Pick and Write [Agricultural Word] 👉#03

For this week's contest on Agricultural Word, I'll be picking water. I'll would like to address the true connection between water and productivity in agriculture.

Water is an integral part of what makes life possible and agriculture is full of life. No water, literally no agriculture.

The absence of rain doesn’t just reduce the size of a maize crop. The cob malforms, the grains disperse sparsely on it, like someone with bad teeth arrangement. The filling of rice grains don’t fully mature and their whiteness looks like see through white when you hold it against light. When I'm in the market looking for rice they think I'm weird but I always hold it up and see if it's see through or not.

I don’t know if the end consumer is aware, but the farmer is.

The dry season has always meant a thing or two. But it has grown longer and the interval between the dry seasons has decreased. A farmer had to sell two goats last year to fund another planting after the first failed. He’s threatening to relocate to another place this year even if he won’t say it outright.

Food prices rise of course. But it is not only a matter of economics. Households begin to eat less diverse food. You'll be getting more garri and less vegetables and more rice with less protein. Expectant mothers and children suffer a lot, they have no time to wait for the next good harvest. Malnutrition is the order of the day and by the time it manifests, the harm is already done.

Some communities fight over water these days. Boreholes meant for three families now serve eight. No one is happy about it, but there’s really no choice when the stream runs dry months earlier than it used to.

The issue isn’t only one bad drought. It’s the fact that droughts return and groundwater doesn’t recharge as it used to. Rainfall patterns have changed if you have observed. Some parts flood and some remain dry for months longer than they used to.

Improved water storage and use will be of a big help in this sort of situation. Drip irrigation is very important and I'll talk more in that next time. We need soil that retains water longer and crop strains that can handle less moisture. But obviously those things take money and knowledge that most small farmers don’t have access to yet.

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