This Woman Can Farm In The Desert
By Suleiman Ugbokhe
The thudding sound of a football bouncing across the beautifully paved compound with interlocks was followed by a low but stern voice saying, “Emmanuel, I’m not say you shouldn’t play ball but you must not allow it to touch this vegetable,” the slim-built, tall woman led the teenager to the vegetable as if he was not already aware of the existence of the vegetable on that spot. That is the level of dedication of this woman to caring for her vegetables inside the compound.
In my recent regular visits to this hospital establishment – not as a patient o! – I observe this woman, Victoria Jayeola, as she dotes on her vegetables and a young date palm, which she dutifully waters every morning because of the dry season.
Interestingly, she doesn’t really pay any attention to the well trimmed plants alongside the perimeter wall and in the middle of the compound.
When Agbelonews asks her what she would plant in place of the ornamental plants if given the opportunity, Victoria replies without hesitation: “I will replace them vegetables and garden eggs.”
The daughter of a farmer from Ekiti state, southwest Nigeria, Victoria, who developed her interests in agriculture as a young child going to the farm with her parents, narrates her agric story thus:
I used to go to farm with my parents. I like to plant things because anything you plant for yourself is free for you. You will not buy it again.
I came to live here ( Davestar Hospital, Ijegun, Lagos) in December, 2014, when I lost my husband.
If I see any waterleaf outside, I will bring it inside the compound and find space within the flower beds to replant it.
I plant garden eggs, ewedu, efo-soko, ugu (pumpkin leaves), bitter-leaf, yam, plantains and date palm.
Left for me, I would uproot all these flowers and plant garden eggs and vegetables in their place.
Since I started planting vegetables here, we no longer buy vegetables and also garden eggs. Vegetables cost about six hundred naira (N600.00) for a pot of soup.
I am happy doing the small farming within the compound. I harvest the waterleaf and efe-soko every 22 days.
Anywhere I stay, whatever small space of land that is available I will use to cultivate crops. Even when walking along the road I will be looking for any seed to take home to plant. I don’t have to sit down with it in the ground for it to germinate and grow.
I have grown yams here, near the plantains, for years now and I always have good harvest from which I even give out to people. If I were having more space here, I would have planted cassava too.
When my brother, an Architect, saw the yams I harvested from here, he decided to go to our place in Ekiti to cultivate a yam farm on a half plot of land.
When we went home last December, we harvested the yams from his farm. We set aside fifty biggest tubers from the harvested yams for him. I am not sure he has finished parking them away from there.
When I was in Benin City (southsouth Nigeria), I reared chickens.
Agriculture is good in Nigeria. Crops can grow anywhere.
Even when rain falls, the erosion will deposit all sorts of seeds along its path.
Walking along the road, you will see different food crops growing on their own, not planted by anybody.
God cannot come down from heaven to give you food. There is no where in Nigeria that you will plant something that it would not grow well. I don’t know of other countries.
 |
| Victoria Jayeola waters her waterleaf vegetables notwithstanding the interlocks |
The thudding sound of a football bouncing across the beautifully paved compound with interlocks was followed by a low but stern voice saying, “Emmanuel, I’m not say you shouldn’t play ball but you must not allow it to touch this vegetable,” the slim-built, tall woman led the teenager to the vegetable as if he was not already aware of the existence of the vegetable on that spot. That is the level of dedication of this woman to caring for her vegetables inside the compound.
In my recent regular visits to this hospital establishment – not as a patient o! – I observe this woman, Victoria Jayeola, as she dotes on her vegetables and a young date palm, which she dutifully waters every morning because of the dry season.
 |
| The date palm and waterleaf |
Interestingly, she doesn’t really pay any attention to the well trimmed plants alongside the perimeter wall and in the middle of the compound.
When Agbelonews asks her what she would plant in place of the ornamental plants if given the opportunity, Victoria replies without hesitation: “I will replace them vegetables and garden eggs.”
 |
| Garden egg plants are on the right side of the picture and some waterleaves are underneath the plants on the left |
The daughter of a farmer from Ekiti state, southwest Nigeria, Victoria, who developed her interests in agriculture as a young child going to the farm with her parents, narrates her agric story thus:
I used to go to farm with my parents. I like to plant things because anything you plant for yourself is free for you. You will not buy it again.
I came to live here ( Davestar Hospital, Ijegun, Lagos) in December, 2014, when I lost my husband.
If I see any waterleaf outside, I will bring it inside the compound and find space within the flower beds to replant it.
 |
| A constellation of vegetable species by the doorway |
I plant garden eggs, ewedu, efo-soko, ugu (pumpkin leaves), bitter-leaf, yam, plantains and date palm.
Left for me, I would uproot all these flowers and plant garden eggs and vegetables in their place.
Since I started planting vegetables here, we no longer buy vegetables and also garden eggs. Vegetables cost about six hundred naira (N600.00) for a pot of soup.
I am happy doing the small farming within the compound. I harvest the waterleaf and efe-soko every 22 days.
 |
| The plantains and yams (left of the picture) |
Anywhere I stay, whatever small space of land that is available I will use to cultivate crops. Even when walking along the road I will be looking for any seed to take home to plant. I don’t have to sit down with it in the ground for it to germinate and grow.
I have grown yams here, near the plantains, for years now and I always have good harvest from which I even give out to people. If I were having more space here, I would have planted cassava too.
 |
| Can these decorative plants give way to food crops? |
When my brother, an Architect, saw the yams I harvested from here, he decided to go to our place in Ekiti to cultivate a yam farm on a half plot of land.
When we went home last December, we harvested the yams from his farm. We set aside fifty biggest tubers from the harvested yams for him. I am not sure he has finished parking them away from there.
When I was in Benin City (southsouth Nigeria), I reared chickens.
Agriculture is good in Nigeria. Crops can grow anywhere.
 |
| Victoria and Agbelonews standing by a bitter leaf plant |
Even when rain falls, the erosion will deposit all sorts of seeds along its path.
Walking along the road, you will see different food crops growing on their own, not planted by anybody.
God cannot come down from heaven to give you food. There is no where in Nigeria that you will plant something that it would not grow well. I don’t know of other countries.
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