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Operations | Activity: Land Preparation

Before planting seeds (or suckers), the land must be prepared to facilitate the growth of the crop. The crop's growth and health is dependent on the soil texture and fertility. There is so much to consider when it comes on to soil. I plan to blog on my findings from my studies and research on soil preparation. Nonetheless, I'll explain what is necessary at this point. Soil is a combination of three main mineral components: sand, silt and clay. The perfect soil for agriculture is said to have 40% sand, 40% soil and 20% clay. The soil needs to have some level of porosity to allow water and nutrients to flow to the roots of the crops and yet still have the ability to retain water. Hence, the need for this kind of balance between the mineral components. Now, fertilizers usually contain minerals that the soil is deficient in delivering to the crop for optimal growth. The best fertilizers are natural. Some of these natural fertilizers are animal excrement, decayed plants and rain water (contains nitrates, especially if there was a thunderstorm). Other minerals can be added such as calcium, magnesium and so on. These also can be found naturally but if there is a difficulty finding these minerals naturally the farmer must resort to acquiring synthetic measures.


So from the preamble above, it is vital that the land is fertile. In addition to the fertility of the land, the farming plot must be designed to facilitate walkways and efficient irrigation. If the farmer is fortunate to have a nearby stream or river, some ingenuity can be employed to make use of that water by diverting it through a neatly designed layout of the farm. If there is no nearby water resource, the farmer will have to make use of the nearest distribution point of the country's water supply network. It is always best in both scenarios (river or none), to implement conservative mechanism to recycle the water. Such recycling systems, can be had through the use of aqua-ponics (or hydroponics).

Last but certainly not the least, is the leveling, tilling and refining of the land. No land is initially perfect for farming, it is up to the farmer to put his design in motion to prepare the land. If the land has trees on it, the farmer must consider the option of removing or re-arranging those trees. Some trees can prove to be a enhancer for the given crop of choice, while others can prove to be a hindrance. It is up to the farmer to do the needed research, to determine what is beneficial to the crop of his choice. It must be noted that plants do compete for the sunlight, since all plant life grow by means of photo-synthesis (where the light of the sun is used to convert nutrients to energy needed for growth).

After the land is leveled and cleared. Hard soil need to be tilled and, in some cases, refined. Now tilling is simply breaking up hard ground to make (digging) planting seeds easier. There is another level of soil preparation that involves breaking the soil into finer parts which is referred to here as refinement. Not every crop requires this. Peppers and tomatoes usually require refinement.

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