Greetings everyone

I hope we are all doing great? For some time now I have not been able to share my experience in my farming engagement, due to the weather and the risk involved in holding my mobile phone in the farm. For the past few months I have been seriously engaged with diverse activity's in the farm.
Some of which are:

• Harvesting of basically pepper, okro, bananas/plantain and Cocoa .
• Planting of plantain suckers and Cocoa (both in seeds and nursery bed.

• Spraying of grass(weed) using herbicides and as well as Cocoa fruits using fungicides to avoid black pod which is the current disease of Cocoa.

August has been so hectic with the increase rate of black pod disease, even when the spraying is done. Most people are saying the fungicides used is the cause of the black pod disease since the chemical no longer holds the fruit till the stipulated time which is four (4) weeks. It is really demanding for a farmer who has spent time and money in trying to maintain the farm to run into loss.

Let me not go into detail about black pod disease as the title says the importance of mixing both cocoa and plantain. If you are interested in knowing more about black pod disease, please drop a comment below.

Why I choose to cultivate both.

The challenges farmers face deserve a bit increase in the price of crops harvested considering the growth of some crops and the work put in to ensure good produce.
The reason would be based on the challenges involved which has caused a diversified system of cultivation.

1. Sunlight.

For growth to occur there is need for sunlight, but when the sun light is in excess, it may cause stunted growth. Considering how cultivating Cocoa is hard based on how fragile the small cocoa stem's are to excess sunlight and rain. To reduce the direct sunlight to this Cocoa stems an alternative has been considered which is of benefit to the farmer in the aspect of harvesting the plantain either for sale or consumption.

2. It is easily damaged.

Some of you may be eager to know why I like it because it is damaged easily. The reason is simple, the main reason for cultivation is for cocoa but since it takes Cocoa some years to get matured, plantain is there to generate some income to sponsor the cultivation project.
You may want to know why I didn't go for bananas. I cultivate bananas too but not much reason because banana last longer than plantain, it is not lost easily.

3. Reduces the growth of weed.

The concept of too much sunlight is applied here, where I plant plantains to cause shade to reduce the growth of weed to help the Cocoa to grow since cocoa is not fast growing compared to the weed.

My activity in the farm.

I had to put on a cap because of sunlight.

My appreciation goes to @schlees, @indayclara who are lovers of agriculture and has always supported my growth in hive blockchain.