The rain has not come yet and most of the maize from different fields is now approaching a stage that is beyond recoverable. Our maize is still surviving, though the yield is definitely going to be affected. Last week I had tried to increase the watering of the field to twice a week, because the evaporation is way too much, even with the mulch. It became a little overwhelming and costly when I tried it, so I had an idea crossed my mind, of having water poured gradually without straining so much. I intended to maintain the once a week watering schedule but, for the second watering I had planned to substitute it with filled bottles which I would then sink into the soil, in each maize hole, upside down with the top removed. There are a lot of empty beer bottles that I could pick and use. Right before implementing the idea, I just heard today in the news that there is a cholera outbreak. I do not think it is wise to go around picking litter or having someone to do this, after such an announcement.
I am now afraid that I am fighting a losing battle with this poverty alleviation thing. Maybe there are some places that are just meant to be the way they are.
You know, along roads in the high density areas, most of the places that have no buildings, have maize planted on them, all in an effort to reduce the cost of buying food, by having some home grown substitutes. But when you really look at it, more is lost in the attempts. The area with the maize ...gosh ... its just way too big, when the small fields are all combined together. I used to wonder where all money and the so talked about abundant resources disappear to, wel I think this is one of the ways things are lost. There was money used to buy
seed, fertilizer, labor... etc. For the majority of the families we are looking at around $50 to $100, for others who have more resources we are talking about figures that go to around $500, which will all disappear without even benefiting anyone, because of the dry spell. So it is just $50, it is not a big deal, but when multiplied by the number of families it will be surprising how much money would have been lost, unintentionally of-course.
What if we are stuck on one position, almost like a pendulum. One moment we try something and the results are amazing (like last year with the rains the yields were out of this world) and the next moment we try the exact same thing (with additional capacity, hopes having been raised by the previous year's harvest) and we loose even more than we would have gain the previous trial. We will not end this poverty...
I know one obvious
answer is changing the type of crop and having a more drought resistant one. There are so many campaigns that are sending the message of small grains and more drought resistant plants. What if there is a more deeper
root cause that might not directly be linked to food when we look at the surface. Maybe what we are failing to do is to learn from our past experiences and grow from there. Agriculture is just one area I am interested in, but all fields could be improve by one thing. I have a strong feeling if we have a certain shift in our efforts and we improve the planning phase, and we put more investment in finding ways to at least a little bit certain of favorable results, we can be more in control of our so called "abundant resources" and actually enjoy them. Lets say for example, as in our situation people decide to grow maize. Other people have done some research and there is a rough idea of how much water requirements are needed for a maize plant to produce yield. Well I think it might be a little bit wise to plan for the whole duration of the maize's growth. Considering everything that will be needed to at least have some certainty that there will be something coming out of the efforts. We know that we are in a drought prone area and there are chances that the rains might be good or bad, what are the small steps we are taking to take care of type of crop we are choosing. We might be able to just get by currently with the resources that we have, but what if we could have created something even better for the future generations by improving our chances of having positive outcomes, be it in fields, or companies, or which ever area. Imagine if all these big co-operations were relying on "maybe it might work or not" it might be difficult to then explain to employees that salaries are not coming because of unexpected losses that were not foreseen. There are bigger organizations that have decisions that have a realizable impact to the economy because of their magnitude, as families, be it we are into food growth or not we can make it easier, by minimizing losses of the little resources that come our way. We can work so hard and deprive ourselves of some of the luxuries that life has to offer, but as long as we do not work smart or progress, whether as individuals families or as a nation, it will be sad to see that we will be in the same position in years to come.
I had hoped to speak out through writing, but I do not know anymore...the field outcome is what I relied on to do the talking but now it is out of my control which puts me right back to square one.