Vegetable farmers earmark 5 hectares for dry season farming

A group of vegetablefarmers, known asEfolowowa in Osun State, has earmarked about five hectares of land for cropping during the dry season.The leader of the group, Mr Saliu Odeloye, told the newsmen in Osogbo that the group decided to embark on large scale production of vegetables as a major source of income generation.'Our aim is to increase vegetable production for onward transportation to major markets since the state government has given assurance of free rail transit.'It was also reported that Governor Rauf Aregbesola on November 4, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Railway Corporation for the transportation of farm produce from the state to Lagos.Under the arrangement, the state government will be responsible for the rail charges on agricultural produce.Odeloye said the gesture would encourage vegetable farmers and other farmers in the state to engage in large scale production of vegetables 'since there is assurance of market availability for our produce.''The gesture will enable us to benefit from the high profit associated with dry season vegetables in Lagos, unlike in the past when we hardly had market for the sizeable vegetables we produced during the dry season.'Transporting our vegetables to Lagos will go a long way in easing our financial burden and improve our standard of living.'Odeloye explained that cultivating large scale vegetable farms during dry season was stressful, but that arrangement for land clearing, bedding, planting and watering had been made to avoid delay.He appealed to the state government to assist them with irrigation inputs to reduce the stress of watering, noting that in the past, farmers used to trek long distances in search of water for manual irrigation.Odeloye said this year's dry season farming, which would commence in December, would witness the cultivation of different types of vegetables in the state.He advised the youth and pensioners to invest in vegetable farming during the dry season for income generation and to complement government's efforts at tackling food shortage.
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