My First Time Cultivating Cassava After 16Years

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(Edited)

We are still in the season of celebration as families come closer to celebrate the end of the year together. For me, I have decided to celebrate my 2021’s Christmas and new year celebration to be way more different from my past celebrations. However, this wasn’t my initial plan but I’m glad I made the decision to travel from Lagos to Delta state to meet with my families.

The last time I visited my Delta state was 9 years ago and since then, my nieces and nephews have been longing to meet me. The distance between this two states is about 6hrs plus and this has been one reason I have always stayed back from travelling. I honestly don’t know how my nephews, nieces, and cousins who are 9years old or less looks like which is why I decided to change the story this year before my absence in delta hits a decade. So, I traveled down there 6days ago and it’s been fun all through.

My time supervising

Today, we decided to clear out the weeds in one of our reserved lands and I happen to be the one to supervised the work. I was prepared for how the whole thing would go so I started taking pictures right before they started clearing the bushes.

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Price Negotiation

We hired two men who we saw on our way to this location to clear the bushes in the land. We asked for the amount they would charge for the clearing and they said $44.6 which is 25,000 Naira in my local currency. My in-law who was with us decided to negotiate the price with them and he replied with “8000 Naira is what we are willing to pay.” that’s about $14.2. They rejected and wanted to leave but my in-law closed the deal at 15,000 Naira which is $26.7. They agreed and started the work.

The image below was taken a few hours before they finished their jobs.

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While watching them clear the land, I noticed a few crops that needs to be harvested. For example; scent leaf, banana, plantain and cassava. And among these crops, cassava is much compared to the rest. With that said, I focused thoroughly on harvesting it.

Harvesting Cassava


If you look closely at the first image above, the very first plant you’d notice is cassava.

Cassava is a nutty-flavored, starchy root vegetable or tuber. Native to South America, it’s a major source of calories and carbs for people in many countries. Nigeria, Thailand, and Indonesia are the top cassava-producing countries in the world

There are little of this cassava in this land but it’s nice if I harvest them since they’d be cleared off regardless. Before I drop/tell the stories of my cassava harvest, I would love to drop a pictures of what cassava looks like for those who don’t know it.

The stem

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A single leave cassava branch

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A cassava plant with plenty of leaves

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First harvest last disappointment

The first cassava I harvested was located at the entrance of the land. Merely looking at it, I was filled with joy because it looked so rich as you can see from the first image below;

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With the way its stem looked, I hoped to dig out fat tubers but I was so disappointed seeing how small its tubers are as shown in the second and third picture above.

I had to think deep what could be wrong here, then I found out the cassava was on a wrong soil. As you can see from the image below, it grew and tried to grow tubers on a sandy-like soil which isn’t good for it.

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I learned a few lessons from this experience which are;

  • Never judge a book by its cover
  • Not all that glitters are Gold.

wait what? Is it trying to Impress me?

While I was still on the sandy-like soil, I was wishing I had left this particular cassava spot until I dug out this. Should I call this a tuber? Lol but I’m not still impressed with this.

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By the way, I don’t think I have ever seen tuber of anything looking this way. It tried to look good but still skinny which isn’t what a farmer would ever pray for on a harvest day.

Surprises

I was extremely disappointed with my first harvest and prayed the rest doesn’t look that bad. So, I headed towards the bush without minding if there are dangerous animals because those guys were almost done with their job.

I boldly walked approaching the skinny looking cassavas. Yes you read it right! The rest of the cassava were looking so tiny that I almost gave up wanting to cultivate them.

This for example doesn’t look like a cassava stem that would have big tubers but I was amazed by what I saw underneath.

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On a farmer’s perspective, this would be a bad harvest but for me, this is better one when compared to my first harvest.

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Greater Surprises

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I needed to see the amount of cassava I harvested. So, I poured everything on the floor and tbh, I’m glad that I made the choice to harvest them. Else, all of these would have gotten burned when my In-law sets the bush on fire.

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The second image shows when my Nieces were pilling the tubers. I honestly don’t know what they wanna use it for. But in my country, cassavas are mainly used for human consumption in different forms. For example;

  • it can be soaked and filtered into Fufu
  • it can Be grounded and turned into Garri
  • Abacha (African salad)
  • starch

There are other uses but these are the ones I could remember for now. I’m looking forward to blogging what my family decides to use this for.

Overall, I’m enjoying my stay here in Delta state and I hope to visit amazing places before I return back to Lagos next week.



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11 comments
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Stunning, hahaha I know you just watched and took pictures while others worked. Botty lagos boy.

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Wrong wrong wrong! 😂

I harvested everything bro.

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They look so big and also I remember the last time I cultivated cassava with my dad, I peel the body with knife and I do enjoy it well

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Awesome. You used it for fufu?

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Yes boss. You must like fufu?

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No I don’t 😂

I just guessed because that’s one of the first options when it gets to cassava. I’d prefer GARRI.

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So you prefer garri to fufu. Wow that's nice but I know fufu make someone satisfy than garri. Nice choice boss

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