Irrigation & the Giving Farmer

A few weeks ago when we went to visit a village, and we were also given a chance to see what the surrounding fields were like, because this area was known for being well irrigated. The government came in a few years ago and bought much of the land surrounds the village, put in water pumps, drills, and irrigation channels, and then set up a lottery system for the villagers to “rent” irrigated fields from the government. People actually just pay for a part of the electricity needed to pump the water in the area of their field. So here they are able to farm multiple crops per year. We saw a lot of moringa trees, mango, cassava plants, banana trees and various other crops being grown. We walked by one farmer as he was harvesting his cassava roots, which is a common food eaten raw or boiled and eaten with a spicy powder. We asked him for a closer look at the roots as he was piling up the cassava “trunks” to go for fire wood, and he gave us a few roots to try and a few of the trunks which we could re-plant in our own garden. Apparently all you have to do is cut them into foot long pieces, stick them in the ground and water them well, and they will grow new roots and stalks relatively quickly (we’ve done so now and are seeing them take root already). Again I was impressed with how giving this farmer was in a place where food isn’t an abundant commodity, he was very quick to share whatever he had with strangers!