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WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR OFF SEASON

THE OFF-SEASON
Off season is the season after the rain has gone for the year.  It varies across different nations, and regions.  For Nigeria,  the off season starts from October a d ends in March on the average.  

Exactly what can farmers do in the off-season? 

It depends on what kind of farm you have. But regardless of the type of farm, the major off season works are as follows:

1. Equipment maintenance. 
Farmers need to do maintenance on their equipment to get it ready for planting in a few months. Your equipment has been used long hours over just a few weeks, so it needs a little extra TLC to keep it running in good shape.

2. Forward plan
You may want to do a lot of planning for next year. Making sure that you have a plan for which type of crop go into which field, which hybrids or varieties are going into which field, and that each field is prepared ahead. 

3. Increase attention given to your animal farm. 
If a farmer have animals, there is no off-season. The animals always need to be cared for with plenty of food and fresh water. Dairy cows need to be milked every day. There are always new groups of your day-old chick or turkeys coming in that need to be cared for. 

4. For the love of crop farming...... 
However,  if you are the Plant lover who wishes to continue in the line of crops,  you may want to look in the direction of irrigation farming.  Could be mini or big irrigation system,  manual or automated, by the riverside or at your backyard with your borehole,  the key thing is to ensure your crop have steady water supply in place of the rain.   
You may wish to ask around from the off season irrigation farmers how much money they make from cocorus  (ewedu), Amaranthus,  ugwu and other forms of vegetables.  




Conclusion 
Come what may,  rain or no rain,  a farmer should always be on-season. It is easier if you are an integrated farmer,  you just shift your focus to the animals, while you plan for the next cropping  season. However  for a non integrated farmer,  you may want to start looking in the direction of irrigation farming especially vegetables. It could  be few beds of vegetables,  could be several hectares,  your pocket and choice dictates.

Aliyu Ahmed Olanrewaju
Researcher/Agribusiness Consultant.

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