This post is dedicated to two people on HIVE

The Doctor and the Farmer.

It's a long post with few images. Anyone is welcome to read and I'd love feedback but primarily it is for @jjmusa2004 and @monica-ene as well as the other members of the #earnspendgive community. Good luck making it through a long and kind of dry article 🤣Don't say you weren't warned

@monica-ene because I've read about how hard she works to keep her family fed while still trying to run a business and still makes time to post for a little income from HIVE. It is hardworking people like her that give me hope for Nigeria.

@jjmusa2004 because he laid out the gauntlet for me when I was new to the #hivelearners community. While I can't find the post anymore I remember when he was full of vitriol for people from first world nations telling Nigeria that they should do their part for the environment without giving any reasonable, economically feasible way to do that.

Well, as a person from a "Developed" nation who believes that Nigeria and everywhere else should be doing what they can to save the earth I took that as a personal challenge to learn what I could and present a viable, economically feasible way to save the planet--while still making money for the local farmer and keeping the local population fed.

Of course it also helped that being a good steward of the earth is something I've been passionate about since I was in elementary school

Why was I passionate even way back in the mid 1970's when no-one had ever heard about Global Warming or environmental degradation?

Well, this Bible verse:

Genesis 1:28

King James Version (KJV): "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

If God gave people dominion over the earth then the earth is a valuable gift given to us by God. I was taught to always value gifts that are given to you and take good care of them ever since I was a toddler.

Musings from @jjmusa2004 post on Agriculture and land

(Image taken from jjmusa2004 article linked below)

I read and re-read this article Land Purchase about agriculture in Nigeria. I also had a post from @lightpen highlighting the plight of farmers in the north of Nigeria Plight of Farmers

Here are some of the take home points that I gathered from both articles:

Northern farmers can't access their crop for fear of being killed or must pay tribute to try and harvest what little they can.
Irrigation is required for a good crop (an expense)
Fertilization is require for a good crop (another expense)
Crops and animals can be raised together for additional income
Herdsman can be a threat to crops (their cows come first)
Hunters can burn your crop to the ground (to flush out leafcutter rats for food)
Thieves can steal your crop
Land further from markets is cheaper but more expensive to bring your crop to market. Being local (45min away) means more chance to observe the plot and better able to control problems. Also important with perishable foods being transported.
Leasing is cheaper (N100,000/year or less if they like you)
Purchasing is more expensive (N2.5M/hectare depending on location of course).
@monica-ene also mentioned that land owners won't let you plant trees on leased land. Annual crops only.
boreholes are typically used for irrigation.

Now a few other points that I have come across reading articles in the #earnspendgive community. Please let me know if I am mistaken in any of them! I've never set food in Nigeria and it is unlikely that I ever will so I'm not exactly a good source of first hand information!

Nigeria has bandits, kidnappers, and police which can all make your day miserable
Unemployment is hard to find and wages are awful with minimum wage being only N30,000/month.
Food is expensive and not having enough to eat is common.
The majority of farmers are subsistence farmers (farmers who grow crops to feed their family with little if any left over to sell for cash).
Nigeria is still a developing nation
In Nigeria access to working capital is limited
In Nigeria bank interest is much higher than in some other countries and banking is generally less reliable than other places
Water purity and availability can be an issue in many areas.
Heavy equipment like tractors are expensive to rent and expensive to fuel but necessary for preparing soil for crops (at least for best productivity).

Overall there are a lot of challenges to someone wanting to farm in Nigeria!

Why follow if you can lead?

Now I live in a developed nation (Canada) while @jjmusa2004 live in a developing nation (Nigeria). When I see his agricultural plans I'm seeing a Western type agriculture in an African area. But here is something to think about....

Because Nigeria is developing it has the ability to avoid the mistakes that the West made. Yes, the west farms huge amounts of food. I've seen it when I visit my mom in Saskatchewan. Farms over 2000 hectares are common. They use gigantic combines worth well over 1 Billion Naira ..and typically multiple vehicles required to work the land. Fertilizer costs are HUGE, fuel costs are HUGE, pesticide usage is also HUGE, Irrigation needs are immense, and there are indeed large amounts of crop provided at the end.

But...

These huge farms are facing problems in the not too distant future.

**The farmland is getting weaker and weaker year by year. **

Soil compacting: Pumping water from the boreholes for irrigation lowers the water table. This makes for two problems. First: as the water table goes down the soil compacts making it less productive. Second: pumping the water from a deeper level means that more fuel is required to get the water making the overall profit less.

Soil salinity: What happens when you keep adding fertilizer year after year? The soil gets salty. Salty soil isn't good for crops. You can't grow food without the fertilizer as all the natural nitrogen is gone. You can't grow food it you keep using the fertilizer because it will eventually grow so salty that nothing will grow.

Lack of biodiversity: As more and more land is devoted to single crop agriculture there is less and less land available for natural wildlife. Biodiversity decreases and the environment suffers as a result.

Looking at those problems I have this statement.

If Nigeria is a developing nation. Please let it develop to be better than the
West. Western agriculture is very much set and as we are "developed" it is hard to change. Nigerian agriculture has a lot of room to grow and develop. It is my sincere wish that it grows to be better than the West. To be more productive, more sustainable, and avoid the problems that the West will have to deal with sooner than later.

There is a saying "Those who don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it". Well, those who don't learn from the mistakes of others are prone to make the same mistakes.

What is my proposal? Permaculture/Agroforestry

Now in my first article I mentioned Agroforestry and I mentioned Permaculture. They are simliar but not the same but either could alleviate many of the problems that were mentioned in jjmusa2004's article.

A few definitions :

Agroforestry: Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland.

Permaculture: Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles that simulates or directly utilizes the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems. It aims to create sustainable ways of living by integrating human activities harmoniously into the natural world

Subsistence Farmer: A subsistence farmer is someone who engages in agriculture on a small scale, primarily to grow food for themselves and their family, rather than for sale or trade. This type of farming typically involves manual labor and traditional methods, and the scale of production is usually just enough to meet the basic needs of the farmer's household.

I added the definition of subsistence farmer in there because I've heard that many of Nigeria's farmers are subsistence farmers. I certainly understand the economic reality as to why people become subsistence farmers but believe that being able to produce only enough for your family leaves nothing for others and not enough to provide for financial needs.

I believe that all farmers should produce enough to feed themselves AND have enough left over to sell so that they can see profits every year.

However, if you are growing corn, beans, wheat and other products that the West is producing with robots and heavy machinery on a small scale you will never be able to compete. You will never win a fight with a robot!

It also comes down to the amount of work required. Just for fun lets consider two crops: 1 acre of corn vs 1 acre of palm trees. Each can produce a large crop. 1 acre of corn can produce up to 4000 lbs of corn annually. 1 acre of palm trees can produce up to 2000lbs of palm fruit annually. However, the amount of work required is considerably different. 1 acre of corn would require planting 30,000 seeds. 1 acre of palm would require 100 trees. The corn has to be planted every year. The palm trees have to be planted only once.

Which one do you think is more work?

I'll defer to @monica-ene on this question. However, I'm almost sure she willl say its easier to plant 100 trees once than 30,000 plants every year. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Benefits of permaculture

More Diversity = Less Risk

The whole idea of permaculture is plant once, tend regularly, and harvest forever. It is designed so that it encourages multiple different types of trees, plants and animals all on the same acre. Some that produce food for people, others that produce food for animals, and some that are there to help the other plants survive.

However, I think that if done properly it can provide a huge advantage over regular agriculture for the Nigerian farmer.

Now I love planting trees (which is why I used the Palm tree reference). However, I hate planting just one type of crop on an acre. I'd want Palm, Mango, Guava, Moringa, Coconut, Luceana, Cashew and anything else that grows well perennially.

Why do I want a variety?

because it mitigates risk.

Have you ever heard the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?" Well that is exactly what you are doing when you only plant one crop. I've heard @monica-ene say that heavy rains came and ruined an entire crop. Or if there is one disease that takes out corn and you only planted corn then you go hungry. If a bunch of insects come and take out all the palm fruit I'd want to make sure I had more than just palm trees.

Diversity makes sure that even if one crop doesn't do well you have many others to harvest that year. As another advantage if everything comes ripe at a different time you don't have to hurry and harvest everything in a short time but you can be harvesting something over a much longer period of time. Yay...less crunchtime and more regular work time. Also, a disease that kills one crop may not take out all the others. An insect that eats one plant may have no interest in another. Also, if there is a low density of a certain crop (say only 5 palm trees per acre rather than 100) the chance for an insect infestation to take place are that much less.

Less need for fertilizer

Now @jjmusa2004 mentioned adding fertilizer. I hate expenses and fertilizer is a necessary expense for the best yield.

but is it?

Enter the humble Luceana tree. Also known as the Ipil-Ipil tree in the Philippines. It's a legume tree. Know what that means? It's roots are a natural fertilizer. Intersperce it with other plants and trees and now you have natural fertilizer year after year after year without ever having to pay for it.

But wait... there is more! It's leaves are actually highly nutritious and sought after by a number of types of animals. Cows and goats love them. So, if you have herdmen who are coming to your land and have smaller annual plants growing you are in trouble. The cows much your beans and you can't say anything without having an angry herdsman brandishing a cutlas at you. However, if you have Luceana trees let the cows in. Let them munch any branches that they can reach. Keep the cow happy, keep the herdsman happy, and if the cow decides to further enrich your soil with some natural fertilizer even better.

But wait... there is more! The cows aren't going to get all the leaves. They just aren't that tall. Feel like making a highly nutritous supplement that's high in vitamins and iron? Harvest the leaves higher in the Luceana tree and make LPC (Leaf protein concentrate). Highly digestable. Possibly great for nausea and anemia during pregnancy. Dehydrate it and it can last an incredibly long time. Not much market for it because no-one has ever heard of it but still.... If it keeps the cows and herdmen happy plus fertilizes your other plants how can you lose?

How about the moringa plant? Again, very nutritious for cows (they quite enjoy it) but this one doesn't fertilizer the ground. However it grows quite quickly and the leaves are highly nutritous without any work (don't need to make LPC from them). Just dry them and powder them for a nutritional supplement or put them into a soup or salad as a vegetable.

But there is more... The moringa plant has also produces a bunch of seeds which can be used for oil. Oil and vegetable plus keep the herdsmen happy all in one go.

Bigger plants means less irrigation

Here is something you might not know about natural forests. They don't get irrigated. They are drought resistant by design. Sure plants die off in a bad year. Sure some trees die and are replaced with other more drought resistant ones. The same goes for flooding. Those plants that can't take the water die while those that can flourish. That's the beauty of nature, it adapts.

In a permaculture solution the variety of plants provides for a more robust system. Large plants can draw water from deep roots which means they need less water. They can also cool the area underneath them leading to less water evaporation and less drying of those plants in the shade as well, again leading to less water need.

Large scale monoculture tends to need a lot of water for irrigation. Permaculture tends to use a lot less water. Less water = less expenses which is a good thing. Less worry about depleting the water table. Less need for expensive irrigation facilities and simple water and bucket can provide a lot of the watering needs.

Also less work to water fewer plants. I'm all for less work.

Plant once, harvest forever means less work to do

I'd by lying if I ever said that any type of agriculture is easy work. It isn't. It's hard. At least with permaculture you only have to plant once and then tend forever. Mostly. Generally that means a few things: First it means that the farmer has more time to do other things which is great. Second it means that the farmer is less likely to suffer from mechanical injuries from all the stooping required to plant crops. I truly feel for rice farmers..that job has got to be the worst.

More importantly it means no tractor required. Tractor rental and fuel required are serious expenditures! However, permaculture typically uses a "no till" or minimal disturbance to the land. Without having to rely on heavy machinery the overall planting costs (and fuel costs) go down to nothing. No fuel, no equipment rental, no fertilizer, all that adds up to a less expensive project to start and maintain!

Very little grass means very few grasscutter rats

@jjmusa2004 mentioned that hunters burning down crops to get at the underlying grasscutter rats for bushmeat is a problem for many farms. Imagine putting in all the effort to plant an entire acre of corn just to come back and find it all burning. Our good doctor mentioned that he had a person get severe burns from trying to put out such a fire and still lost his crop anyways.

With a permaculture plot there are many trees and larger bushes. They are considerably harder to start ablaze and offer much less food to the grasscutter rats. However IF you wanted to encourage the rats and perhaps raise them under the cover of the trees it is still possible. Just plant something they would like to eat in between the trees. Now I only know rabbits and if I had rabbits I'd likely plant clover in Canada. It is drought resistant, highly nutritious to rabbits and bees (it has flowers), plus its a legume so again fertilizer for the other plants. Want to have some rats or rabbits around for extra food? Sure, go for it. Are hunters likely going to be able to burn down your plot? Unlikely. Want to keep the hunters happy? Well, have the little critters roam the property munching on the Nigerian version of clover. Find one then kill it and take it home for dinner. One more problem solved. Herdsmen happy. Hunters happy.

Not sure I'd be too happy with rat for dinner but to each their own

Permaculture is not as tempting for theives

Now having crops stolen by people or eaten by animals is never a fun thing. Every part ot the crop that is lost is less food for the farmer and less profit as well. However, a permaculture plot is somewhat more resistant to thieves and pests. Why? A few reasons:

Not everything comes ripe at once. With a traditional crop when a crop is ready for harvest it all comes due at the same time. That means that when the corn is ripe for harvest there is a lot of corn around. Easy for a thief to come in and a take a few. Lots of corn available for rodents or pests also. With a permaculture plot done properly everything comes due at a different time. A lot less to harvest at any one time and a lot harder for a thief to know what is ready. The farmer will certainly know but much less obvious for a thief.
With trees the crops are higher off the ground. Again using the example of corn it is easy to steal. It's around chest height and very obvious. Walk up and take it. How about a palm fruit? A casual thief will have to think twice about stealing it. How about moringa leaves? A casual thief wouldn't even know its edible. How about mangoes? Sure they are obvious and some even close enough for a quick pick. However to get the true crop someone would have to climb a tree or have a ladder. Crops can still be stolen for sure, however, a casual thief will generally have less to take.

What about those poor farmers displaced by bandits or war?

As horrible as it is to think some people are forced off their land by local conflicts. For those people they do all the work and make all the expense to do the planting and then get none of the rewards.

Terrible

Then when they return to their lands they have to start all over again because there is nothing left. Very disheartening. Sad.

Again, a permaculture plot shines here. By the very nature of the planting it is designed to keep on growing if the farmer is there or if the farmer is not. At least once it is well developed, in the early stages there will be a lot of hands on work to establish the plants. However, with a well developed plot if the farmer has to leave then there is a good chance that the farm will still be productive when the farmer returns.

Of course bandits or soldiers could raze the plot to the ground leaving the farmer with nothing. However that would require work by the soldiers. Simple neglect will destroy the harvest from a typical agricultural plot.

Permaculture is not all awesome, it also has glaring problems

I believe that Permaculture and Agroforestry are one of the primary ways to combat climate change, poverty, and hunger in the world. Being able to make more food in a sustainable manner is important now and will become increasingly important as global warming and overfarming decrease food output from traditional sources. However, as much as I love the idea of permaculture it is not without some serious issues which have to be considered before implementing.

There is a huge learning curve

Try working on a farm and you will learn something very quickly.

Farming is hard work! People thing it is just putting plants in the ground and watching them grow. I don't think they understand just how much a farmer has to know about how the plants live and grow, what they need and dislike, when to plant and harvest and so much more.

With traditional agriculture a farmer only needs to learn about a few crops that they wish to plant. In a permaculture plot the farmer has to learn about so many different types of plants. Traditional farming is learning how to maximize the yield of one plant. In permaculture it is about learning how to balance an entire ecosystem!

That means that there will be a huge learning curve. Also as permaculture is a developing science that means that anyone who tries it is a trailblazer. They will be the people trying to figure out how pest control works on an ecosystem basis. They will be the ones trying to figure out planting and harvesting with numerous different plants all trying to coexist. They will be the ones trying to figure out what needs to be watered and when because what one plant needs may kill another. Making sure the roots of fertilizer trees or plants are in the right spot to help those plants that need the fertilizer.

Permaculture is more about ecological balance and less about growing food

It is more about stewardship and long term planning than simply planting and harvesting

There is even more learning about how to use different plants for food

Many of the plants that were eaten in history are no longer being eaten. People have largely shifted to a diet of foods that are intensively farmed. Corn, wheat, potatoes, and meats. Found everywhere and produced by large farms everyone seems to know how to cook them or at least are familiar with them. However, with a permaculture setup you are reintroducing foods from history which people may no longer be familiar with. I've heard @monica-ene mention tiger nuts which I would not even know as edible. Moringa leaves also who knows how to cook them? The average Filipino would know as they are familiar with it...but how about the average Nigerian? In short when you start adding many nutritious but unfamiliar foods people need to learn how to make tasty food dishes out of them and develop a taste for them.

Marketing -- or lack thereof

Many edible products aren't found commonly in markets not because they aren't tasty or nutritious. They aren't found because they don't have a long shelf life and are hard to transport. A couple of examples would be mullberries and cashew apple. Both are very tasty and nutritious but have you ever seen them in the market?

I'm almost betting you haven't.

But why not? Both of those excellent tasting items have short shelf lives. The time between harvest and spoiling is very short. As a result they aren't commonly marketed--too much spoilage. However many local trees and bushes that would be useful in permaculture project would fall into the category of edible, tasty and not marketable on a commercial scale.

That's a problem for the permaculture farmer. Their produce won't sell well if at all to the export market (or even going to a larger city). They are farm more useful on a local farm market scale. Then the problem is that the local people may not have a taste for or even know if the food that is being sold.

That means that making profit or selling the crop could be an uphill battle

Unfamiliar plants means hard to start

Which leads to yet another issue. Where to find the variety of plants needed to successfully start a Permaculture farm. I mean I love Moringa plants but could you find one in your community? If you can't can you import seeds? If you import seeds will the government have issue with growing an unfamiliar plant? Moringa is just one example but there could be dozens of plants you want to make a productive acre and all of them could be a challenge to find.

And unfamiliar crops means leasing the land could be challenging

As I mentioned before @monica-ene mentioned that when leasing land the owner doesn't typically want trees on the property. It is supposed to be for crops and trees don't mix well with crops traditionally. Now an open minded individual may be open to a plantation of trees like coconut, mango, palm or so on which they are familiar with. However a permaculture plantation will be foreign to pretty much any landowner and I can almost guarantee they will not be happy with the idea. As a result it is much better to own the land for a Permaculture project, especially considering the whole idea is to develop for the long term which is much more beneficial if you own the land.

It takes money to startup and there is a long time before there is a return

Probably the biggest problem for a typical Nigerian subsistence farmer is that there is a long time before there is any return on the initial investment. Palm trees and mango trees take many years before there is any crop. Even moringa trees give virtually nothing in the first year. For the average Nigerian they can't spend money now and hope they have food to eat in a few years time. A major reason why permaculture is not more common than it is. There are also considerable start-up costs. The cost to purchase land. The cost to find and purchase suitable plants. The work involved in getting everything planted and watered. Overall money out to start with no money in will discourage most if not all traditional farmers.

The end of Part #2

If you made it to the end of this post my congratulations to you. It was a long one and I still have much more to write. In my initial post I wrote that my dream is to end hunger in Nigeria/Africa and want to use Permaculture to do it. In this post I've talked about what Permaculture is and why I think it will solve some of the problems involved with traditional agriculture in Nigeria. In addition it can improve soil quality over time and give an overall better yield over time than traditional farming with less overall work and expense.

However, it requires a large initial investment and a long time dedication to the land. It requires a considerable amount of time and dedication to learning about plants, soil, and the interaction in an ecological system. Overall, a daunting task for the average Nigerian. An impossible task for someone located in Canada.

Then again, that's the power of Hive. It allows people to collaborate and share information around the world quickly. It also allows capital to be shared around the world in an instant. So, if I find the right group of people perhaps my Permaculture dream can become a permaculture pilot project.

That permaculture project is the "Earn" in the #earnspendgive community and the "G" in the GLD coin (Generate income). Do I have a plan on how I would like to move forward with this project? Absolutely!

This post is already far too long though...

So, the next THREE posts in this series will move over to the #earnspendgive community and will outline how I want to proceed to grow the community there. A little more specifically:

Part THREE : Earn / Generate -- Start a permaculture project to develop the land and hopefully make food and income over time.

Part FOUR : Spend / Live -- Earning is great but you have to make sure you earn more than you spend. This post will be about my goal to figure out the best way to balance living a meaningful life at the lowest possible expense. Especially considering how to make a meaningful life from a permaculture pilot project.

Part Five : Give / Develop community -- Having a permaculture project is great. Getting the community on board to benefit from the knowledge developed from the project is even better. Developing recipes for the food provided. Helping members in the community with food when they don't have enough. Developing a market for foodstuffs from the project. Generally being good members of the community. Well, I have a goal for that too.

But I'm almost at 5000 words and over a half hour read. I'll end things for here.

Thanks for reading

Until the next post.

A holiday wish (Part 2) -- A permaculture plot