“The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways”- John F. Kennedy.
My country’s economy is in shambles. The political, educational, among others are a mess. Sadly, no one is doing anything about it. The prizes of literally everything have skyrocketed, and we, the citizens, have no other options but to cry for help and wait for our savior. We are waiting for Godot. Some years back, things weren’t as bad as they are now. Although we have been in this struggling economy for years now, things were not as bad as they are now about 10 years ago. Currently, the prize of one egg is #200. During my high school days, an egg was #25. Which means that it is now 8 times the price. Farm produce like milk, vegetables, tomatoes, bell peppers, and even onions are now expensive. It takes quite a decent amount of money to prepare a good pot of soup.
My country is blessed. If anything, Nigeria is one of the most blessed countries when it comes to agriculture. When I read Nigerians post on Hive, they mostly complain about how bad the economy is, how ruined the political sector is and how we are suffering at the hands of selfish leaders and gullible citizens, but they seldom mention the good things about this country. Yes, there’s no hiding it, the country is in a mess. However, there’s no doubt that the country is blessed. Throw a seeds of pepper or tomato into the ground and wait for the magic to happen. It is not like this in other countries. Countries like Isreal struggle to grow crops, but we do it easily over here.
Over the months, the cost of foods like eggs, tomatoes, yams, onions, okra and so on has skyrocketed. It is as if the prices of things increase overnight. Nowadays, only rich people eat yam because it is very expensive. But do people know that we have the power to change this whole narrative? The ball is not in our court, but we could make things work. We can take control of the “ball and the court” by growing our own crops. Imagine if fresh crops are within your reach and all you have to do is to go to your backyard and boom! Fresh tomatoes and peppers.
You don’t have to be a big time farmer to make things work. You don’t be necessarily have to grow the demanding crops. Start with the basics that will reduce your expenses. Crops like tomatoes and peppers are very easy to grow. Instead of spending so much on cooking a soup. Don’t you think it is better to start growing some of them and use that money for something else? If you don’t enough space, you can grow them in bags (with the right soil).
Recently, my siblings and I moved to a new house. When we just got here, there was no kitchen garden. We depended on market sellers for everything. But the magic happened sooner than we expected. Whenever we cooked, we would always pour pepper and tomato seeds in the backyard, and before we knew it, they sprouted and started growing. Now, we have 3 big stands of pepper and 4 big stands of tomatoes. We have been nurturing them for a while now and they are growing well.
My mom likes to add tomatoes, peppers and onions to her egg. So, instead of going out to get them, we would just go to the backyard and do the needful. How amazing is that? I plan to grow other crops on this small farmland. Hopefully, they grow well.
This is my entry to the INLEO September prompt.
All images in this post are mine.
Thanks for reading.
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