#Myfarmstory by Adesola Deborah Ayobami
My first day in farm practical was full of hugs, and jubilation because we made it to the first batch. As earlier mentioned, the first two weeks in farm is general weeks where all of us work together. Do you want to know the unique thing about farm year practical? Everyone is chattable and approachable and this brings love and unity .
After the general weeks, we were grouped to different units. I was batched to garri unit with some other people and we relate well regardless of our department. First day in garri unit was about lectures, we were the first candidates, so we had to clean and service the machine. It’s the norm. Efforts were made for us to get the produce (cassava) during our stay but they couldn’t. So we were told to come back the following week, after finishing at our next unit . But lol, who has that strength?
I was really happy when we eventually got to the interactive session. It was really an interesting one, as we asked questions from machines used to produce garri after its harvest period. I must say, we really had something to hold on to at the garri unit. I got to know the reason we have garri unit only, instead of having different unit of cassava products. It is just because, garri is consumed more than other cassava products due to its constant availability, and the products we can use garri for —Eba, kokoro and the likes .
The greatest lesson I learned about the production of garri is about its toxic constituents. There are varieties of toxic constituents in this cassava which are hazardous to human health. There is this particular substance in cassava called CYANOGEN. This CYANOGEN can cause stomach pain if consumed in large quantity . So, in other to prevent this, we have to soak cassava after peeling it to reduce the toxic constituents and enhance the uniqueness taste of garri.
In the processing of garri, I got to know that garri must be peeled after harvesting it and soaked to prevent spoilage or loosing of taste.
I learned so much in the garri unit as it makes me fall more for Agriculture. Still thinking about the unique products than can be made from garri which will entice people and be more nutritive . Fortified garri wouldn’t be bad idea anyways.
Farm year practical has made my eyes open to many opportunities and knowledge. This is just a tip of an iceberg. Do you want to know if I fall for other unit aside this garri unit? Follow me up on the next episode.
This story has been published on PROUDLY LADOKITE with very minimal editing to preserve the original voice of the author.
