Agricultural Story #26
Greetings everyone,
I hope you are all well. I am also well.I decided to participate in the Agriculture Essay Contest, which is now in its 26th week. This week I was able to harvest the cinnamon that I grew a few years ago. So I thought I would share my thoughts on this with you. Thank you so much @ruthjoe for organizing such a wonderful contest.
This photo was found among the photos my husband sent me via WhatsApp.
We acquired an 11-perch plot of land a few years ago, in 2021. One perch was worth 100,000 Sri Lankan rupees (i.e. 1 perch was about 2500steem). We decided to cultivate cinnamon on this land. We didn't have time to put in much effort with our daily work, and a crop like cinnamon doesn't require much effort, so we decided to cultivate cinnamon.
We first cleared the land by removing weeds and unwanted trees. This land was part of a coconut land that was divided and sold, so there were 5 coconut trees there. My brother and two of his friends helped in clearing the land. After about 2 days, cinnamon plants were brought in by a tractor. My husband and his best friend, Ashoka, went to select the cinnamon plants. Ashoka also has a cinnamon land, so he has knowledge about this. He was the one who guided us.
Ashoka Aiya marked the planting spacing and the places where the weeds should be cut to plant the cinnamon plants. On his instructions, my brother and two of his friends prepared the holes. Ashoka Aiya and my husband did the planting. I also helped in planting the plants. After that, I watered the plants for a few days.
After a few days, the little plants showed signs of growth with reddish-brown leaves. We planted the plants and watered them for a few days, then let them grow naturally with rainwater. As the plants gradually grew a little taller, we tied the cinnamon trees to wooden posts to straighten the stems and prevent them from bending in the wind. I took photos at the moment, but I don’t have them because I had to change my phone. I only had to fertilize three times until the plants got bigger. Although I had to remove the weeds a few times, once the plants grew and got shade, the weeds didn’t grow much. Once the plants reached a considerable height, Ashoka Aiya cut off the unwanted branches so that the desired stem would grow well.
The photos above were taken while removing unnecessary branches.The joy you feel when a plant you planted with love gradually grows is immense. I was able to experience that joy when I saw the cinnamon field.
Somehow, after about 3 years and 6 months, we finally harvested our cinnamon this week. I found two people who knew how to harvest cinnamon, paid them money, and had the cinnamon bark prepared as shown in the pictures below.
The cinnamon sticks, as seen in the images above, were arranged under the front roof of the house and left to dry in the wind for about 6 to 7 days.
They only take the main stick to harvest the cinnamon. All the other small branches are thrown to the ground. I collected those small branches with my father. I put the branches on a stone and collected the pieces of bark that came off by hitting them with a stick. They can also be sold to earn an income. The remaining cinnamon wood can also be sold for firewood.
The net profit I made from selling cinnamon and small pieces of bark was about 20,000 Sri Lankan rupees. Again, this kind of income can be earned after about 8 or 9 months, this kind of income can be earned repeatedly from the same land in the long run. I am very happy today to have started such a cultivation. From this cultivation I also get cinnamon for home use.
I am very grateful to everyone who has helped in any way to maintain this plantation.
Finally, I would like to invite my friends @dilesha, @nishadi89, @mohammad, @caringmanasseh to join this competition.
Upvoted! Thank you for supporting witness @jswit.