hafiz
@abi24