Director Wants Youth To Embrace Vegetable Cultivation

The Director of Jerry Vegetable Farms (JVF), Chief Jerry Elems, has called on youth in the state to engage in the cultivation of vegetables.
Elems who spoke to The Tide in Port Harcourt , Monday explained that vegetable cultivation was capable of enhancing the economic base of anyone that goes into the planting of varieties of vegetable.
The JVF director explained that a good number of vegetables could be grown and harvested all the year round.
He said any farmer involved in such a venture must be ready to water their crops, especially during the dry season.
The vegetable farmer, who hails from Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, explained that, over the years, he had been involved in the cultivation of a variety of vegetables and other crops.
According to him, his specialties include, bitter leaf, okazi, fluted pumpkin, water leaf, egusi, okro and cucumber amongst others.
He further explained that while okazi did well in dry conditions, all others need a lot of water for maximum yield.
Explaining further on the economic benefits of vegetable farming, Elems said on every market day, he made between N10,000 and N15,000.
“When I harvest at the maturity of my vegetables, I can return home with at least N10,000 to N15,000 thousand especially on the traditional market days”, he said.
Apart from this, he continued, customers both from his community and elsewhere often come to his farm to book for supplies apart from making direct purchases during such visits.
Elems who is a registered farmer thanked the Federal and State Governments for making farm inputs and fertilizer available at every planting season of the year, especially during dry season farming.
The Tide recalls that last month, five local government areas of the state were selected for the dry season inputs distribution that took place across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja