Kurdish greenhouse growers awarded for innovation
“I burnt the wild weed that grew freely in my cucumber farm some 8 years ago. For the next harvest season I discovered, to my surprise, that the size of the cucumbers had increased by 40 percent compared to other places where I did not burn any weeds,” Muhammad said.
After that discovery, Muhammad continued to use the ashes while combining it with other substances in order to expand his harvest.
“Now I had ashes and chicken manure mixed together that not only magnified the product, but also speeded the crop season by at least two weeks,” Muhammad said.
In fact, Muhammad’s reputation as a skilled farmer spread so fast that a Japanese organization in the area approached him with an offer to grow broccoli, a vegetable relatively new in Kurdistan with limited consumption.
“They provided me with a new plastic planthouse in which I grew the broccoli seeds that I received from them,” Muhammad said while also cultivating the seed in some of his own farms using his own technics. The result was astonishing.
“My crop was ready to be collected 15 days earlier than the other plant which I managed together with the Japanese organization,” he said. And also the size of his broccoli was twice as larger than theirs, he said.
Muhammad owns some 18 so-called plastic planthouses, which he uses to grow not only cucumbers but also melons, watermelons, tomatoes and pepper. The extremely high temperatures during summertime has made it almost impossible to farm outside the plastic shade houses, which significantly diminishes the heat of the sun.
Over the past years several late season foliar deceases have hit his farming land and effectively reduced his production. In particular, Muhammad is concerned with a kind of wild weed that is growing among his crop of melons and tomatoes and hampers their full growth.
“I needed to do something fast and soon I realized that the wild weed grows faster when there is longer periods of draught,” Muhammad said.
A soon as he discovered that, he blended several substances into a liquid solution and injected it into his farming land. It immediately made the wild weed, which he calls giagele in Kurdish, to disappear almost fully. And now he hopes he can sell his solution to other farmers with similar problems.
“Although we cannot say that Muhammad’s solution is done scientifically, still we think it could be a first step since it has been effective,” said Tariq Tahir who is in charge of the research desk at the ministry of agriculture who visited Muhammad’s farmland in Sirwan recently.
“We are studying his solution now and we understand that it has been effective in combating the giagele without harming the environment and the underground water,” Tahir added.
He said the ministry would support Muhammad to market his solution since giagele has already cost farmers in Kurdistan dearly.
For now, however, Muhammad continues to use his liquid solution with remarkable results. And he has already received a medal of honor from the ministry for his efforts.
“Scientific or not, my solution makes the difference. And that is what should count,” he said proudly.
Source: rudaw.net