One of the things about me people find the hardest to believe is when I tell them I’m a farmer. I mean…I don’t take farming initiatives myself, but my dad is a farmer, and so my siblings and help him out on the farms during farming season.
We’re into the cultivation of a lot of things: corn mostly, but also groundnut and beans (of several kinds).
Until writing this post, I’ve never really given it a thought where the produce we harvest goes. Maybe it’s because I’m not the man of the house. But I just realized that I didn’t know what my dad does with the harvest. I should probably ask him the next time I see him.
Anyways, thinking about it, it seems most of our harvests get sold. The maize from the harvests are used in making foods like TZ and Banku, both soupy foods. But if you know me, you know that soupy foods are not my thing. So since I became old enough to have money to be able to buy own things, I’ve always bought food outside, especially at night, since that is usually when they cook food at home.
Quoting from some funny guy on TikTok, it’s like my tastebuds become allergic to food at home when I have money. Lol
Thinking about farming myself
In all honesty, I hate farming. Especially the type that we do. We’re the machines that do most of the labor and heavy lifting and so that takes a serious toll on our health. My case is especially worse since I’m G6PD partially deficient, but because my family doesn’t really understand the implications of my condition, they just think I’m being lazy when I don’t want to get involved in the heavy duty labor.
That is one of the things I’m thankful for right now - that instead of making an appearance at the farm myself, I can give my dad some money to get laborers in my stead. This way everyone wins.
Still though, medical reasons aside, I’m not really a huge fan of farming. I like that our farm is located far away from homes, and so gives us a great sense of connection for the days we’re there. I get the chance to do a lot of photography when we’re farming, so it’s at the least, one of the things I look forward amidst the disinterest surrounding farm days.
Myself, I’ve mentioned to @ quduus a couple of times that seeing his posts inspire and motivate me to want to start a fish farm. Yeah, when I said I hated farming, I meant I hated crop farming. Or maybe I just hate the way we do it. But I’m very open to animal farming or rearing.
When I was a kid, I used to save most of my pocket money to occasionally buy fowls. I had a LOT of them by the time I graduated Junior High School. Then I sold that lot to buy goats. But somewhere after Senior High School, I’m not sure whether it was because University was far away from home, but I lost interest in it all.
Recently though, seeing Quduus’ catfish farm posts, I’m starting to reconsider getting back into animal rearing. When I was doing fowl rearing as a child, I wasn’t doing it for profit. I did it because I found happiness doing it. I admit though, that I took it too far sometimes. Every time I closed from school, I’d chase my chickens towards cocks for them to mate. I got a very bad name in the neighborhood for it, but I didn’t realize that was a bad thing cos I was a child, and the adults just watched and laugh when I did it. Lessons learnt there. Lol
If I do eventually get back to it, it’ll still be because I love doing it, but also maybe to make some profits this time whiles I do something I love. I’m not sure I will though, because I’m juggling a lot of things right now, and I’m barely handling it well. But let’s see what happens.
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You hate crop farming but like fish farming?
You know crop farming is easier right?
I wish to have a pond but nobody told me it was so expensive and demanding
I was just 12 years
I stopped before killing myself, lol
Lol I don’t mind if it’s more demanding. I’m a motivation-oriented person. As long as I’m interested in something, nothing deters me.
I was about to remind you of something but then let me allow you to enjoy your motivation-oriented drive🙂
please remind him 🙏. If it’s something I can learn from
😂😂😂
Fish farming is not easy to set up and maintain but it's worth it in the end. If I had enough money would also go into fish farming.
When you say enough money, what do you mean?
I don't like farming too, my mom owns a farm but whenever they mention it that I will follow them to the farm I feel like they hate me 😂.
Lol welcome to the club, bro😂
Maybe we just don't want to follow in our father's footsteps?
My dad used to work an office job, until his early retirement due to health issues, around 2010 (aged 60). It destroyed him mentally and, eventually, physically and was a mirror for what I did not want/ how I didn't want to end up.
Wow...you used to Dave money to buy fowls!! That's intriguing. I know a little about fowls myself since my mom is into poultry. Growing up, I used to follow her to the farm on a regular basis. I loved feeding the chicks but once they grew up, they became scarier. I'm not scared of them anymore though😅
Oh My! I almost missed this 😂. The tag wasn’t tagging. Maybe you were even about to tag fox 😂.
Glad I am able to get to read this. Farming is diverse and there are lot of aspects to dive into. As for me I love farming in general. But I prefer the livestock aspect the more. I have plans for crop farming too. But not the stressful ones.
I can see why you feel the hate for this type of farming and that because it’s come with stress. Though there are machines for most of these processes now. But still it’s a matter of choice and capital.
Fish farming is kinda interesting. I also love other aspects too. And I am grateful for appreciating my contents. I am still doing all my very best to keep it going. And hopefully whenever you are ready to start up. We can have better things to do.
I smiled a lot about the mating. 😂. But now at least you know when to mate them and when not to mate. 😂 😂.