Preparing Your Land For Cassava Cultivation: 5 Things To Do

The performance of crops predominantly depends on the preparation that goes into the field prior to planting. A well-prepared land promotes bounty harvest, controls weeds, recycles soil nutrients and provides a suitable soil surface for direct seeding.

The initial land preparation begins after your last harvest or during fallow period. This is important for effective weed control and for enriching the soil.

Generally, it will take between 3 to 4 weeks to prepare the field before planting.

Cassava can be grown on many soil types, but a sandy loam soil will boost bigger tuber shapes and sizes. Although cassava can thrive in the harshest of conditions, the crop should not be planted in flood prone areas because it has a high demand for potash.

Before you start planting you would need to:

The first step to starting a cassava plantation is to select a suitable land for cultivation. Cassava is an undemanding plant that is happy in a wide range of soils. It can resist high temperatures, drought and increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Cassava is very much adapted to climate change.

The land or soil on which cassava is planted should not be sandy or clayey. The plantation should be situated on a flat plain possessing deep soil of good texture. A flat or slightly sloped site helps to prevent erosion that may destroy the humus-rich top soil.

Also, in choosing your land for cultivation, you should learn about the cropping history of the land. This history should include diseases experienced and the presence of pests and weeds. This information will influence the choice of site and help implement a suitable protection plan for the plantation.

When the bush is cleared and the field is burnt, parasites and disease vectors present in the soil are destroyed. The burnt bush leaves deposits of ash which increases the quantity of potassium salt in the soil. The potassium salt (potash) is good enrichment for growing plants.  It is understandable to oppose the need for bush burning while clearing your vegetation. However, to avoid depleting the soil through bush burning, it is necessary to rotate the method of clearing your field with other methods such as rotational farming.

Despite the fact that cassava can do well in many a soil regardless of its soil richness, it will not hurt to mix the soil with compost to enhance its fertility. Mixing the soil with dried animal manure or compost fortifies it with the right nutrients in preparation for planting. Provides the soil with a complete nutrient package and even reduces.

Planning is as important as execution. It is essential for the farmer to plan and determine whether the cassava plant will be inter-planted with other crops. Once this is determined, the farmer can focus on the spacing and population of sticks. The variety of sticks to be planted must be checked for multiple pest and disease resistance, high and stable root yields and acceptable quality. The optimal cassava plant spacing should be lm x lm apart along each row and across ridges. It is also important to note that areas prone to water-log, requires planting on ridges or mounds.

Cassava is a very hardy crop that can grow reasonably well in areas of infertile soils, under conditions of low rainfall and with minimum care and inputs where most other crops may fail completely given the same conditions. Albeit, cassava can suffer from a host of disease and pest problems and its yields can be seriously affected when weeds compete for space and nutrients. It is for this reason that a farmer should carefully follow through all these checks before planting to ensure for a bountiful harvest.