Crop variety generates more

Farming

By Urshula Jim
Cultivating different crops during the year is good as it will increase yield which leads to increased income.
This was said by Leanne Uge of Obaha village, Central. She is a commercial farmer at the Manu market in Port Moresby.
Uge said she loved gardening as it was their only source of income when her husband left work.
“Agriculture had been part of our lives and there is no excuse for us to not make gardens to sustain ourselves.
“I grow food crops for our own consumption and sell some of my harvest to earn an income to support my family as we are not working,” Uge said.
She farmed different food cropsat separate gardens. Greens, garden foods and fruits.
Pineapple gardens have fences around them to protect them from the three main threats. The pigs, rats and birds.
They used a method to protect the pineapples from insects. The pineapples are wrapped withmosquito nets. This practice avoids the fruits to decay.
Another method used was scarecrows.
The banana bunches are wrapped with leaves to protect them from birds.
Uge said of all the crops that she had farmed, most of the effort had been put in to plant and harvest yams.
“We not only plant the yams and weed but cut about fifty tree branches for the yam leaves. When harvesting season comes, we not only harvest, but remove the yam nails as well and it is a tiring job,” she said.
Before they harvest they make sure that there is transport available to transport the fresh produce to the markets.
According to Uge, there are about four PMVs in her village but sometimes they wait for three to four days and their foods decay.
“I normally bring, three to four bags of food to sell at the market.
When the demand was high, she earned K500 and when it’s low she earned K300- K400.
She budgets for her family’s expenditure and saves some money in the bank.
“I used the income to pay my son’s school fees, bought household supplies and saved some for her son’s school fees in the bank,” Uge said.
She sells sweet queen (big) pineapples and other food crops at the Manu market in Port Moresby.