Farming Season: Beyond the tradition!

Government has officially given its blessings to the 2015 farming session in the country. Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Essimi Menye gave the kicker for the southern parts of the country on Thursday February 19, 2015 in the South West Region.

This was unlike other years when the same exercise took place long into the farming season sometimes when crops had already been planted.

Like in previous years, the Minister used the farming season launch to galvanise farmers and other agricultural stakeholders to efficiency so that at the end, the goal of farming; good harvest, would be attained not only to bail the country out of imports of products it could produce but also to allow farmers to reap the fruits of their labour.

But beyond the euphoria surrounding the launch, public authorities imperatively need to give a push to farmers. There are so many interwoven factors which combine to guarantee the success of a farming campaign like the one government has given a go-ahead to.

Taking one and leaving the other is as good as nothing because desired objectives would not be met. Sustainable farming, it should be recalled, requires getting the land, tilling it according to required norms, getting the best seeds to plant (ecologically acceptable, disease-resident and high-yielding) and buying the best fertilizer as well as applying the required dosage at the right time. This is certainly what farmers need.

Good seeds have almost always been the missing link in the country’s agricultural productivity. In most of the cases, the high-yielding seeds developed by researchers in the country either do not get to all the farmers timely enough for them to plant or those in charge of making them available despise what is developed locally and go for imports.

This at best serves the interest of the importer who cares little about yields. As government launches the farming season therefore, the farmers should be clearly told where they can get good seeds.

The ministry absolutely needs to maximize the pact it signed with the Research Institute for Agricultural Development for the provision of seeds in quality and quantity.

The issue of fertilizers equally needs to be addressed. Not only are they not always available all over for all farmers, but understanding the dosage of what fertilizer to apply and when to do so has also been problematic.

There is need for some in-depth coaching here. And this is where the role of field extension workers comes in. They would need to let go the comfort of their air-conditioned offices and get to the farms where their services are highly needed by farmers.

At a time when the climate is changing every day, with diverse adverse effects on agriculture, farmers need assistance more than ever before and as frequent as possible to know when to plant, how to plant and what quantity and quality of fertilizer to use.

All said and done, the purchase of seeds and fertilizers in the country goes through the long and sometimes cumbersome public contracts system. Launching the calls for tenders, examining the different tender files and deciding who gets the supplies usually takes time.

In most of the cases, the exercise takes too long and the inputs come too late to impact the farming season. Something equally needs to be done here so that as authorities go chest-beating for launching the season earlier, farmers would also rejoice at the end with good yields.