Hello steemians today I'll be taking you through an aspect of my life I've not discussed prior to this post.
I have earlier stated that I am an Art student that went through some hard times but that has not streamlined my activities, I also practice homesteading. It's a practice common in rural areas.
People in urban areas tend to overlook the importance of practicing homesteading, some feel farming is for the poor and racthed people while some others are just to lazy to have their own homestead but homesteading is more of a small scale subsistence farming. It's primary aim is for provision of food for the immediate family but if there is excess it can also be sold for profit. Homesteading is a lifestyle of self sufficiency. The beautiful thing about homesteading is that it does not require a large expanse of land to practice, it was the practice of our ancestors and it has little or no disadvantage.
Agriculture is one sector most modern youths wont want to major into, we all want to be engineers, doctors, lawyers, economists, musicians, footballers and so on but the fact is we can still be these things and practice agriculture, the answer to that is homesteading. you can easily create a small piece of land in your home, nurture it and start a homestead. It's that easy and come with lots of benefits that I will discuss about.
Nigeria has been facing food crisis of recent and the economic meltdown even made things worse as prices of food items quadrupled. This is by no means and exaggeration and all Nigerians can attest to that. Sometime last year there was a shocking increase in the price of tomatoes, at first when I heard it I thought it was a joke until I got to the market and discovered it was true. This didn't affect me because I had planted some prior to that period in my homestead .
MY HOMESTEAD
I have been fortunate enough to come from a family that believes so much in agriculture. Before building our family house we shared the plot of land into two parts, one portion was used for building the house while the other was used as our homestead.
If you noticed the land has been cleared and it's free of weed to ensure the best yield of crops. During the rainy season our homestead looked quite different because it was filled with different kinds of crop.
BENEFITS OF HAVING A HOMESTEAD
1.HEALTH BENEFITS : homesteading practice keeps you away from the hospital. when you produce most of the food you consume then you have the power to control what gets into your stomach. This does not mean you will never fall sick but it will go a long way to improve your health. ailments such as cancer and obesity are on many occasions caused by consuming harmful food that have been preserved or cooked wrongly.
2.INCREASES AWARENESS/KNOWLEDGE : homesteading increases one's knowledge of agriculture, plants and animals to a large extent and even gives sense of awareness of nature and the surroundings. If you are going to plant a crop you should know the proper time and weather conditions the crop will thrive in, you will begin to watch weather channels and browse about animals in a scenario where your livestock falls sick or even starts dying. All these activities will broaden your horizon in that aspect.
3.BUILDS A STRONG WORKING ETHIC : In our society today our working ethic is very poor compared to those of our ancestors maybe because things have been made easier for us with the advent of new technologies. From experience I believe having a homestead will give you a great sense of purpose and commitment to a small cause. This will discipline you and improve your work ethics immensely.
4.GREATER SENSE OF FAMILY PURPOSE : these days families no longer spend quality time with each other, even when they are together everyone is busy with their phones and other gadgets. When the whole family works together in a homestead there is this vibe and joy radiating, working in a homestead is fun. Sometimes it even feels like camping, everyone gets to interact with each other to make the work more enjoyable.
5.SELF RELIANCE : when you have a homestead you will become less dependent as you wont need to rely on others much. It's not possible to have everything you need in your homestead but to a great extent you will be self sufficient.
CROPS IN MY HOMESTEAD
The crops you can find in my homestead varies from one planting season to another, at a time especially during the raining season the homestead is always full with crops such as maize, yam, cocoyam, tomatoes and so on. Let me show you with pictures the crops currently available in my homestead and and talk a bit about them.
CASSAVA
Cassava is a very popular crop in Nigeria and it's very common in the southern part of the country where I live, you will see it in almost every farm and homestead around. It is one of the most important crop grown in Nigeria because of it's usability, it can be processed in various ways into different end products such as cassava flour, fufu, garri and a host of many other local foods. Garri specifically seems to be the most common of all these and a large percentage of cassava goes into garri production. Garri can be eaten raw, taken with a mixture of sugar, milk and water and most commonly used for making a local Nigerian food known as eba.
Image of Garri gotten from processing cassava
Image of locally made eba ready to be eaten with vegetable soup
PAWPAW
Pawpaw is a crop which is very easy to grow, once the tree is fully grown you don't really have to do anything other than plucking it's fruit when it is fully ripe and let nature handle the rest. Common with fruits pawpaw has high health value. It has effective digestive enzymes so it's good to take after eating. It is widely believed that pawpaw promotes cardiovascular health and protects against colon cancer.
Bitterleaf
This plant is also very easy to cultivate, it fares well in every planting season so it is readily available, it's name is gotten from it's unique bitter taste. Some people believe it is good for the reduction of blood sugar level. It is used for treating diabetes, diarrhea, typhoid, and also lowers hypertension according to many school of thoughts. After harvesting from the homestead we mainly use it for cooking purposes and on some occasions I boil and squeeze it to drink as a form of medicine.
PLANTAIN
Yet another crop that is very easy to cultivate. It's my favorite of all the crops in the homestead and that is because of the mind blowing taste, it's usability also. Plantain when ripe can be eaten raw and when unripe can be boiled or roasted, it can also be sliced, dried and machined into powdered form as a type of flour. It has so many modes of preparation, it can be boiled, roasted and fried with a host of all other methods. My favorite and the favorite of many is the fried version which we Nigerians normally refer to as dodo. Plantain is generally known to be a good source of iron and are rich in potassium, they help regulate the digestive system, boost the immune system and promote healthy brain function.
These are the crops that you can find currently in my homestead, very soon more will be added to it and I'll share them with you to encourage everyone to start their own homesteads and begin to live a life of independence and self sufficiency just as I do.
