Good day everyone.

This is the first thread that I am opening on Nairaland. Needless to say that I am one of those members that lurk around the walls of NL, not wanting to be seen or heard, but just stay somewhere and observe activities mostly in the agric section.

I am very fascinated about agriculture. This sector combined with other sectors in Nigeria can help our nation the way it has helped Brazil, Kenya, Thailand, Angola etc. Sometimes, I do wonder what is holding Nigeria from attaining its full potentials in the agric industry. The answer is not far fetched. Some people may say it is bad governance/leadership which may be right, but countries like America, Germany, the Asian tigers didn't get to where they are today just because of good governance, but with good citizenry. In my opinion, one of the problems in our agric sector is lack of information. Open source information like what Pavore9, World1, Jethro2, Neduzze5[this guy is now our Thomas Edison...lolz] Jasper7 are providing here on NL is what keeps the developed nations ahead of us. Unfortunately, the bulk of our farmers do not have access to the internet.

Another is education(not schooling, cos I do not like schooling but love education). There are numerous potentials and challenges in the Nigerian agric sector. With education, these potentials will be found and challenges solved. Let me give an example. Last december, I traveled to my mum's place in Edo state where she has about 19 acres of land scattered in her village. Though she cultivates about 5-6 acres while the rest have been fallowing for some time now. During my stay, I met this young farmer of about 28 who grows pineapple and plantain on about 2-3 acres of land. This guy harvested about 20 something pineapple a day before the market day. There are women who come to buy these produce from them. They act as major distributors. They source from different farmers and distribute to dealers who come from Benin and other states. I was astonished when one of these women approached this young farmer and prized this amount of produce for 500 naira. I wanted to ask her if she meant 500 dollars. I was infuriated. No wonder the younger generation wants to work in the office. Who will want to sell that number of produce after how many years of waiting for the pineapple to produce and hardwork. The farmer asked her to pay #1000 which she refused and went away. She later sent her children with #600 to come and collect the produce. I asked the farmer(Oliver) if he would be busy the next day being the market day and he said no. I told him to take the crops himself to the market and refuse the #600, which he did. Alas, after deducting transportation of about #370, he was left with about #1500(although he didn't come home with the whole money, had to get some things for himself at the market).

Another issue that I have discovered is this, how can you have about 2-5 acres of land and you want to grow crops that takes about 10-24 months before you harvest and you are complaining that there aint no money in the sector. My mum took me to one of her farms which is about 0.6 acres. She told me that she gets about a 100k from growing cassava on it. I was astonished and I asked her how long it takes before getting such an amount of money and her reply was, if one plants now, you should be getting the money by this time next year. I kept my cool cos we all have different views. I know she didn't get to the level that I have attained so far.
My reasoning here is this, since one has a limited space, why not grow fast growing value crops like sesame, cabbages, pepper, Okra etc. With such, one will be able to harvest a lot within a year. Imagine dividing a 100k by 12 months, basically one will not even be earning up to #9000 per month compared to some people that earn about 40k-50k per month on one to two plots.

Nice One

In Olamide's voice*First of all, Introduction*

My name is Chikezie Russell. I am 300lvl student studying Maritime Management Technology at the Federal University of Technology Owerri. I am very ambitious. I believe everybody has a dream, but I believe that we can only achieve those dreams if we work towards it.
I am an aspiring agripreneur and I will be starting from the little things that I have now to achieve my big dreams. So follow me as I go through my journey. There will be challenges, mistakes and eventually, success.
Your contributions will be very much appreciated.

RussellUba:
In Olamide's voice*First of all, Introduction*

My name is Chikezie Russell. I am 300lvl student studying Maritime Management Technology at the Federal University of Technology Owerri. I am very ambitious. I believe everybody has a dream, but I believe that we can only achieve those dreams if we work towards it.
I am an aspiring agripreneur and I will be starting from the little things that I have now to achieve my big dreams. So follow me as I go through my journey. There will be challenges, mistakes and eventually, success.
Your contributions will be very much appreciated.

am astonished by ur post. i learnt alot from it. am following ur thread

I always wanted to make use of the lands belonging to my parents cos they've been lying idle for years, so I've decided to start something no matter how small.
One problem that I used to have is procrastination, but since I joined this Organiaztion called the Centre for Social Awareness Advocacy and Ethics, it all changed. The organization really inspired me. Through the organization, I was able to meet the chairman for Edo state farmers co-operatives. He told me to prepare a business plan, which I did. At that same period, I attended an agric seminar held by a Thai company at Owerri. And behold people, I met Jasper's mother. Yes our own Jasper7, the one with B Tech, Bsc, B Eng, Msc MBA and PhD in cucumber farming. She said that one should not start a business with loaned money but expand with it. A lot of people might not agree, but there is wisdom is those words. So there and then, I decided to start from the little that I have.
I will be discussing whatever I am doing on my farm.

divineappo:
am astonished by ur post. i learnt alot from it. am following ur thread

Thanks a lot bro. Just keep on following, i believe we can all learn something from one another.

My school is closer to my dad's side, Abia state to be precise, i travelled there on Friday, being the 4th of February. My dad has about 2 acres of land but they are all scattered into plots. The first thing that i did was to clear the land closer to my family's house which is about 4 plots, but i was only able to weed about 1.5 plots(I know that i am a lazy boy).
The money that i will be spending on the project will come form my little pocket money in school(this one is a big sacrifice o). i want to grow okra, cucumber and pumpkin for a start. I was able to make some ridges and i got some good Okra and pumpkin seeds. i planted some of the Okra. I plan on getting some cucumber seed(Cu999 variety, u need to see the sizes of these cucumber) from Jasper's mum to plant.
While i was making the beds, i saw some insects coming out from my grandfather's abandoned house. Out of curiosity, i went to investigate and behold, i saw bees at the ceiling...would-be pollinators for my crops.
If i were to grow pollinating crops like cucumber, i will place beehives at strategic locations around the farm to increase productivity and as a means of increasing source of income from the farm, plant legumes to help soil fertility, act as cover crop, plant trees like cashew or cocoa around the farm to act as wind breakers etc.

Here are some pics of the work done so far.

amerengues:
Nice One

Thanks brov

More

Let me deviate a little.
The type of agriculture that I wish to practice by the time I move to a bigger space will be top notch by the special grace of God. According to Mr world1 ''#teamnewgenerationfarmers''. To this effect I have a lot of developed agronomic techniques practiced that I have watched and read on the internet and I want to test them out so that I and others following this thread can use them for us to develop our agric industry.
The first experiment that I am carrying out is the vertical sack farming method. I saw this on one of those Mr Pavore9's enlightening threads. Though I have seen that growing with this medium does well for straight plants, having seen crawling plants grown with it. During my last visit to my mum's place, I decided to try it out with Beans since they do craw/climb. Unfortunately, I had to leave soon because of school, but I plan to start anew all my experiment on my new farm.
I will be worKing on cucumber. Let me explain this method in a simple way for us to understand.
I have plot of land on I which I build a house providing about 3 rooms. Which means that I will be having about 3 tenants in the house, but I will love to have more in order to increase my rent but I do not have any more land which might be too expensive or scarce to get. What I will do is to build storeys. With an additional decking, I can have 6 tenants and continously deck the house to the height that I want to get more tenants on just a plot of land.
In agriculture space needed to grow one plant can be use for about 7 plants depending on the size of your bag. The pictures should be able to explain better.
Imagine an acre of land with these bags in it

Hiaannnn!! Comparing me to Thomas Edison?

It can't fitn't happen oh... Lolz!

Thanks bro... Really humbled by your words and your works & efforts. It takes two to build a nation and you have just started your own part.

Sometimes, it would look so hard and gloomy and quite annoying but I'm sure you'd overcome. Never give up and you shall see the rewards accrue to you sometime in the future.

I've subscribed to this. Following you bumper to bumper.