Hello everyone in the homesteading community. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. Welcome to my blog.
There are two main seasons in my country, Rainy season and Dry season. The rainy season- April to September, while the dry season December to March. The Dry season or as I always call Harmattan season is a period filled with dry and dusty wind.
Farmers/homesteaders' favorite season is the rainy season, but there’s little or nothing to do about nature. We are not in the country of how the climate changes, so what we can just do is to manage the season and hope for the best. Growing up, I used to think the harmattan season was the worst and that farmers dreaded it because their crops will die during the season or they won’t get water to wet their plants. Of course, the harmattan season comes with cold and dry dust. This is the period where farmers “rest” instead of planting.
The Dry season as the name implies is a period where there is absence of rainfall and the land is always dried. As I grew older, I learnt new things about the agricultural system. I found out that the harmattan season is not all “bad” and that it has lots of benefits. One of the many benefits of the harmattan season is that it helps farmers dry their crops. During this period, farmers are able to dry their harvested crops well.
Another benefit of the harmattan period which I find very surprising and hard to believe at first us that the season helps some fruits and crops grow well. Don't feel sad if you're one of those that think the harmattan season is a period where everything dries up, well, you're wrong. Some fruits like mangoes and guavas grow well during this period. Another benefits of the Harmattan/dry season is that farmers also get to prepare the land for the next year.
I agree that there are lots of benefits of the harm at ran season, but farmers prefer the rainy season. There this joy that comes with rainy season. Compared to the dry season, there are lots of crops you can plant when the rain starts falling. For example Maize. The planting date for maize in Nigeria is between March and April (first season). And in the second season, farmers can plant maize in July and August.
Although there are minimal disadvantages of the rainy season, the advances outweighs the disadvantages. In the rainy season, weeds which I call plant’s worst enemies, grow faster and compete with crops for water, sunlight and nutrients.
I was so happy yesterday morning when the sky darkened, everywhere was dark as if an eclipse was about to happen. I wasn't expecting rain to fall anytime this month. So u washed my clothes and forgot about it. Immediately, droplets of water started falling from the sky. I rushed outside to pack my cloths in.
Although, we are not fully in the rainy season, It is nice that the first rain fell very soon. Now I can start cultivating the labds and making plans of what to plant.
Thanks for reading.