First Fruits

Today, my son, Ese Apoki, harvested one of our water melon fruits on our way home from the farm. We had taken poultry manure from our poultry to the parcel of land we are preparing for our next batch of cucumbers.

We have learnt from our first attempt, we have visited other farms, read a lot of materials, and did consultations. We are set for a bumper harvest in about 12 weeks’ time. The good thing is that I now have customers who are ready to buy. In fact, I had to go to the farm on Monday to harvest some that I sent to my customer in another city.

Back to the issue of first fruits. My joy is that watermelons can be grown at Effurun-Otor, in Delta State. We do not need to import most of the food items we bring from other states into our states in the Southern States of Nigeria.

In the property where I am currently farming, there are a lot of wild guinea fowls, and there are farms now hatching guinea fowl eggs and are marketing the young chicks.

Farming makes me worship God.

Worship is from the word, ‘worth-ship’—the condition of being worthy; the value attributed.

When I compare the tiny watermelon seeds we planted and several watermelons now littering the more-than-one acre of land, I just burst out thanking God. From one seed, you can get several watermelon fruits.

The view of the green landscape is very relaxing. Once the flowers are pollinated, each day you come back to the farm, they have increased in size tremendously.

While you are asleep, they are growing. I’m awed by the tiny stem that produced these fruits. There are much bigger fruits than the one in the picture. We hope to start harvesting by next week.

The good thing is that you can grow them in your backyard.

Someone ate watermelon during the sand filling of the DPC of a building. They left the sand to sediment during rains, and by the time they came back to the site, they saw giant water melon fruits. A lady saw three giant watermelons in her farm at Effurun-Otor. She did not plant them; somebody threw the seeds into the farm as he/she was walking past.

Please don’t tell me about cursed lands in our villages. Our lands have been healed from the day Jesus’ blood hit the ground on Calvary. We only need to cultivate the will to eat the good of the land.

Once I harvest the watermelons, I’m going to plant fluted pumpkins. If watermelons can crawl all over the farm, I’m going to fill the place with fluted pumpkins.

I have never felt as healthy as I am currently. The only time I felt like this was when I resided in a hilly part of Addis Ababa called Nifas Silk-Lafto; climbing the hills improved my physical wellbeing so much. I also eat fresh products like maize, vegetables, peppers, garden eggs, bananas, and plantains from my farm.

The other exciting thing about the crops I plant is that I use organic manure from my wife’s poultry. What was supposed to be a challenge, especially with disposal, has become a blessing.

I know where your mind is racing to now; you are calculating how much money I am going to make from the one acre-plus of watermelons. After the reggae, play the blues.

One good thing about spending time in the farm is the peaceful atmosphere, the fresh oxygen, rich air, and the beautiful pools of fresh water around my farm. My household, including the five-year-old son of my wife’s assistant, always look forward to going to the farm.

I want to thank all of you who are joining me in this farming revolution.

I have a young man, an orphan, working with me. I noticed that he washes his farm-clothes on the farm every Saturday. I was informed by my brother’s wife that it is the same clothes he wears to church on Sunday. I was able to bring a bag of clothes for him the next week. He went to church with fine clothes for the first time for years.

Last week, I took another set of clothes with a big towel, because I had a ministration in my spirit that he had no towel. Guess what. He smiled, and said, “Daddy, you are a prophet. How did you know I had no towel?” I told him that God told me he had no towel.

Today, he told me as we were working at the cucumber site that he wanted to go into ministry. I told him I wanted him to go to school first. I have mapped out a strategy of how I will send him to school and train him, while he is still earning an income.

My eyes have been opened to another aspect of the fruits of farming—it is grooming people who are ready to work and learn.

That’s another ministry.

It will shock you to know that contrary to the general belief that our young people don’t want to work, there are several good young people, and even married women, that earning an income can change their destiny.

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