NewStats: 3,263,768 , 8,181,347 topics. Date: Saturday, 07 June 2025 at 08:35 PM 47533u

Men, this year mad o

Fresh corn now 10,000 per bag.......The threat to go as low as 5000 a bag is there

Seems high food prices last year forced people into cultivation

Can anybody link me to sweet corn offtakers that can take 40,000 to 50,000 pieces at a go............

I will love to produce on contract for such off taker

Sp33i:
Cultivating Farm Number Three. I decided to add a third farm to the project. For this farm, I am making use of Gobara and Lagon mixture instead of Forceup and Lagon i made use of for my first two farms

Its late to farm maize now, ur crop will meet August break

Pls interplant with cassava to ensure u don't loose too much

We Africans should understand "knowledge" and the nature of Knowledge........ Its on record that 95% of the lands expropriated from White Farmers and given to Black Farmers have failed...... A particularly distressing fact is the story of a 3000acre Citrus farm known for export and supply to Shop-rite was expropriated from the owners and given to Black farmers......... The Citrus trees were all chopped up and sold as firewood after 3 years.............

Its not only agronomy, there are financial problems, marketing and more.....

We worry too much about ownership of land especially when the land has been put into productive use.........

There are many opportunities for large scale Agro business, but we have to change our mindset

Understand your crop water needs and understand the critical time water deficit will affect your crop the most

I repeat myself again..... Pls understand the rainfall pattern in your locality, even if you are irrigating and center your decisions around this pattern

For lack of better words to choose from, I had to call this thread "philosophy of............."

I know the problem is not agronomy, irrigation, Finance

The biggest problem is that can a group of farmers come together for the advancement of their trade.........

laivwire:
Well done betabread and more grease to your elbows.

If you know the actual state of things, you won't waste your resources in farm production not to talk of 6 month gestation crops.

Economically it's just not worth it. Farming is so much risk for little reward and this is due to multiple factors.

The blue ocean strategy remains valid here. You are competing with 70% of Nigeria's workforce and you expect farming not to be supply driven when anybody can throw seeds in the ground expect it to grow?

Let's not talk about the kangaroo policies or unethical nature of most Nigerians.

Those making it in Agric today are the tradesmen and the processors. Look around you, top Agric players in Nigeria only do contract farming or delve into other stages of the value chain. Not production.There's a solid reason for that.

Even in the EU and US, farmers are heavily ed by the govt or simultaneous high income businesses they go belly up.

Anyways, I wish you good luck and more perseverance.

My dear there is a way, It involves sharing the load and also profit....and also keeping to our words

Inspite of the state of things, for 3 consecutive years I and my partner were the only ones known to produce fresh corn in the months of January February March in my comnunity.........

Though profits were not fantastic, I could smell the potential....... The knowledge is out there, the tools are out there, so also the means

If one keeps living in the realm of "I", you won't be able to pull it off, There is way too much for one person to understand, you are not a magician

Let's keep trodhing along

If you plant corn learn to never burn your field instead plough in the residue on the field and plant........
Though a burnt field looks neat and nice you have vaporized all the sulphate and nitrate, you will mainly notice this with weak stalks, your corn finds it hard to get up after rainfall with heavy winds.......
Its remedied easily with fertilizer that contains Sulphur like Golden 15 15 15 with sulphur

The learning process in crop production is slow generally 1,year......... Imagine coming to realization that you should have planted in April and not May or March.......... The solution to this problem will only be corrected in the next crop cycle and that will be next year, For the mean time now the farmer must bear the loss

This is where local extension comes into play, yearly farmers in Nigeria run into losses because of this

Many times a would be farmer seeking information goes to the internet and would only get guides tailored to other regions and climate...... Though better than nothing it hinders production greatly as they don't take into local technology and knowhow

Bulk of the times the true farmers are left on their own in economic misery...... Those that have figured a way out will charge you s to get info from them

You can't farm in Nigeria without theft challenges, understand the crop and give thieves work to do......

If drone technology can carry loads of 16liters of water I will use them mainly for fungicide spraying when I grow corn at high population

0neal:
Large scale farming requires huge investment in security... especially when there is no formidable fence/barrier for encroachment control.

A well secured & strategically placed sentry tower(s) with a 360 pan camera is a good start in securing the farm.

I pray all farmers have a productive farming season, e no easy at all.

Its a waste of money building walls or fence to secure a farm...... Security on large farms should be around low bulk high value goods such as diesel, fuels and machine parts..... It's better to use natural geographical features like streams or virgin forest to show demacation

JuanDeDios:

Yeah. But I'm interested in this manual planting vs planter you hinted at. Does it make a difference?

For corn its still cheaper to plant with hands or manual planting till I encounter tractor operator with corn seed planter

The main disadvantage is that you get reduced population, while machine planting will give you in excess of 50,000 stands, manual planting will give you about 16,000 to 18,000 stands per hectare, you compensate for this by leaving 2 seeds per stand to get about 33,000 plant population

emmaodet:


Hmmmmm
Where is your farm?
Mine is at Kobape, 30 acres currently.
Planted maize and cassava but it has not been easy honestly.
Labourers are a big issue so am trying to reduce as much as possible the human s in my farm.
I just bought and importing a multi-implement from china and it will arrive next month.
It will plant, fertilize, spray at the same time reducing human factors.

I will be following your thread and we can share knowledge

Machines machines machines............... The problem with machines are
1.),are u ready for the headache of maintenance.... Don't go outside machines used outside ur locality so that u can easily get mechanic if it breaks down
2.), how are you going to operate this machines., personally I don't operate farm machines, so the machine has to be easy to operate and does not break down easily
3.), always that the standard will always be tractor drawn implements for machine operations else you compare with manual


I won't bouth any implement or machine but as much as possible see that it brings more value to you than problems

The conditions on many farms are brutal many machines won't survive cycles of rain, sun and harsh Agro chemicals coupled with sendless workers.......

Try and let's see if it's useful, the machine will go viral

JuanDeDios:

So you mean the improved varieties may not produce well if planted manually? Can you explain a little?

Improved varieties will always outperform other varieties if all agronomic factors remain the same but most times this factors are beyond the control of the farmer

The hardest crime to control on a farm is not outright theft but pilfering......... At every point of Hugh expenditure or revenue generation, there is so much opportunity for pilfering to set in

Given a choice between volume and quality 98% of Nigerians go for volume, factor that when selecting varieties especially if you grow grains and starches

The average Nigerian hardly cares about taste and texture....

Some years ago a friend grew pioneer variety of Corn, the Ogi seller that bought the first batch came back wanting to buy the remaining stock but it was finished, on asking y she finally opened up and said she got more than twice the volume of Ogi than from normal corn

Upon twice the profit she made, she was not ready to add a dine to the normal market price for corn...... Its way better to get that variety that gives you volume over quality, this helps as the cost of fertilizer is on the high side

Give the market what the market wants

Factories that can buy high quality corn prefers importation

As a farmer, there are a lot of hidden cost in the business, take for example cassava sells for 400,000 per pickup.......

Understand that the price paid by the buyer is not what comes to the farmer, there is money for uprooting , and loading , all on the initial 400k paid by the buyer

Ur main concern is what should come to the farmer.....

U should compare prices and juxtapose if using bikes, pickup, cabster or canter will favor ur situation

In other crops this wahala is done by the market women especially vegetables, they buy and transport themeselves

mayowade50:


How can I reach you please sir?

I'm want to go into either cassava or pepper farming, I'm considering siting my farm around Atan Lusada/Owode Idiroko... I would love to get your guidance sir.

Thanks sir

If you are a beginner forget pepper, that's for expert , do cassava for 3 years before proceeding to corn

In Nigeria there is no such thing as a part time farmer, If you can't visit your farm daily pls form a coalition of similar minded people and float the farm........

The bulk of daily task on the farm is basically casual work, its so easy to tell the owner we have done it meanwhile nothing was done

If you keep records pls record only what you witnessed.. ........its too easy to get lost in records and forget what's going on physically on the farm

Hone your powers of estimation.... Learn how to transpose scientific measurement into local measurement, for example you should quickly be able to transcribe acres or hectares into for example local Yoruba measurement like alakpin or egba no matter how irregular shaped the land...... You don't need gps or surveyors tape for this.........

Before venturing into the varieties game, pls ensure you know the crop hands down and factors that affect the yield bought in ur locality.....
For example, why buy pioneer or tela maize when you don't have a mechanical planter at your disposal then sell the maize fresh, you are only increasing your cost input...... There are cheap local varieties with very big cobs ....... Also don't plant the local varieties with big cobs then sell dry and you expect the yields of hybrids just because you have the same number and size of cobs "corn corn O!!!!!!!"

If u are a rainfed farmer please understand the rainfall pattern in your area.... For example if you grow corn pls let your corn tasseling, silking and flower formation coincide with the period of assured rainfall..... In my own locality this is the month of June and October...... Any other thing outside this period means greatly reduced yield, if u like plant seedco 719 or tela maize...... In fact if ur hybrid tassels in this window period and all other agronomic factors are intact, you will sur the d yield

Growing crops on a large scale is extremely risky, you can watch helplessly billions of naira go to waste.....On a large scale I prefer to watch other farmers make it trying newer techniques before I the band wagon

Personally I won't quickly change tried and trusted techniques in the name of pursuing yield

Give or take once you get into crop production, you are forced to think in of a unit of human labor.....its better to engage labor for a year and give them a one off payment. This will force you into the acquisition of land so that they would be busy

If you can locate all your farms in one place you are lucky. At any point in time 2 laborers should be engaged with 7.5 acres minimum for there to be profitability, this is the standard for maize and cassava...It is better to engage 3laborers as there is no year you won't get people that won't finish their yearly labor, you can start with 3labor and by year end you end up with 2 due to all manner of reason ...Technologies like pesticides,machines , Good seeds and fertilizers are the owners input to increase profitability.....

Understanding how each affects profit is key to profitability

Crops generally in Nigeria is supply driven as there is no industrial base to bring about demand driven agriculture.......

I thank God for the processors of cassava in Lusada, Agbara and other places in Nigeria, If not for them, cassava won't have been rescued.... It would remain an extreme low value crop.. ..... This industries have introduced life back into cassava and have given competition to garri producers.....

To move from supply driven Agriculture to Demand driven Agriculture pls ensure you buy local produced goods.........

Imagine the success in cassava being replicated in Sugar.........There will be more sugar cane farms than cassava,then you will start hearing the varieties and local names for sugar cane, many farmers will move from cassava to sugar cane, this will increase both the income of the sugarcane and cassava farmer as there is now competition for land for the crops......

Crops Generally are high bulk low value, this is why many would be good farmers run away...

As a farmer how will you handle this bulk........ Your planting materials are bulky, fertilizers bulky and when your produce comes out its even more bulky

Can you easily estimate this bulk.....

Use the fact that Crops are generally high bulk and low value to your advantage, It determines the point of entry of thief's and people that want to cheat you

I'm a practicing crop producer with 10 years experience and for lack of better words will call this thread philosophy of crop production as I try to distill the essence of crop production as seen through my eyes....

Even with 10 years experience I still consider myself a learner as there are many problems I still don't have practical solutions to


So let me start the ranting

FashionCapital:
Good evening guys.

Due to the current state of the economy, I have saved up some money to venture into cash crop farming ( cashew to be precise).
From my little research, I found out that cashew farming in prevalent in some of parts of Oyo. I confident in my mum and she called a man who is an indigene. He told us that land is available for 500k per acre of which I intend to get two acres.

My fears are :

I have never acquired a property before. I intent to employ the service of a property lawyer for verification.
The price seems a bit outrageous. Is there anyone who has gotten a piece from iseyin or Eruwa precisely to help confirm the actual value.
Is Fulani herdsmen still causing havoc in the region. This is the most important question as its safety first
Anyone that’s into cashew farming that can train me for just a week ( I will pay for the consultation) but should be a practicing farmer. You can recommend me to one if you know any.
Any other advise that you feel I need to know.

Please kindly advise me accordingly and don’t tell me to Japa. Would have love too but no means. Thanks you guys

Cashew farm is a long term project and will be extremely difficult for a beginner......

Enter into it with the mind frame that you want to learn then go there and attach yourself with a practicing farmer for at least 18months

The end stage should be setting up yours which won't be too difficult by then

Don't waste ur money on consultancy...... Successful farmers learn by doing and watching other successful farmers

emmaachile2:
Yellow leaf curl virus in farmers language is a dangerous disease.

Farmers can find refuge in resistant varieties such as
Tomato
Assila F1, Ansal F1, Kilele F1 , Big rock F1

Pepper
Super Habanero f1 (high tolerance)
Mawenzili (high tolerance)

A lot of resources is used to fight a battle against this virus attack that the farmer always lose.

Outside white flies any other vector..........
Last year, it rained into novemver ending and decembet in some areas in my place, i never noticed them but this year i started noticing qhite flies a early as november 7.

Now they have coloniized all d gutters in my area, there r a lot of weeda and plants not resistant to it

DrDoc:



Do not buy it yet. Let's talk about an alternative system if you do not like it, then you may go for it.

I am setting up a 20 acres irrigated maize farm in January. me and I will share my setup and system for free with you

can i get a paid tour of this farm...........................

im ready to pay