My grandfather back then in the olden days was a wealthy farmer who indulged in planting of various crops such as maize and cocoa. He also made palm oil out of palm fruit as well as farmed fish. Let's just say he is multi-talented.
He is not as strong as he used to be, but still manages his farm well. Just yesterday, my cousin and I visited his farm, and I was just so astonished to see a lot of changes that already occurred. I will be taking you all around as I explain things to you and their various purposes, perhaps you all could learn one or two things about farming.
photo by me, palm trees
on my grandfather's farm
Palm Fruit and Oil Making:
Traditional method of making palm oil from palm fruit, with which I'm more familiar, shall be explained below.
image source: eatingwell.com
First thing to do is the cracking of palm fruit and the separation of the kernel/seed from the fruit. This is done in a form of large tub made of iron. A few people put on their boots, hop inside, and start marching with their legs in other to separate the fruit from the kernel. This process takes about 2-3 hours, depending on the amount of kernel you are willing to convert to oil. The oil from the palm kernel (Palm Kernel Oil) is black in colour, and not as healthy because of more saturated fat. The oil from the palm fruit (Palm Oil) has less saturated fat and is red or golden in colour because of carotene, which is healthy. [source]
After the marching, sieving then takes place to obtain a fine particle of the fruit body. The kernel is then placed on a fire in a very large pot with boiling water and then stirred with a wooden stick till it forms dough. After the formation of dough, it's then pressed by hand on a grinding stone until oil starts gushing out. The oil is then scooped and then boiled again.
Fish Farming:
My grandfather gets his fish when they are still young (juveniles) and then puts them into the pond. He feeds them two to three times daily to avoid over feeding. I still recall few years back when I was with my grandfather and we got the fishes out by first pumping the water out and then getting the fishes with buckets or nets. Unfortunately, all we could get then were just few fishes, others already eaten up by snakes. He then lined the pond with nets to prevent the snakes from eating the fish.
But now things changed, people no longer use the pond. All they do is just dig a hole not too deep and fenced around. The fish are then taken in at a very tender age (fingerlings) and then fed with floating feeds for two-to-three months before changing to sinking feeds for the juvenile and the post-juvenile.
The reason why the modern type of pond is far better than the traditional type is that it reduces water pollution that can lead to mortality. It avoids over feeding the fishes also, getting them in the modern type of pond gives you the opportunity to be able to look after them with utmost care and also monitor their feeding by spot feeding them.
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photo by me | photo by me |
The next part, I visited was his maize farm:
Well, I don't really have much to say on this segment, since maize planting is considered one of the simplest crops to plant. Even when I was young, I planted maize at different places on my grandfather's farm and watched as it grew with delight. The following steps below will be good for getting your maize planted:
Till the soil with with a hoe making a depth of 6 inches.
Fertilize the soil with fertilizer.
Create rows in the garden using a hoe.
Poke the top of the heap with your finger and drop in one or two kernel of corn.
Start watering after second day of planting.
Cocoa Planting:
Cocoa planting is done by professional farmers. In fact, it's considered one of the crops that makes a farmer very rich.
Cocoa planting is so complex to the extent that it has its own period of planting, where to plant it, and also the time to transfer it to another place. It's also very expensive due to the insecticides used in killing the pests.
Thank you for touring my grandfather's farm with me!