I don’t have money for fertilizer, but compost manure is really helping me out.

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Note: All the components of this article, both the pictures are mine and original.

Welcome to my blog friend. Let’s talk about compost manure and how it can help farmers especially in developing countries of Africa.

In Africa, compost is one of those natural and available resources that are undervalued, reason being that it’s common and is found everywhere. But not everyone knows the importance of compost manure in agricultural activities.

Some of my colleagues who desires to have bountiful harvest are busy spending much on chemicals and industrialized fertilizers which at the end of the day puts them in a great loss and also leaves their farm lands at more pitiable condition.

Since I’ve learned how to utilize things available to me in solving problems, I now prefer to support my crops with composts which are gathered around me.

Waste from my maize harvest

The procedure of preparing compost manure may come thereafter, but I’ll remain on how that compost manure has helped me a lot in my farming. Take for instance, the above picture is waste from my maize farm after harvest, ordinarily in Africa, things like this are gathered and set ablaze, but for me, not anymore. I now utilizes all these things from my farm for manure.

Maybe because things like grasses, leafs and wood carcass are everywhere and common in Africa, maybe that’s why some of us has trodden on their natural value, and everyone is clamoring for scientific and for things prepared in laboratories.

Anyways, bad economy has made it compulsory for people to learn how to solve problems with things available to them.

Turning waste to wealth

Let me tell you a little story on an idea that helped me so much in my farming activities and in my dealings with my neighbors. In Africa, things are not really like you have it in developed world, though Nigeria is not that conservative anymore, but it can be categorized as developing country. Here, most of us live in village setting or in communities where people comes to live together.

They share things in common, but sometimes misunderstanding may happen between those people and families living close to each other. One of the challenges that I’ve experienced with my neighbors is this attitude of dumping composts and kitchen remains closer and around my vicinity, it became so alarming due to misunderstanding and conflicts that it generates between I and my arrogant neighbors. I dislike having those untidy things around me. This incident happened for so long that at a point I decided to look for an alternative means of stopping this constant misunderstanding and enmity between I and my neighbors over dumping of refuse.

That was when I decided to see how I could turn the whole scenario to my advantage. I began to pick those refuse, I separates non organic mater from organic ones, things like plastics, I separate them and sell them to people who recycles them for byproducts. For the organic wastes, I slice and chop them in smaller pieces and dump them somewhere to decompose to manure. This was how I resolved the misunderstanding, and now, many of my neighbors are trying to copy my lifestyle lol 😆

My maize crops turned giants due to compost manure added

It’s amazing how one can simplify this life and live happily with little or nothing around him. Everything that I cultivated this farming season deed wonderfully well so that people couldn’t connect the dots of how I was able to take care of my crops to that extent.

Where and how I utilize my homemade compost manure

Compost can be apply to any plant, from seedlings to vegetables etc. in my case, I use them in my vegetable garden and in my plantain garden.

I have some plantains inside my compound, and I apply compost on them

Hope you can see how I’ve supported this plantain with compost around it. This plantain is just two months of age, but good and sufficient compost manure around it has made it to grow healthier and faster.

Wastes from my maize farm is decomposing for my plantain

That’s the compost that I heaped around my plantain, they’re already decomposing, it wouldn’t take long before they’re finally crushing by good bacteria and earthworms as long as I’m adding adequate water to it while the sunlight is also doing it natural job.

Happy crop, happy farmer

You could see how healthy this plantain is, I have many of them like this right inside my compound. I got this species from an abandoned plantain farm near my cassava farm. According to the news that I got, this special species was shipped from Cameroon 🇨🇲 by a farmer who later abandoned his plantation due to lack of water and security issues.

When I brought them from that abandoned plantation, they’re almost gone with starvation, lack of water and too much heat. I picked the last surviving two left.

Now that they’ve picked again, I’m planing to replenish two pots of land with suckers that I’ll get from this few.

I’m lucky that they are already bringing out many suckers around them. It then means that I’ll not spend money again in buying suckers. That’s one of the ways that I’ve found in solving problems with little things around me.

I’ve been able to do something about food security in my habitat somewhere in west Africa. My next target is on finding a permanent solution to water problems in my community which is also affecting my farming. There’s no irrigation schemes from the government coming to my state of residence yet. My people are suffering from water scarcity, the little that they can lay hand on is not potable, meaning that they’re not consumable by humans and livestock. Some who tries to filter and drink these bad and contaminated waters are suffering from one waterborne disease to another.

My water project isn’t yet actualized, water is a challenge now.

Are you interested in knowing what that unclean water in the bucket is for? That’s the best that I could lay my hands on. I went very far to fetch this water for my crops, especially for my nearby vegetable garden. But for how long will I continue to fetch enough water for my vegetables?

Dry season in Africa has just started, which will last till May 2021. I know that my crops will eventually die; all of them! (Vegetables). It’s sad to watch them die because there’s no irrigation for them neither was I able to conclude my bore well water project due to lack of sponsorship

This is actifit fitness report of the day. I went far to fetch this small dirty water for my dying vegetables.

I have plans on solving this water problem permanently in my little community which you can read the business plan following the link below, and eventually come to my rescue.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13dYzGQ6hSzheStKhbDOT2mC-dQcC-0f4LyePBo8DShQ/edit?usp=sharing

You can get across to me through my email at: maxdevalue@gmail.com

Remain awesome.

Still your friend Max