Farmlife

“As for farming, it is the security of any African man, I might get no fish but have something from the farm”

Rains are unpredictable, they are irregular now. The weather conditions for farming were not so bad long ago. Currently the seasons are changing, rains are not like they were in the past, they are coming less. In the past the rains came april, may and june, the long rains “masika”, and then you knew it was the short rains “vuli” during September and October. So you could plan yourself, you knew the season was like this and the next was like that. You could plan for yourself. But now we dont understand if they are “vuli” or “masika”, you are preparing your farm and the rain comes!  You plant your food in August knowing that the rain will come and it will do well, but now it’s September approaching October and no rains have come. You can’t know the planting period, we are totally confused! The weather has become unreliable. Our harvests are now bad, not like in the past. 

For the last two years it has rained throughout the year, before there was seasonal farming by some people, but now they can farm throughout the year- specifically in “vuli”, which they wouldn’t have before, only “masika”. When it rains the rains are very heavy and destroy the crop. It rains for one and half days then there is sun for one and half days. Daily routines have been ruined due to irregular rains, causing crops to be reduced. 

Rains are what affect the cows too, it is like if you are hit by rains you get sick it is the same with cattle. If hit by rains they get sick too. Now if I will be able, I will build the shade when they come from grazing, they stay comfortable inside the shade. They will be out of the sunshine and going into the shade, they will thank Allah too. Cows were healthier in the past because they had plenty of pastures but now there are insufficient pastures.

Farming has also declined due to too much sun. Sunny days have become many and rainy days even fewer. Harvest is very low. Maize and cassava had better harvests in the past, millet also. In the past you could get maize and use it till the beginning of the next season “Kaskazi” but now it doesn’t reach the next season. 

Maize is not growing well now without fertilisers. There are more pests now, if you do not use pesticide you will get a poor maize crop. The crops are more affected by diseases now, they do not produce a lot. People cultivate bigger fields now and get less crop than the few acres that were cultivated in the past. Seeds have also reduced in quality. Our grandparents used to source seeds from the previous harvest and smoke them to preserve them for the next planting season. Yields have reduced. The land was more fertile in the past. We didn’t need fertilisers from the shops then. 

Maybe factories are contributing to the changing rainfall. We have cut down all the trees and burned charcoal, now there is pollution, maybe that is what made us receive low rainfall. The changing weather has caused the land to lose its fertility. 

There is no fertilizers available so crops have been reduced.

We need fertilizers from the shops. Manure would help the land to become more fertile if we can get it. Maybe if there was an irrigation system you could harvest the crops that need it while waiting for the rainy season. We are using traditional methods of farming that is why we have low harvest but the truth is farming is wealth. We are poor! Therefore if we could get modern farming methods, you could have seen maize from Mwaembe to here at Kingwede landing site. We need to get training on modern farming. This is because we are used to the traditional, we need to get farming tools like tractors, seeds and pesticides so that we can get knowledge so as to change our lives. If I get a modern dairy cow it will be made better, one modern cow is worth ten local/indigenous cows. Every morning I would have ten more litres of milk for selling.

One must plan their farming and fishing according to the weather changes. Allah is the giver of rain so He knows the causes of these changes for farming. He gives us challenges so that we can remember Him, if you remember Him, He blesses you.