How to fix the soil by restoring organic matter to improve crop yield, s...

Continuous selective harvesting of soft stem vegetables to increase yield, reduce cost and labour

 

Continuous selective harvesting of soft stem vegetables to increase yield, maximize land use, reduce input cost and labour

The world demand for leafy vegetables growing on stalk or soft stems is rapidly growing. Despite the growing population, labour shortage has become a limiting factor for agricultural production and there is need to increase the amount of harvested vegetables at low labour input. One way to do this may be to consider harvesting the vegetable many times before it flowers and bear seeds. However, most western farmers have hardly explore this option of traditional selective harvesting that is geared towards increasing yield. This has left me pondering for a long time as I keep questioning myself …

Why do farmers harvest stalk leafy vegetables by uprooting them?

Ever since I traveled to the West, I have been wondering why farmers keep harvesting leafy vegetables by totally uprooting them. Once uprooted, the lifespan of the plants is over. Then they will nurse new seedlings again, tilled the soil, peg and plant afresh. What a waste of labour, time, inputs and harvest?

Rooted Amaranth (Green)

I grew up in Africa where I learned and practiced traditional farming practices from my grand-mums, parents and the entire community. Yes, we had a routine of going to the farm to cultivate our own vegetables and food crops every Saturday. A practice I enjoyed doing even after leaving the University of Buea and traveling to the West in 2003. In short, I am a proud farmer by birth and I don’t remember a year without growing my own organic food in my home garden. My family have been practicing subsistence farming and it is not by accident that I am passionate about farming.

How to harvest soft stem leafy vegetables

Most leafy vegetable grow on stalks that when harvested can develop new shoots from the remaining nodes on the stalk. In this case we harvest leaving about 2-4 nodes for new shoots to further develop, grow and spread out. Use a sharp knife and cut the vegetable just above 3 nodes on the rooted stalk. Within 4 days, you will see new lateral buds developing at the node. This may take about 10-14 days to fully grow into a broad leave stem vegetable ready for harvest.

So if you have a raised bed full with leafy vegetables, it is certain that all will not grow at the same rate, height or size. Normally these type of vegetables are usually planted closely (about 15-20 cm apart) to each other because only the vegetative growth is harvested as food. To ensure continuous harvest, you will need to employ the concept of selective harvesting.

Cut amaranth (Green)

Traditional selective harvesting practices

Selective harvesting is required for leafy vegetables that grow less homogeneously or are multi-annual. Selective vegetable harvesting allows us to harvest fresh vegetables weekly for a long period of time. Soft stem leafy vegetable like huckleberry (country njamajama), amaranths (green), bitter leaves and water leaves falls within this category. At Suzy-Farms we practice selective harvesting that enable us to harvest vegetables for about 2 months (at least 8 times) before they get mature. Once they are matured, they develop flowers and seeds. This is a sure indication that harvesting will soon come to a halt. But until then, these vegetables should be harvested by cutting the soft stem with a sharp knife. 

Within the bed of closely planted leafy vegetable, first harvest only the big matured ones. All small shoots vegetables should not be harvested. Leave these small ones to take advantage of the space created after the first harvest to further develop, spread out and growth bigger. Within a week, they must have grown bigger, matured and ready for harvest. At the same time the node left on the stems after the first harvest should have also developed young growing shoots. So by the time you carry out the second selective harvesting, this young shoots will also get enough space now to develop. This cycle may continue for 3 months with continues weekly harvesting. Please watch this video to understand how it works… Seeing is believing and believing is practicing. Click on our
youtube channel to watch how it is done in our home garden.

Bounty harvest of cut Amaranth from flower beds (companion planting)

Please make sure you grow organic, eat organic and live a healthy lifestyle. We live just ones! Don’t mess your life with unhealthy food. Start your own backyard garden as soon as possible so we can keep sharing information and good experiences. Grow your own food whenever possible and avoid frozen vegetable as much as you can. You can enhance your soil health by increasing the soil organic matter and also by practicing companion planting with beneficial synergies. This will also help to reduce pest and diseases while enhancing production. Please, make sure you harvest, cook and eat same day if possible. They are lots of vitamins and minerals in vegetables to nourish the body. These nutrients begins to reduce gradually from 8 hours after harvesting. Let your labour not go in vein. Harvest just when you are ready to prepare and eat. Watch this video here!!! 

Our Slogan: From Farm to Table. Yes! Let’s do it.  Experience it and share your story with us. Bingo!!! Those without gardens could buy fresh vegetables from organic stores or from your usual shop. However, stay away from frozen vegetable.

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Advantages of organic cocoa and/or coffee agroforestry

Organic cocoa or coffee production

Organic cocoa and/or coffee production is based on a sustainable socio-economic and environmental agroforestry system, where trees are grown in combination with taller shades and food/fertilizer trees. Cocoa/coffee trees are integrated into existing forest structure to retain multi-storey canopy and minimize environmental impacts. In case of no trees on site, other trees should be planted to provide shade and create the multi-storey agroforestry effect. 

Diverse tree species with cocoa/coffee as under-storey

These diversify trees species provide the following benefits

1.     Help to control pests;
2.     Provide shades for the cocoa/coffee tree;
3.     Enhance soil fertility;
4.     Improve cocoa/coffee yields;
5.      Provide food, folders and medicine;
6.      Retain habitats for birds, small animals, insects and other pollinators;
7.     Create environmental and micro climate buffering;
8.     Provide multiple revenue streams to alleviate poverty;
9.     Better nutrition from diverse food sources;
10.     Enhance community resilient to food security.

Incorporating crop successions is very important as it improves soil fertility, growth of cocoa/coffee tree, mitigate effects of climate change and provides continues food and farm income. Plants like banana, plantains, papaya, pineapples, avocado, citrus fruits, mangoes, cocoyam and yams can be incorporated into cocoa farms. This mixed cropping system improves farmers’ livelihoods by generating multiple income streams from different crops and enhancing nutrition.

Zero use of pesticide, herbicide and insecticide as they upset the ecosystem by killing pest predators, poisoning animals and humans as well as polluting the water systems and causing further damages to aquatic life. Only biological and traditional methods which are non-toxic, less costly and environmentally friendly should be used. Such as removing and burying cocoa pods affected by black pods diseases amongst other.

Zero use of fertilizer to preserve the soil biota, halt eutrophication of water bodies, reduce cost and farmers dependent on agro-chemical companies.  Improvement of soil health through increase in organic matters, compost, vermicomposting and planting of fertilizers trees is practiced to avert chemical risk. Here there is a switch from external inputs (chemical fertilizers) to internal inputs - compost & manure produced on the farm within its diversified agroforestry system.

Fruit trees and plantains incorporated into cocoa/coffee agroforestry

Increase in organic material through pruning and mulching from a stratified, diverse and densely planted agroforestry is sufficient for an economically viable production. All cocoa shells should be evenly spread out to rot and recycle soil nutrients. Palms can be incorporated into plantations to provide phosphorus; which is an essential nutrient to increase yield and plant health; and reduce heavy metal in cocoa/coffee beans content. Through symbiosis with mycorrhiza, palms are capable of breaking down phosphorous and also bind heavy metals in soils. Leguminous trees such as Albiza Zygia should also be planted to fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to plants around them, and also improves pH in acidic soil. It has a high potential for ameliorating degraded cocoa/coffee soils and reducing soil erosion. Nitrogen is essential in plant health and cocoa/coffee productivity.

Good practices and care such as tree pruning and Phyto-hygiene should be carried out to control pests and diseases. The use of chemical is avoided as organic production rely on alternative solution to soil fertility, pest management and quality assurance that are not detrimental to humans and the environment.

Advantages of organic cocoa and/or coffee production

·         Reduce production cost – The cost of production is greatly reduced as the use of expensive external inputs such as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers are eliminated. Local seeds are used instead of expensive hybrid seeds. Compost and manure are used rather than expensive fertilizers. Thereby, making farmer’s less dependent on expensive inputs from agro-chemical companies and input cost.

·         Increase income – Organic cocoa beans are more expensive than conventional cocoa at the international market. The increase price of organic coca beans and low input cost results to higher farm income.

Dr. Nvenakeng Suzanne at Suzy-farms, Buea, Cameroon

        Environmental and health benefit – There is reduction of environmental and health risks as pollution is avoided and there is increase in biodiversity within a multi-storey agroforestry system. The health of farmers is also protected by avoiding hazardous chemicals such as pesticide, herbicides and insecticides.

       Increase in farmer’s sovereignty - Intercropping other food crops and fruit trees in cocoa and/or coffee agroforestry provides farmers with additional food and income. Farmers becomes independents with multiple sources of food to improve nutrition and income streams to alleviate poverty.

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Polyculture for pest control, high yield & food diversity

 Polyculture - alley, strip, cover, inter, mixed or three sister cropping systems

Polyculture is an agricultural system were multiple crops are planted on the same piece of land to provide crop diversity which mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. This does not only provide food, but sustain life as a whole. As opposed to raising single crop/animal (monoculture), polyculture is raising more than one species of plants or animals at the same time and place. Polyculture is an old system of farming which is still carried out in sub-Sahara Africa and has regained popularity today because of its environment and health benefits. It is a sustainable form of agriculture because of its ability to control pests, weed and diseases without major chemical inputs. There are different types of polyculture systems such as intercropping, cover-cropping and alley cropping. The type of polyculture carried out depends on the types of plants grown, the spatial distribution and the time they spend growing together. The type of plants or animals that can be raised in a polyculture system has no limit.

Three sister crops (Maize, beans and pumpkin)

Intercropping or mixed cropping – This occurs when two or more crops are planted together e.g legumes and cereals mixtures. The legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soils at its root noddle in a process called nitrogen fixation. This soil nitrogen acts as fertilizer for the other plants and therefore eliminates the need for man-made fertilizers. A typical example is the ‘three sister crop’ system of planting maize, beans and squash (e.g pumpkin) in a group to provide mutual benefits to each other. The maize provides support for the beans to grow on, the beans provide nitrogen to fertilize all the plants while the squash suppresses the weeds. These crops thus sustain each other with little or no human intervention.

Cover cropping: - This is when a crop is grown alongside another plants that is not a crop e. grass & legumes. Cover crops can help to prevent erosion, suppress weeds, improve water retention or fix nitrogen. It can also be called weedy culture if the non-crop element is a weed.

Strip or alley cropping

Strip or alley cropping: - This involves growing different crops in alternating rows. Though it doesn’t involve a complete mix of the plants, it also prevent soil erosion and aid nutrient cycling. 

Permaculture: - This is a polyculture of perennial plants such as cocoa, coffee, timber, fruit trees etc. This system increases soil fertility, decreases soil erosion, conserve soil nutrient and increase soil organism and water retention. Agroforestry is a popular form of permaculture where trees and crops are grown together. The trees provide shade and organic nutrients when they share off their leaves and also provide extra commodities like timber, medicine, firewood etc. Shade loving crops like coffee and cocoa are well suited within such a system.

Advantages of polyculture

Pest and disease control: - Pest are less predominant in polyculture due to crop diversity. Specialized pest that prefers a concentration of a single crop type often gets confused as they find it difficult to locate a favorable host in a polyculture. Common general pest moves from one plant to another within a polyculture system to the surrounding environment because they look alike, thereby reducing the effect on a particular crop. This diversity of plants attracts natural enemies or predators which help to further suppress pest population without causing harm to the plants. Different plants are susceptible to different diseases so the spread of diseases can be contained in polyculture.

Weed control: - the high density of plants reduces available space, sunlight, water and nutrients for weed to develop as resources are fully utilized by crops. The few that do grow can host arthropods (pest enemies) that are beneficial to other crops.

 Sustainability: -

A bunch of plantains at Suzy-Farms

A polyculture system doesn’t depend on pesticide, but can be boosted with minimal use of organic fertilizers as diverse plants are planted together. This greatly reduce eutrophication of fresh water, hence good health and wellbeing. Reduce tillage conserves microbes and soil nutrients. This saves money as farmers can grow multiple crops and animals on same piece of land with little or no machinery. It increases local biodiversity which attract different pollinators, hence increase pollination and fruits harvest. Polyculture addresses human subsistence needs because food security doesn't just depends on quantity, but on diversity and quality of available food. Polyculture is diverse in nature and provides both nutritional and economic resilience  because if one plant fails, the other crops may support the household with food and income.

Polyculture is more effective when the diverse plant species have distinct biological needs such as absorbing different nutrients and requiring different amount of sunlight (no competition). Our modern lifestyle is negatively impacting our land and ecosystems. Restoring these systems will lead to food abundance to support human life and culture as well as restore the ecosystems. It is our duty to secure a rich permaculture for future generation. So let’s do it...

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About Suzy-Farms Corp

History of Suzy-Farms Corp

Field Survey Oct. 2013 (Dr. Nvenakeng Suzanne Awung)

We are grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked with 41 local communities around Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) during our research field survey from October to December 2013. Our project was focus on assessing the level of community involvement in the MCNP REDD+ conservation projects. Results showed that food insecurity, malnutrition, land grabbing and poverty were some of the factors preventing full community engagement in MCNP interventions. Providing alternative livelihoods to generate new income streams (animal husbandry and aquaculture) and inter-spacing fruit trees in crop farms were highly recommended to enhance food security and local adaptive capacity to climate change threats. Our research will be useless if we cannot lead the changes recommended in our own publications. Suzy-Farms agri-aqua inclusive business is aim at addressing these issues of food insecurity, poverty, malnutrition, well-being, employment and provision of alternative livelihoods to enhance local adaptive capacity to climate change threats and engagement in conservation initiatives.

Executive summary

Suzy-Farms LTD is an inclusive agri-aqua corporation situated in Bonduma, Buea, Cameroon. It is involved in the primary, secondary and tertiary production and transformation of agri-aqua products or various types, investment and development or farming and breeding techniques to encourage agri-business. This is aimed at improving community resilience to food insecurity, poverty and climate change threats. We nurse and grow crops and fruit trees like mangoes, paw-paw, oranges, avocadoes, quavers and plums to enhance nutrition. We also breed and rear fishes, birds and animals such as broilers, layers, catfish, tilapia, pigs, goats and rabbits; and supply the market at a competitive price and make profit. We also produce animal feed and add more value to our products by processing them to meet our customer’s desire. Local farmers are train in animal husbandry and aqua-culture to provide alternative livelihood, generate income, eradicate poverty and improve their well-being. Our business plan is executed by our skilled management team of less than 50 workers.

Problem statement

Climate change, population growth and land grabbing for large scale projects have increased the level of food insecurity in Cameroon. The government also banned the importation of chicken in 2005 and this led to further shortages of animal protein. The mostly cereal-based diet is also deficient in proteins and often leads to malnutrition. To address these issues, Suzy-Farms engages in agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery.

Mission

Suzy-Farms seeks to become an inclusive leading provider of food in Cameroon and most especially in the South West Region. This will be accomplished by selling our products (meat, fish, eggs and fruits) at a competitive price while exceeding customer’s satisfaction. We aim at addressing socio-economic and environmental challenges within our communities.

Objectives

Our objectives are to;
·    Enhance food security as leading provider of fruits, vegetables, food crops, chicks, fingerlings, catfishes, tilapias, chicken, eggs, pigs, goats and rabbits in Cameroon.
·   Include low income groups along our value chain by integrating local farmers as producers, consumers, distributors and employees in our venture.
·    Alleviate poverty by generating profit for multiple stakeholders along our value chain through the provision of new income streams for local farmers.
·   Create an enabling ecosystems around our business to ensure economic viability and sustainability of our venture by sharing knowledge and technology with local farmers.
·  Enhance community’s adaptive capacity to climate change through the provision of alternative livelihoods for local farmers.
·     Deliver an innovative and effective end-to-end business model to alleviate poverty and enhance viability, social impact and scale potential of our venture.

Keys to success

Suzy-Farms adheres to four instrumental keys to success

• Strict financial control to maximize our production efficiency.
• Putting the need of our customers at the core of our value proposition. Our low production cost is easy to adapt and has a higher impact on the low-income group.
• Optimum health of our animals and birds (vaccines, medication, feed quality, aerated housing) to ensure a low mortality rate.
• Our 100% customer satisfaction philosophy ensures that our customers’ needs are met on time at their satisfaction to enhance our business profitability.

Business model

Bomana community participants

Our business model is design to create, deliver and capture values for our customers. Our proximity design enables us to work directly with our customers, listen to their challenges and develop our products and services from their perspectives. This will generate a mutual and trustworthy relationship. We seek to understand the challenges of our customers (end-user insight) and provide services that allow local farmers to pool their resources together, learn from experts, exchange best practices and effectively market their product (functional benefit). Local farmers are included in the value chain and their capacity are continuously enhanced to enable them grow as entrepreneurs (emotional benefit). We provide a win-win situation by empowering local farmers to become more entrepreneurial and continue expanding their business while using our services and products (reason to believe).  Thereby, enabling our entrepreneurship more desirable, profitable, impactful and more viable than traditional employment (key payoff/tagline). Low-income groups are often the most costly customers to serve because they often live in remote areas with irregular cash flows. Our innovative business model generates new income streams for them and deliver high quality product to low-income consumers through barter trade system. 

Our Products and Services

We breed/rear layer hens, broilers, local fowls and ducks in deep litter system, battery cages and free range; breed and rear pigs, goats, rabbits, snails, tilapias and catfishes; nurse and grow fruits, vegetables and food crops and also train local farmers. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” Local farmers work in our farms during their six weeks training period without payment, thereby ‘learning by doing’. This is a win-win approach for both the business and the farmers. Some will be retained as employees and others will become local entrepreneur in their communities.

Revenue streams

Suzy-Farms has twelve main revenue streams (chicks, fingerlings, meat, fish, eggs, animal feed, farm equipment, fruits, vegetables, food crops, processed and cooked food.) and four main customers groups to whom we sell our products. Local entrepreneurs, retailers/supermarkets, hotels/restaurant and the general public are attractive customers due to their consistent demand in these products.

•    Local entrepreneur – We supply them with chicks, fingerlings, animal feed and farm equipment. They also buy our meat, fish and eggs for consumption and/or sell to the end consumer and make extra profit for themselves.
• · Retailers – these are mostly supermarkets and small shops owner who purchase our products for retail. They are the main distributors for our products.
• ·  Hotels and restaurants – They buy our products, cooked them and sell to end consumers.
• ·  The general public – Our customers buy directly at farm gate, shops and open markets.

Target population

•  We target to include the rural population in Cameroon as producer, consumers, distributors and employees. 
•  Supply our customers with products at a competitive price.
•  Train about 25 local farmers in animal husbandry and/or aqua-culture each year.

Competitive edge

Our venture has local competitors and external competitors practicing backyard poultry, piggery, goats rearing and feed production. There is no local competitor in aquaculture in Buea. About 20% of these competitors have good technical skills in farm management. More than 80% of them self-managed their farms and about 40% prefer administering vaccination themselves. Most poultry farms rear between 50 - 500 birds and sell at the local markets. The buying patterns of different customers are often based on the price, availability, consistent delivery and health of the animals/fish. Our competitive edge is our ability to consistently produce healthy products at a competitive price. Our competitive advantages are the high level of technical skills, large scale production, low mortality rate and new market accessibility. Our employees are made up of specialists in animal-husbandry/fishery, financial manager, sales agents, and trained employees to ensure effective and efficient management of our farms. Our sale strategy seeks to become a stable supplier to customers that need a steady supply streams.
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Environmental and social-economic impacts

Our venture involves low-income groups (local farmers) as consumers, producers, distributors and employees. We target local communities and focus on enhancing local livelihoods, well-being, food security, poverty alleviation and climate change adaptability. We train local farmers on animal-husbandry and aquaculture, and encourage them to plant fruit trees in their crop farms to enhance biodiversity and increase food yield per unit area of land.

This inclusive agri-aqua business venture provides socio-economic benefits to communities by providing local employment, food security, alternative livelihoods, better nutrition, well-being and health. Local entrepreneurs will generate new income streams to alleviate poverty. Education will be enhanced as parents are able to make money and pay for school fees and healthcare of their family.  The emergence of alternative livelihood will enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate change threats, reduce vulnerability, restores ecosystems and biodiversity as their dependence on the forest will keep reducing gradually, and provide commercial returns. All these are geared towards meeting up with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the National Adaptation Plan. 

Our Management Team

Conclusion

Poultry meat, eggs, fish and small animals are the most consumed animal protein in Cameroon. Animal husbandry and aquaculture are also very lucrative because of the favourable climate, good temperature (24°C – 30°C), low cost of heating, water availability, high demand and cultural acceptability. By selling our products and sharing our knowledge on climate-change resilient agriculture, we join local farmers to enhance food supply, improve their livelihoods, generate income and eradicate poverty. A combination of local and modern agro-techniques, and livestock rearing have the potential to substantially increase food productivity and feed the growing population. We can use our passion and enthusiasm to lift others on our way up and ensure food for all by 2030.