In Gburimani, every family has their own farm. Each farm can range from 1 acre to over 10 acres! Everyone grows similar crops because there are only a few crops that do very well in our hot and dry climate. Some of the most common crops are corn, beans, soya, cassava, peanuts and yams. Because we don't have accessible water sources, we don’t have sprinklers and can't water our plants throughout the year. So, all the farmers rely on rain to water the fields. Unlike the US, in Northern Ghana there are only two season: the rainy season and the dry season. Half of the year it is really hot and very dry, therefore there is not much work to be done at the farm. During the dry season, to prepare for the rainy season, farmers collect large sticks from dried trees in the fields. These sticks can be used as firewood and fencing for next farming season. In the other half of the year, it is still hot, but it also rains almost every day. During this time the farmers go to farm every day, many times more than once a day.
In the beginning of the season, farmers plow their land and arrange their field based on what they want to plant. If they are going to grow yams, farmers must build yam mounds. If they want to grow peanuts, they must space out the seeds a specific distance. They also need to build a fence out of local sticks so that the animals don't enter and eat the crops.
