The Rainy season is here, the farming season begins||Planting the pumpkin seeds

As expected, the rain has begun and farmers around my region are set for this year farming season. Both commercial and subsistence farmers are now on the move scrambling for portions of farmland to plant their crops.

As it stands now, the amount of rain that has gone into the ground is enough for farmers to begin their planting. As a small scale farmer, I have been in waiting for the rain to start and I'm glad about it. In this post, I would be discussing about how I'm planting my Pumpkin seeds in expectation of harvesting both the leaves and seeds as well.

The Pumpkin Seeds

The Agricultural name of pumpkin seeds is curcubita pepo. Its family name is Cucurbitaceae. Pumpkin seeds have an oval shape and they have flat body. When the husk is pilled of , a creamy-white seed would be seen. This creamy -white part is the edible part and could be eaten when properly boiled while it is still tender and not matured.

When it is fully matured and ready to be planted, it forms a fiber-structure after the white outer skin. This fiber is soft and has orange color. At a full maturity stage, the seeds begins to tear and start sprouting inside. At this point of maturity, the farmer now would tear the big white pumpkin housing the seeds.

This pumpkin I'm holding in this picture is fully matured and ready to be planted. I would say that this seed is one of the most simplest seeds that even a core farmer could plant. To justify this statement, here are just few steps I took to plant the seed:

• Prepare the soil for planting the seeds.
• Bring out the white big crop and divide into two parts
• Begin to separate the seeds from its orange color fiber-like tissues
• After the separation, don't plant immediately. Cover ithe seeds with some few handful of humous sand
• Allow it there for three to four days.
• After three to four days, take Ist out of the sand and plant into the main farm .

As a small scale farmer, this is the procedure that I follow when planting this crop. Planting processes could differ from farmer to farmers and region to regions.

For planting this crop, I made ridges for it. I planted them 2x2 in opposite direction. Just as the soil is wet enough, I would be expecting the crop to start sprouting any time soon

This crop produces one of the most consumed vegetables in my country, Nigeria. It is affordable that when farmers starts harvesting the vegetables, it would be on the menu of almost all the families. This is attributable to the nutrients it carries for a better healthy body system.

Many commercial farmers who harvested theirs seeds, are now making a lot of money from selling the seed to other farmers or non farmers. While the seeds are available, the vegetables that the seeds bear are now scarce and so prices are now high