Safe agricultural food production
Edited in canva: From Our Pumpkin seed market
My dear friend @abdul-rakib, you undisputably captured it right by saying that there is no alternative to Agriculture. Sustaining human lives require the dependency on food which could only be produced by by planting.
There is an ever increasing population but there is a continous decrease of available land that could be used for Agricultural purposes. The effect of this is that, it is leading to food shortage around the globe.
The host of this competition is tries to make us to understand that in the midst of a growing food shortage, there is the need to carefully consider the quality of crops that we should be planting so that we could have quality and abundant food.
The importance of seed selection for safe food production
Edited in canva: From Our Pumpkin seed market
The careful selection of seeds for planting is very necessary. This implies that the Seeds we want to plant in our farm, should be thoroughly examined before planting them.
Seed selection is the careful practice or method that involves researching about seeds, removing infected or unproductive seeds so as to have quality and productive seeds that would give us a bountiful yields or harvest. There may be more practices that could be involved during seed selection, but the three practices that I consider most important are:
Making research to obtain viable seeds
Seed separation
Seed storage
My steps to produce safer crops
Edited in canva: From our Pumpkin seed market
Having crops that are safe for planting is a very important step every farmers must take. This would not just make them have good crop yields but would also ensure that crops do not have diseases which would hinder the growth and subsequent harvest farmers expect from their efforts.
For me as a small scale farmer, I undertake the following steps to produce crops that are safe:
Seperating bad or infected crops from the the good ones
Storing the crops in the right temperature
I avoid the use of harmful or unhealthy chemicals in my farm
Weeding is also an effort that I make to prevent my crops in the farm from attracting harmful insects that could infect and destroy the crops
The land or soil is well prepared and tilled
The pumpkin seed is a crop that produces both vegetables and seeds as well. Just like as it looks in the picture, it would be cut in two parts to bring out its seeds that would be used for planting.
It is planted when the rainy season is starting at the beginning of the year say early March to late April. After two to three weeks of planting, it begins to grow from the soil. The growth continues from May as it starts to bring out leaves or vegetables that the farmer may start selling or consume. Harvesting the leaves continues to September and October when it must have started bearing seeds like the ones the picture shows.
Now by November and December the seeds would be showing signs of maturity as the leaves becomes more stronger and getting dry together with the stems. This happens as the dry season is about to begin. By December, the harvesting the seeds starts and leaves or the vegetable would be stronger. At this time, the soft leaves or vegetables would be scarce.
What inspires me to be involved in productive work
Edited in canva: From Our Pumpkin seed market
The high cost and the seeming unhindered price of food commodities makes me get involved into small scale farming. Sourcing for all food items in the market comes with higher expenses for food. This reduces the expenses that I may incure for food.
As a small scale farmer, I produce some little crops for food reasons while I also sell some in the market to get the ones that I don't have. Going into Agriculture not minding how little it may be, is one of the best ideas one could give to anyone. You don't have to get all your food commodities from the market. You eat some and sell some.
Cc:
@abdul-rakib
I invite the following persons to participate in this competition:
আমাকে ইনভাইট করার জন্য আপনাকে অসংখ্য অসংখ্য ধন্যবাদ।