© G. D. Stone

Farmers may wait for the onset of the rains to build and plant the heaps. But a better strategy is to make the bunga (yam heaps) at the tail end of the rains -- Sept. or Oct. -- of the year before the yams are to be grown, constructing them right in the grain field that will then rotate back to yams. Thus, next year's heaps are made between and around this year's sorghum plants; the heaps are then planted in the dry season. This ingenious strategy circumvents a disasterous early season labor bottleneck; it allows the heaping operation to serve as a weeding of the sorghum; and it helps to buttress the sorghum stalks against winds. For these reasons, the Sept.-Oct. bunga work is very desirable. Almost all of it goes towards household heads' fields, and women who are growing their own yams must usually wait until the next year's rains (P. Stone et al. 1995).