Basic Knowledge in Agriculture #52

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Agriculture which includes Farming has been so helpful to us. Many of the food we eat in our country are gotten from agriculture such as Rice, beans, garri, onions, corn, plantains, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and many others.

Imagine waking up one morning to realize that henceforth there will be no framing or no agriculture?

What Do you understand by Bush Fallowing

In other to wake you one morning to find out that there is no more good lands for agriculture, we as farmers must learn to practice bush fallowing but then is bush fallowing?

Growing up as a kid in school, we were taught that bush fallowing is the process of allowing our farm lands to rest, breath in other to get back her strength and vitality.

Imagine working all day and all night non stop for 5-10 years non stop, you will get very tired leading to fatigue. Infact you will get angry and even wants a vacation. Bush fallowing is like allowing your farm lands to be on vacation for a while before returning to it.

During the time when the land is left without use, nothing is done on it, the grasses are allowed to grow on it without interruption for about 5 years. This is a natural way in agriculture where soil fertility is restored.

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I remember my grand parents of blessed memory, they had some piece of lands which they used for farming in my village. There was this particular one that my grandfather used specifically for cultivating yams and groundnut.

His yams harvest was always massive, each tuber of yam was almost bigger than my head, all of a sudden his yam produce began to reduce in size. This happened twice, and then he announced to us that we won't be farming on that piece of land anymore, we didn't understand him at that time, so we complained. He told us that he wanted to find out the root cause of the problem.

I watched my grandfather as he left that plot of land for some time without any activity the only thing we did was that we started going there to pick snails especially at nights when it rains.

There are many places where bush fallowing are placed and one major place is some parts of Africa such as Nigeria, Cameron, Ghana , Uganda and Kenya. The history of bush fallowing dates as far back as our ancestors.

What are the advantages of Bush Fallowing

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• Bush fallowing helps the soil gets back it's soil fertility and nutrients. Alot happens as the land is left without use, like I said earlier, that period it's like the soil is resting from lots of work so that it can become more efficient.

• It is not expensive to practice. All you need to do is just to stop using the land, nothing more. You don't need money to practice bush fallowing.

• Does not require the use of any form of technology or checks in other to practice it. Which simply means any farmer can practice it.

• The grasses or plants growing on the land can serve as food for other livestock like goats, cows, rabbit and the rest. You can cut them and take it to your animals as food.

• Bush fallowing is used for the control of pests and diseases in plants existing on your farms.

What are the Disadvantages of Bush Fallowing

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• Bush fallowing May leas to soil erosion when the land is left for long without any planting activities and the grases are cut to feed livestock

• Bush fallowing is seen as waste of land because it could have been used for farming rather it is left without use.

• Resources from the land maybe destroyed such as trees used for timber or fire wood.

• As land is left for some years, the population of the people increase which leads to fragmentation of that land to accommodate the increased population.

• Lands left for bush fallowing most times are used for the cultivation of only seasonal crops like maize or miller.

• It takes a lot of time for the soil to regain back it nutrients and soil fertility because it is practiced between 5-10years ideally.

• Increased growth of weeds in your farm leaving farmers with a lot of work to do.

Take home note

Bush fallowing is an Agricultural practices most done by small scale farmers.

Many times it is done when there are not enough capital to use fertilizers or other means.