Young the young farmer is clearing his field ahead of the rainy season.

An adept young village farmer in Njau village, CRR, is making amends for the mistakes that ruined his plans of having a good harvest during last year’s rainy season. 

Dawda Bah, does not always follow early annual warnings by meteorologists, to cultivate his five hectare groundnut farm after the first rains,  to have a profitable early harvest.

“I  should generate a huge income after every harvest, this helps to sustain my family during the dry season.”

However, in the summer of 2022, the defiant young farmer was a victim of his actions. Despite receiving the annual guidelines for agricultural activities, Dawda went on to grow his groundnuts immediately after a false start of the rains in May. He did not know that the changing and increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns would negatively affect his farm until later in early October, when he discovered that the rainy season would last longer than expected.  At this time, Dawda’s groundnuts had already matured.

“My groundnuts harvest was low, because they matured earlier and were affected by the late rains. I ran into a serious economic downturn and struggled to provide for my family and had to rely on the market.”

Dawda’s attention was caught by a nearby farmer’s field, he then stood and looked in awe at how the farmer’s crops were flourishing despite the poor performance of his own groundnut farm. Upon engaging the owner, Dawda was shocked to discover that the crops flourished because they were only grown during the cropping season predicted by the DWR.  This struck the young man whose groundnuts perished due to the heavy downpour.

It is that time of the year again. Already some farmers in the Central River Region are tempted to cultivate their fields after a false start of the rains few days ago, but not Dawda, the young man seems to have learnt his lessons, he intends to wait for the cropping season which was predicted by DWR to start mid-June.

“I had to make further consultations from regional forecasters to prevent a reoccurrence, and the outcome of my findings informed my approach to this season’s farming.”

By chance, the team of meteorologists disseminating  this year’s seasonal outlook drove by his farm and found him working to clear his fields before the cropping season starts.

Having noted his past experiences, the team shared guidelines for this year’s agricultural activities with him.

“We can assure you that the country will receive abundant rain in July, August, and September, which is the peak period for farming.” Said Chief Meteorologist Tijani Bojang.

Dawda described his engagement with the delegation as quite useful, having cleared his farm, he now intends to switch to maize because in his opinion, not only is it an early variety, but it may also provides more benefits compared to groundnuts.

During the radio sensitization program farmers like Dawda tuned into and phoned in on to share their experiences, and reassured panelists that they will adapt to the guidelines shared by the team.