Hello everyone in this great community. This is my first publication in this community, @homesteading community. I hope we are enjoying our week. I bring everyone nice facts about the cassava plants in my region.
The cassava plant is a tuber crop and is often planted during the rainy season as now. This rainy season is the best because the plant is a water-loving plant. The cassava plant is propagated by stem cuttings and some portions of the stem cuttings are buried within the soil.
The cassava plant has so many diseases that can affect it such as the cassava mosaic virus( caused by a virus), cassava blight( caused by bacterial) and many more. Some rodents and pests also destroy the tubers and leaves respectively.
From a single open land, many cassava plants can be cultivated and the cassava plants can last a year or two to fully mature for harvest. Harvesting cassava is one of the most exciting farm activities I engage in either with my aunty who I live with or my best friend, @captainman who lives just in my neighborhood.
Cassava plants love to spread their branches and are mainly cover crops in a mixed farm of other crops. Whenever cassava plants are harvested from a farm, the farm most times looks empty unless other cover crops like cocoyam were also planted.
The end products of cassava after harvesting and processing are numerous, ranging from “Garri”(cassava flakes) to starch and flour.
With the lack of value of our currency coupled with the rise in cost of goods, many families have dived into farming, even a white-collar job owner has a farm and works there.
Garri and starch(end products of cassava plants) are saving the lives of many in my country though it's very expensive now in the market last I checked it's what anyone doing homesteading would have in excess.
Due to the demand and high cost of “Garri” in my country, every family has hit the farm, no more time to waste. For my aunty and I, it's a regular thing to always plant cassava every year and harvest to enjoy. Homesteading is part of what sustains my family (my aunty, her daughter and I). It's a great practice indeed.
The processing procedures for achieving the end products of cassava are very easy and I will share them with everyone when we carry out our next harvesting and processing.
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more.
