One important lesson I've learned while growing guinea corn is that the seemingly harmless bushes left on the farm can quickly spread and cause significant damage if neglected for too long.
Bushy surroundings create ideal habitats for rodents, giving them easy, unpredictable access to the crops. Before you know it, a substantial portion of your farm can be lost to their destruction.
Additionally, these bushes can act as a medium for fire to spread from one farm to another. Last year, a neighboring farmer lost nearly all his crops because someone set fire to some bushes far from his property, and the flames spread rapidly before they could be contained.
Guinea corn is typically cultivated during the dry season when the vegetation is dry and bush fires are frequent.
The losses experienced by that farmer served as a harsh reminder to me, and I am determined not to follow the same path.
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to protect your crops is to clear the edges of your farm before such risky periods. However, while this task may seem straightforward, it carries significant importance, and I would regret ignoring it if I fail to address the situation in time.
Farming is all about learning from experience, and it would be unwise to endure the same disaster twice if I don’t take heed of these lessons.