2.5 Green House Farming
I have received toomany mails on this topic, and I always refer friends to my previous posts on this topic. But.it is time to address the issue on this thread.

I do not talk about it because no matter the kind of profit one derives from it, the probability that majority will look into it is slim. But I am a bit surprised how I received mails from people who are ready to set up properly.

After my chats I leave people to go out and find out challenges farmers face, and they always return to say that I am right. So, I have stopped trying to make newbies see reasons why to set up well because, they always return after crashing.

It is time to look into covered production.

FAQ 16
Why is greenhouse so expensive?

My response:
What is not expensive in Nigeria? Lol. But do you realise fresh vegetables and food are so extremely in Nigeria? The excuse is that users need to get contract with a big grocery store. Lol. Of course, you do not need that crap before you make it. Why don't you compare the prices of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria and Kenya. It is crazily expensive in Nigeria. So, the equation is balanced. You will definitely make your money back.

The problem with Nigerians is that most want to recover their cash back in 2 months. Hmmmm! If I invest N500,000 in cucumber farming, I will get N1,500,000 in 2.5 months; therefore, I am going cucumber. Lol. Who told you it is always going to be like that? I am not saying you will not make it but trust me, to set up is so expensive, you will soon discover many things no one will tell you.

For every business in Nigeria, give it a year before you are well balanced. Some wrote me, it is crazy to spend too much to set up bla bla bla. Ok, go and use N50,000 to do it since you are sure you can do it very cheap. But you see them coming back to ask more questions. I put a stop to talking to people like that.

Galvanised steel are too expensive here.Cover, nets, accessories are all imported. The cost of shipping greenhouses is not cheap too. And importers put ridiculous profit on it.

So, what do they do? They import inferior products just like what we always get. The only way to get good automobile repaceable parts is buying used. Why? Most will not buy reliable new replaceable parts. For sellers to scale up their profit, they go to places where condenmed automobiles are stored and they start removing the parts in order to sell in Nigeria. This is the only way to make it in a price range Nigerians will buy. And then, they flood market with new inferior chinese products.

Whose fault is it? I think some crazy people started importing inferior products from China, Nigerians got used to it, and then we kill the market of genuine products.

Most drip, mulch, covers, net you buy around are all inferior products. I am not here to start lecturing anyone on getting quality products as I have decided to not get myself involved with instructing anyone on how to purchase. I have done it in the past and it was not a pleasant experience.

If you want to make it, stop thinking of using inferior products. Find out what is the best to use. Stop consulting sellers because you will be told to use what they want to sell. And be sure that it is inferior you will get..

However, there are still sellers I patronize here. I have sent many newbies to some of them.

2.51. You are a retailer, and not a wholesaler.

Like I said, zoom off if you want "sharp sharp" profit like oil marketing business. It is only in oil marketing you make it speedily. But ask the guy producing oil. Is it a quick slinning profitable venture? Same with vegetable and fruits marketing. It is "sharp sharp" money for marketers. So, think and think again. You can easily produce, market and retail your veggie products if you can produce weekly. This is what open field farmers cannot do easily.

You are so foolish if you sell to wholesale sellers. However, you may start with wholesale selling, but get out of that business asap and go into retailing to maximize profit. For goodness sake, you have products to sell every week. It is why you must choose crops which can last long. Then, you add some open field crops to it. This way, you can retail your open field products too. This is maximum profit. But it is sad that peope go foolishly into covered production.

2.52. Grow Less, Earn Big. 1,000sqm size, the ideal size.

People just buy stupid things and I do not understand why. I have seen too many abandoned structures, and 95% of them are 8m × 24m. For goodness sake, what quantity of veggie would you bring out from that tiny thing? And you are paying workers salary. It is just too funny that someone can propose such stupid thing. Well, if you disagree, it is OK. Just go ahead with your 8m × 24m and best of luck.

Infact, if you ask me, I recommend 2,000sqm covered area and above. Two 500sqm structures are just ok. So guys, stop scaling too small crop farming. Scaling rightly is the key to success. Sellers just want to make profit, and it is why they came up with that stupid 8m × 24m thing they called greenhouse. That structure should be for nursery production.

Let us take capsicum for example. If you go for a variety that can give you grade A product = above 180grams, grade B = 140 to 170grams, and grade C = beow 140grams; you will make minimum of 10 tons in 1,000sqm in a planting season which is around 10 months. Of course it should be higher.

Selling at wholesale should be N500/kg. I have gone round. Capsicum is the easiest veggie to sell in this category. If you are ready to go ahead, I will give you tips on how to market it easily. And you can do retailing too. You will sell at N800/kg and above if it is retailing. These are facts I will stand up to defend any day any time. Now, go compare these prices with Kenya's. You just find out that just as the structures are expensive, so also the products you get from them are crazily expensive.

10,000kg @ N500/kg = N5,000,000. Does this ring bell in your ear. So, just try to find a way to make your structure at around N3,500,000 to N4,000,000. Then, other costs of production should be within N1,500,0000. Give yourself 1 year to know the ins and outs of the business. You will soon establish yourself as a retailer selling at N1,100/kg if you are smart. Yeah, I walk through people in my network this process.

Perhaps, you spend more than N4,500,000 on your structure, do not worry. Or perhaps you are using galvanised frame and it is so expensive, do not fret. You can scale up, do more marketing research to move retail price of your product a bit, or you give yourself 12 to 15 months to fully balance. The beauty is that you will gain ground, and you will be fully established with loyal customers. This is what is called a good business. When you have customers you supply weekly without any difficulty.

What do you do? Just get covers, nets, shades which can last around 5 years. First year is the learning year and the year to recover your investment. From the second year, you start making huge profit.

In addition, you add very high valued open field crops to it. You need to find at least 3 crops by yourself, and I always assist my network do this.

Like I warned earlier, stay clear off this post if you are the "sharp sharp" profit making guy. But trust me, you are going to crash out sooner than expected. Patience is a virtue.

Grow less, earn Big.

Note: Enjoy this thread as much as you can, but kindly contact me only if and only you are ready, and you are financially capable to set up. Bless you!

When Nigeria has the natural climate to produce , why do you recommend western methods of farming where they do not have the proper climate to cultivate ? Greenhouse is essential to artificially maintain adequate climatic conditions . Relying on technology alone is not right . With regard to fresh fruits and vegetables avaliability it depends more on transport infrastructure , marketing , distribution etc . Probably a cold storage is a good idea . I am sure there is production and there is also a lot of wastage happening in Nigeria , which needs to be addressed first . No farmer would like to produce something and then let it rot if it cannot be made avaliable at the market in a limited time .

fluentinfor:
FAQ 16
Why is greenhouse so expensive?

My response:
What is not expensive in Nigeria? Lol. But do you realise fresh vegetables and food are so extremely in Nigeria? The excuse is that users need to get contract with a big grocery store. Lol. Of course, you do not need that crap before you make it. Why don't you compare the prices of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria and Kenya. It is crazily expensive in Nigeria. So, the equation is balanced. You will definitely make your money back.

The problem with Nigerians is that most want to recover their cash back in 2 months. Hmmmm! If I invest N500,000 in cucumber farming, I will get N1,500,000 in 2.5 months; therefore, I am going cucumber. Lol. Who told you it is always going to be like that? I am not saying you will not make it but trust me, to set up is so expensive, you will soon discover many things no one will tell you.

For every business in Nigeria, give it a year before you are well balanced. Some wrote me, it is crazy to spend too much to set up bla bla bla. Ok, go and use N50,000 to do it since you are sure you can do it very cheap. But you see them coming back to ask more questions. I put a stop to talking to people like that.

Galvanised steel are too expensive here.Cover, nets, accessories are all imported. The cost of shipping greenhouses is not cheap too. And importers put ridiculous profit on it.

So, what do they do? They import inferior products just like what we always get. The only way to get good automobile repaceable parts is buying used. Why? Most will not buy reliable new replaceable parts. For sellers to scale up their profit, they go to places where condenmed automobiles are stored and they start removing the parts in order to sell in Nigeria. This is the only way to make it in a price range Nigerians will buy. And then, they flood market with new inferior chinese products.

Whose fault is it? I think some crazy people started importing inferior products from China, Nigerians got used to it, and then we kill the market of genuine products.

Most drip, mulch, covers, net you buy around are all inferior products. I am not here to start lecturing anyone on getting quality products as I have decided to not get myself involved with instructing anyone on how to purchase. I have done it in the past and it was not a pleasant experience.

If you want to make it, stop thinking of using inferior products. Find out what is the best to use. Stop consulting sellers because you will be told to use what they want to sell. And be sure that it is inferior you will get..

However, there are still sellers I patronize here. I have sent many newbies to some of them.

I personally do not think high investment is the path to increase production . I think farmers need to be proactive and learn , analyse , implement knowledge and skill . A dumb farmer can spend 15 million , but i am sure he would not be able to achieve whatever has been invested . Better fertiliser application , integrated pest and nutrient management , marketing of the produce are important

fluentinfor:

I guess you did not understand the post well. It is the start- up cost for their farm. Perhaps, you are more concerned about low set up and high operational cost of production, but they walk through the process with me. They realised that reasonable start up cost and low operational cost is far more rewarding. Even you choose the former, I do not think you are "nut".

1 million naira is just $2,700. Are you saying it is too much to set up 1 acre farm? Borehole, generator, land clearing, drip system, mulch, etc. Is it not the same business we are doing with farmers in north America? Tell a farmer there you are using $2,700 to set up 1 acre farm, and he will tell you how cheap it is. But we want to have 7 to 10 fruits per vine. Hmmmm!

Maybe you do not understand the post again. I have broken it down for you again. Personally, I can have a start up cost of N15 million on just one acre, and I may decide to start with cucumber. You do not need to say anyone is "nut". What you need to do is ask politely what the person is trying to achieve, maybe, you can learn from it. And if you are lucky, the fellow might tell you.

Like i have written earlier, I am not around to argue with anyone. Those who have been to farms understand certain things. I am sure you will understand more with this post.

How do I tell a 70- year old widow to handle Togo/Hausa/Benue/Cotonou boys on her cucumber farm? Gush! Cucumber itself is hard work. I do not do it so big like other crops these days. But I am amazed the number of people who are going into it. And seriously, 60% of the work are land tilling and trellies installation which are not hard if we use the right equipment. But most farmers improvise with bamboo and rope. Chai! Too much work! Too much suffering on farm. Back ache! Honestly, improvisation is suffering almost all the time. What if I give you the real way of doing cucumber, then what adjective would you have used? Crazy, mad, idiot, foolish, stupid, lol And going round 10,000 plants side dressing granules fertlizer every 7 to 10 days is suffering and smiling. But most do not agree with me. Their response is: i have workers. And I feel, they are not "nut". But I know that they are under producing.

My advice: try to search things deeply. I learned more from stupid people. Why? Stupid people just do not know how to explain, or implement ideas. But trust me, they are always with the fastest approach and best improvisation techniques. This is a top secret. Learn to engage foolish people in decent conversations and you will be full of knowledge. At the end, you might call yourself foolish too.

Finally, I build businesses and not just farms. I am more of long term than "sharp-sharp" things. The question is: when do you break through? How long can your business last?

stocklot:
When Nigeria has the natural climate to produce,

Every nation in the world has excellent climatic condition. You probably think greenhouse is meant to increase temperature during winter only, but it is used to decrease it too. During rainy season, veggies do not do well. An option is to use greenhouse.

In addition, you need to realise that our weather is not too good for veggie and fruits. Strawberries, other berries, apples, green peas, green beans, beetroots, olive, etc are all not for our climate. They naturally produce excellently in those places you think their weather is bad. Winter can be a good thing my brother.

Do you realise that optimum temperature of almost all tropical vegetables and fruits is within 23C to 26C? It may surprise you. But we get average of 35C in Nigeria? Naturally, you should get 8 fruits per cucumber vine, but most farmers in Nigeria get 1 to 3 fruits. So, are you saying it is normal? High temperature is the main cause. Since you are not aware of this, I am sure your production will be low.

Vegetables are not natural to our environment. And we do not produce vegetable seeds. Should I cultivate them like cassava?

why do you recommend western methods of farming where they do not have the proper climate to cultivate ? Greenhouse is essential to [s] artificially maintain adequate climatic conditions [/s] . Relying on technology alone is not right .

We do not just use tech. There is always a problem we use tech to solve. It is when you know there is a problem that you find solution to it. What you are not aware of, you cannot think of solving it. And it is why it is expensive to you. You call it high cost, I call it reasonable cost..

And why do you think greenhouse farming is western? Indians, Malaysians, Japanese have adopted it too. It is even the best form of farming for organic. Most of these tech originate from the middle east (mulch, drip, fertigation etc). They are not western like that. Americans and British do not say because it is from the East they will not use it. Infact, they popularise it.

You are wrong saying it is all artificial whatever. Do you think most Africans can afford electricity in nethouse. Most tropical designs are simple designs. We just want to move temperature down. That is all.

With regard to fresh fruits and vegetables avaliability it depends more on transport infrastructure , marketing , distribution etc . Probably a cold storage is a good idea . I am sure there is production and there is also a lot of wastage happening in Nigeria , which needs to be addressed first . No farmer would like to produce something and then let it rot if it cannot be made avaliable at the market in a limited time .

The truth is that fresh healthy food are not suppose to be refrigerated. Seriously, I do not concern myself about storage. And this is where I am different. Sir, no cucumber farmer ever stores. Maybe what is needed are cooling vans for my northern friends who transport veggie over long distance.

Why would I bother myself with using energy to store tomatoes when I know I can use seeds with slight increased price which are going to produce fruits that will last 21 days. Ok, this is another reason my cost of production is high, but at the long run it makes more sense. But you may opt for cheap seeds that produce fruit which gets sour after 7 days.

I do not bother myself with selling cucumber fast. I know that if I keep it under shade after harvest, it will last longer. So, i include the cost of making a good shade in my start up cost. Whereas you always leave it out. And you harvest, pack in bags and within just 1.5 days you are already panicking. My cost of production is higher than yours, but it makes me more profit.

When i read storage bla bla bla, I just laugh. Why? farmers do not shout like that. When you produce good quality fresh vegetables and you have good sales outlet, you will be relaxed.

2.53 We do not just use technology. We use it to solve problems and to reduce operational cost.

The following will increase your start up cost, but at the end will make you produce cheaper (extreme low operational cost):

1. Mulch: You do not need to bother with weeding. Also, when you weed, you expose your crops to diseases. In addition, you can easily use microorganisms to grow your plants which gives you super yield. To you, it is luxury, to me, it is a necessity.

2. Fertigation: Tell your workers to go round side dressing fertilizers. And you cannot be bold to say all plants get enough nutrients because your workers can skip some plants deliberately. We use fertigation kit to achieve excellent supply of nutrients to all plants without any stress. I guess you talked about this too.

3. Drip: You are exhausted because of inneficient irrigation style. We use this to make life easier for us, and we fertigate with it too. In addition, we are able to use efficiently use water..

4. You use just NPK, we use different kind of natural nutrients to not only supply food to plants but to boast their immune system. We increase our seeds germination rate not with pesticides like imidacloprid, but with special organic nutrients which are very safe for health. Yeah, they may be expensive to some farmers, but they are ok for us.

4. We do not drill cheap borehole so we start installing too many tanks on our farms. We scale rightly.

5. We understand that we will need to bombard capsicum, cauliflower, cabbage, melon etc with pesticides on open field. We decide to make life easier for us, and we know our health is paramount, so we make to use first grade net which will render insects and pests useless in a structure we called greenhouse. We reduce pesticide (neem included) usage, by 90%.

6. We realised that the prices of vegetables are going extremely high, likewise the cost of set up too. Therefore, we know that we cannot use the same N400,000 we used to open 1 acre farm 4 years ago to open it this year. We are reasonable in this regard. Inflation is around and we just need to do the right thing. We are sure of recovering our investment in a reasonable time frame. 3 years ago, a bag of cucumber is around N1,500 but today, it is around N3,500. 1kg of capsicum in open market is around N250 three years ago, today, it is around N400. We can continue, but we will stop here.

7. And so on.

stocklot:
I personally do not think high investment is the path to increase production . I think farmers need to be proactive and learn , analyse , implement knowledge and skill . A dumb farmer can spend 15 million , but i am sure he would not be able to achieve whatever has been invested . Better fertiliser application , integrated pest and nutrient management , marketing of the produce are important

FAQ 17.
Who should grow in a greenhouse/nethouse?

My response:

1. If you are not on farm 24-7 and you are doing micro scale, you should not think of cucumber. Do not waste your cash. Think more of a small area of land you can easily monitor. Think nethouse.

2. If you do not have the strength of running after Togolese, Cotonou, Benue etc boys, do not ever go into open field production. Think of nethouse. A young or middle age man who can monitor stubborn workers may not look into it. If anyone writes that it is too expensive and open field is better, if the fellow is a farmer, ask him his age. Until you step on farm and employ these boys, you will not understant the harvoc they can cause, and you will not understand what I am writing here.

3. In fact, 90% investors should think more of nethouse than open field. If you are not going to be on farm to monitor your project, do not injure yourself by doing open field production. I am telling you the fact here: over 99% open field farms whose owners are absentees always fail. If you do not believe me, try it.

4. If you are not experienced in open field, do not go near it. You will regret it. It is as simple as ABC. Anyone who is deceiving you here that you can be an absentee vegetable farmer is a liar. They will project excellent figures, they will be nice to you before you release cash. Just release it and see what next.

5. Let me just be opened. If you set up a micro scale veggie farm, you should live close to farm for the first 6 months and be on farm daily. It is the price to pay for it. I have tried running my personal farms from far and they all crumbled. Workers will always crumble small farms if you are not there to monitor them like todlers.

6. If you put down like 80% and your spouse is put down like 20% start up cost, but you will not be there, it is very likely to fail. The person who is going to be on farm should have more financial stake in it. My friends, I am talking from experience. Farms have torn homes apart. Farming has sent some people to intensive care in the hospital, and some people are lucky to survive stroke because of small scale farming.

7. If you live abroad, do not ever think of small scale open field farming. Do not waste your time. Maybe I might have written somewhere that you can cope, please, disregard that. I added this principle to my farming style recently. As experienced as I am, I decided to stay away from one of my farms, and I lost everything. I mean everything. After the incident, I told myself that if I am going abroad for just 3 months, I will close all open fields which are micro scales. I do not mind paying my best workers to do nothing for the period so I do not lose them.

If you like listen, if you like continue saying you can be an absentee farmer. Na you sabi.

I have read so many lies that nethouse production is bla bla bla and not profitable. It can never be profitable when set up stupidly. As long as your first priority is low start up cost using old inefficient ways of doing things, you have already failed.

By 2018 September, nothing like hoes will be used on all my micro scale farms. In 2018, people still thinking of using hoes baffles me. Hoes? I means cutlasses, hoes, watering cans in 2018? And you post such crap on nairaland? My whole life and destiny rejects backwardness. If I do not have the start up cost, I will not do it. Never will I do things the ways my great-grand father did it. Never.

2.54. My nethouse design

- - - - What I do not use - - - -
1. I do not use the so called "anti viral" net.
Why is it called antivrial? Viral diseases are caused by thrips, whiteflies, aphids, etc. Very tiny set of pests. And some researchers came up with nets with viry tiny holes (mesh), so that these pests will not enter. But alas! Plants inside such nets were attacked. 50 mesh is crazy in hot climate as it is going to increase inside temperature drastically.

2. I do not use poly cover. Most designs are with poly top, and side net. And I hear " solarig covers" are super. Perhaps if I live where the highest temperature is 28C, i may consider it. Just go round and check all the abandoned greenhouses, they are all with poly covers. Lol. I used to thing solarig is the best for tropical weathers too.

3. I do not use power inside my greenhouses. Well, I have considered using evaporated cooling system using cooling pad, but I just found out that I do not really need it. Except, I want to reduce temperature to 25C i can consider it. I am not saying it is a bad technology, I just find a cheaper method for operating greenhouses in Nigeria.

4. I do not use nails all over my structure. It destroys nets. I do not ask local carpenters to fix nets on my structure. I use greenhouse accesories. If you want to move out of your present site, just remove your accessories and your net will still be intact.

5. I do not raise my structure so high to reduce temperature. The cost of such design is extremely high.

6. I do not use green, blue or red colored nets. Color matters a lot. It is a lie that green color nets provides better photosynthesis. Infact, blue and red combined together in the right proportion do better job. However, it has been proved that it is full sprectrum that gives plants the kind of result we desire.


- - - How I design - - - -

1. I used to preach only galvanised, but I have seen excellent bamboo designs. Also, if your carpenter knows how to use bolts, nuts, screws excellently, you can use any kind of wood. Just get him a screw tighning machine, or a drill and change its mouth accessory so he can easily fix screws. It makes like so easy.

2. I am concerned about thickness of the net; however, I am more concerned about its light spectrum details. It is why I personally order for raw materials from Germany or Japan I use to make my nets and I send them to a factory for a customised design. It took me a deep research, and I spent quite a fortune to perfect it. So, I do not know how to tell you the kind of net I always use. Of course, I did not invent the technology. I only fine tune it to suit my purpose. When thrips, aphids, whiteflies enter inside my structure, they are just helpless. Therefore, I do not always spray chemicals or neem. What a relieve? What a super organic way of growing veggie. Note: I produce in bulk only when I need it for my projects. I cannot order for one or two people. Maybe if I have left over in the store.

3. I diffuse light in my structure. Experienced farmers make their planting beds along north- south pole. If you diffuse light inside your structure, you do not need to bother about this. Only experienced farmers understand this point I have made here.

4. I add shade to my design to reduce stress. You reduce temperature by about 2 to 3C by using shade. The question is how many % shade should you use?

5. I either treat the soil and sow/transplant in it, or I do container farming. Get rid of wilt and other diseases.

6. I may spend more on my cover than the structure itself. I still believe galvanised structure is good but really, I am opened to new ideas. Frame is secondary to me at this point. Bamboo is not bad at all.

7. I take plant tissue tests by myself so I can know how to feed very well. Most of the people under my supervision enjoy this benefit. I send my staff to them to take readings, and within 24 hours, I provide them feeding formular. I do not use sophisticated equipment, just a midern technology with calculation. I read about a student's thesis masters degree paper who used auto- cad to measure plant tissue test. You heard me right : auto-cad (the software engineers use for designing). After the first series of tests, there may be no need to do it again.

8. I use poly cover during rainy season only. Just to prevent rain from entering. Afterwards, I remove it. Just any transparent nylon will do the job. No special nylon. Just to prevent rain.

If your structure records 40C temp, it is an oven. Always make sure you push it down to around max of 30C. All greenhouses that failed are ovens. If you want to know, consult any dizengoff 8m × 24m greenhouse. Maybe the company trying to improve its design, i.am.not sure. But what I know is that, they manufacture ovens for farmers.

FAQ 18: How do I know I can make profit?

My response:
1. Go on pilot and estimate yield by yourself. I do not need to convince you. You must see it by yourself. You should construct an improvised nethouse for this purpose. Using N50,000 for such pilot is not too much considering the project you are about embarking on.
2. I will guide you on how to carry out a good market research. We have a target of selling certain kg of your product weekly based on how big you want your structure to be. Most people just need guidance. They can do it but they just do not know the process. I will show you the process.

If you can do the above very well and you succeed, you should be able to decide what to do without any suggestion from any expert. In fact, I do not need to preach further if you get it right. You will know that you are succeeding or not.

Stop listening to consultants who cannot pilot you through success. Find a farmer who will show you beyond reasonable doubt that you can do it.

Before you embark on any pilot and market research, make sure you can afford it. I think if you have N5million naira, you should be able to establish a very good business.

If you reside abroad, using N50,000 to test your project, and know if your manager is smart enough is not too bad. Better lose N50,000 than lose N5 million naira.

If you are a pensioner, or a widow(er), it is better you use N50,000 to understand the concept and see if you have the strength and interest in it before you go ahead. Stop relying on consultants to do your business plan. Stop asking where to sell after setting up. Do not kill yourself with high blood pressure. Do a thorough market research first before you embark on it. I will pilot you through.

My requirement is that convince me that you are capable of setting up after the whole process. That is all.

This ends nethouse section of veggie micro-scale production in Nigeria..

Best of luck!

3.0 The modern micro-scale vegetable 1 hectare farm

I will try to explain what we should work towards. What should a decent farm looks like in 2018. Please, I am not writing for a poor farm. If you think my style so far is too expensive, kindly buzz off.

Are we not ashamed that in 2018, we are still promoting cutllasses and hoes on nairaland? Are we not? I am guilty of it too. I will permit it if one is using mulch, or one is using nethouse. But seriously, it is sad.

I am not attacking anyone, but poverty has a way of reversing negatively how its victims You think. I still cannot understand why anyone will spend so much to import 18 years old car. I do not understand why anyone will leave Nigeria and go to a neighboring nation to buy 15 years old vehicle. But it is normal to over 90% Nigerians. Seriously, it is abnormal.

I was chatting with a friend, and his driver was there. While "gisting" and we were having suya with drinks, the driver said: "oga, I cannot buy car for myself oooo". I was shocked. I asked why? "Ha! You wan kill me? A no get money to buy Benz or Audi or BMW". Then, I told myself that this guy must be naughty. But I was wrong, and thank God I interrogated him more. "Oga, a don dey used to everything about Benz, Audi, and BMW. Na wetin a dey drive daily. Madam niece get wahala for road the other time, and I had to go assist her with that old car of hers. See, a no just feel the thing at all. Na my wife dey drive the Toyota wey I buy. A no dey feel the car at all." . Honestly, I couldnt laugh at all. I was speechless, but my friend bursted into laughter. My point is that when you taste nice things that make life easy for you, going back to harder things will be tough. But the truth is that many things we think are luxury in Nigeria are necessity. I only pray things become easier, and that our economy improves.

One truth I know is that no mattter how excellent our economy is, it will be hard for people who are used to hard ways to accept that easy ways and comfortability are not luxury.

Same with farming. In this third chapter, I am going to talk about shifting from hard ways to easy ways. It is more of psychology. Honestly speaking, 1 million naira is nothing now.

N1 million was $6,667 about 5 years ago, but today it is just $3,740. Let me explain further, our own start up cost in Nigeria is more expensive because we pay additional shipping, tax, fees, bank charges, etc costs. What can $3,740 set up? Let us be realistic. Ordinary nylon price is high. You just hear thousands. I mean, it is ridiculous.

I am here on nairaland to put stop to stupid threads I read. It is highly embarrasing. Not good for our image at all. The most popular website in Nigeria has an Agricultural section that "be-littles" her. 99.9% threads here send away investors.

While government is projecting billions of dollars as bail out costs for agriculture, nairalanders are displaying 1840 equipment. What a way to attract investors? You think those investors are fools? Investors read about what government is doing and clap their hands, but they are not fooled. They proceed further and check what the citizens are saying. Alas! They read about cutlasses and hoes farming. They find the cost of animal feed in Nigeria is times 5 of the cost in their nations. Pictures of very sad workers on farms on nairaland. So, these sad looking faces are people they will invest in.

It is not too bad in Nigeria. Honestly, not bad. Dangote closed down his tomato factory. Why? But there is Tomato Jos. The Harvard graduate who came to do tomato business in Nigeria. Is it not funny an american was able to use kickstarter to crowdfund and raise over $50,000 for her tomato farm business located in Nigeria? People who gave her money are all foreigners. But Nigerians are crying for $200 on nairaland to start their farms. What will $200 achieve? You just go to the farm to suffer yourself and return poorer. What a way of life? What an excellent business approach. That N1,000,000 ($3,740) is too much to set up 1 acre farm is a ridiculous statement. We are not that poor. We just do not want to improve our standard of living. It is my opinion and view.

Please, let us do better. It is not as bad as we portray ourselves to the outside world. Not bad at all. Scams here and there. Nigeria has turned to the real example of fraud, yet, you see laughter and jokes on twitter, instagram, nairaland over these issues. Honestly, I do not know if it is a real curse that cannot be broken that is affecting Nigeria.

Yesterday, we read that our number 1 citizen opened his mouth and said regardless of anything, oga Sanni deserves some accollades. What a president? And this same president collected some millions of stolen dollars from the man he is trying to defend. Can we just imagine such statement from a man regarded as an icon of integrity? A thief stole N1 million naira but used N20,000 to do small house renovation, and you come out boldly saying that at least he used N20,000 nicely. Are you ok? Are you sure old age is not really affecting your lines of thought? Presido is trying to jail people who stole 1/10,000 of what has so far been recovered from the man he is defending. Mind you more billions of dollars cannot be traced oooo. Also, many billions are still hanging. I am not joking, if the recovered dollars are put in bank, just the interest alone can do massive projects. Funny, he is proscecuting few people who shared $2billion from the past NSA (like jailing over 100 people involved in just a micro fraction of what his oga stole). And the main man who stole it is a hero.. . We have not even recovered maybe 5% of what his oga stole. The fact that he led the department that citizens are pointing to as one of the vehicles for that massive loot is something he should talk about instead of nailing himself. Those generals served him cold drink, and he is already drinking it and nailing himself. If I was him, I would zip my mouth and face my job. They know his weak areas and they are using it nicely. He is fighting the men who got N1 from the N1 billion naira his oga stole. The men are thieves, but his oga is hero. Funny, that oga used to be his boy in the early days. What a world?

A beg, a dey leave today. Tomorrow is another day.

3.1 All the way, go retailing. Marketing First!

I had N10,000,000 and I wanted to use it well. I wanted to be sure that I would not lose it. I would choose nethouse production. There are about 5 crops I would choose to grow. Of course cucumber, melons are out. And I would reserve another 1 acre for open field of special crops. I do not consider cucumber, pepper, melons, and common veggies special.

Before I released N1 for set up, I would spend cash on marketing. I am always shocked when I read about users coming to nairaland to ask for help for selling their products. I always take note of such people because, I will not want to be partners with them. How can you be stupid to that extent? Ask anyone I have talked to so far. They make market research first. And they return with figures. These figures are what we work on to determine the area of land we cultivate for each crop. We just do not cultivate 1 acre cucumber.

One young lady made extensive research recently under my guidance. She said "I never thought I could do it myself. But this thing is not hard if one knows the right thing to do." I just smiled. We comunicate via telegram. She got 5 cucumber customers who are ready to buy 2 bags weekly on her farm, she could sell radish too. And she came with an excellent report. Most of her neighbors in the estate she lives are ready to buy tomatoes, capsicum, chilli, habanero and onion at the exact price they buy from shoprite which is 5 minutes walk from her home. So, I told her to just go for nethousing business combined with open field.

Market tells you what to do, and how to do it.
"Nethouse is too expensive. You cannot make profit. How can I use N5 million naira to build one Net house." These are the words of foolish people.

Listen to a wise man/woman: "Nethouses setup seem to be high, but what could be special about these structures?" "First, I will find out about the cost of the structures and other things I need to use for it, thenafter, let me see the quantities I can retail weekly and the price". This is a rich man's way.

Look at this: in open market, those unhealthy and rotten tomatoes in 35kg baskets are sold averagely at N6000 during a good season. That is N200/kg. Then, you start using this figure to project your sales for healthy nethouse products, and you concluded that nethouse is unprofitable. You are a fool. I am sorry to say. Your stupidity cannot be easily cured, honestly. Get your bom bom outta there and go retailing. It is just a micro fraction of rich people you will sell to. If you do it the right way, you will get your customers in just max of 4 streets in a major city in Nigeria. Just 4 streets out of numerous in the city. Honestly, foolish people are on nairaland. No apology, but the truth. They are foolish because they have never been out to do marketing but are fast to use their computers, phones or tablets to do foolish calculations on a subject they know nothing about. And a much more stupid fellow reads their foolish writeups, and supports the claim ignorantly with irritating comments which shows his/her serious foolishness. But they all have not been to field to do anywork. Very stupid and annoying people that need to be deleted from nairaland.

Retailing is high profit. This farmer i told you easily got customers who are willing to pay N1,500/kg for capsicum which are above 200grams, and N1,200/kg for spar tomato spec. So, I made the work easier for her by making some calls to get the right varieties for her. I told her that not all capsicum will be above 200grams. Grade A will be about 200 to 220grams,them we have grade B and C. Her customers in the estate arent interested in grade C, so she had to look for where to sell it again, and she will sell grade B at N950/kg. She was shocked that 95% said that forget grade A, let us have grade B. So, i told her the trick she needs to use to sell both A and B there. I found that C will compromise her standard, so, i told her to keep it out of that market. This is just one arena out of many nice spots we can market out products.

Stop writing about what you do not know. Shoprite and Spar arent your main target. I made extensive research on these two stores. I have the contacts of the main guys in charge of procurement for both stores, but guess what, their business cards are no where to be found again, cos I realised that they are useless to me. If you doubrlt me, the main guy in Shoprite is caucasian South African man. He shuttles Lagos and Abuja frequently. While the present spar man is from a black man from Zambia.

My Target: Presently, I am working on a marketing research program in 2 major cities. I will extent it to other major cities soon. We want to find retailing opportunities for vegetables. Thenafter, we will set up our farm villages where we grow for the retailing opportunities we have unlocked.

These figures I get are what I will use to write a business plan for potential investors who will build very big farm villages with me. At the moment, I am not on farm. My farms are under the csre of managers. Some arent even making profits now because they are mostly micro scales which need lroper monitoring. But soon I am doing a very large commercial farming business. I am a patient person. If it takes 4 years planning before execution, so be it.

Very soon I am importing several nets for a pilot project, and some people have already given me money to assist them import along with mine. Of course, I do it for people who are close to me, or who I trust.

I am not for everyone.

3.2 Mathematical/Logical Reasoning Skills Every micro- scale owner posses.

To be a successful owner, you need to be sound in basic mathematics. Skills you posses with just first leaving certificate. And I will show you examples here.

Such mathematical skills include: estimation, probability, ratios, finding perimeter or area of shapes, etc.

3.2.1. Calculating plant population:
You must know the total population of your plants. And then you must be able to estimate weekly mortality. This will help you to measure your weekly success rate. Diseases do not just occur. Your plants do not just die in a day except it is caused by natural disaster which you can insure against if you want to.

Plant population for Drip Irrigation
You are using 45cm emitter spacing and you have 2,500m length of drip; your total population will be: 5,555 plants. Quite easy with drip.

Plant population for overhead irrigated sites
If rain gun, you find the area of the circle. Then, you subtract the walking path area from the total area. This gives you the planting area.
Total planting Area = Total Area - Walking path Area.
Next, find your planting spacing area and use it as a divisor of the total planting area, so you get yoir plant population.

Total Plant population = Total Planting Area ÷ Area each plant occupies.

I teach my managers this simple calculations which is a big problem for many. No basic mathematics skill, you cannot manage my farms. If you do not know the estimated plant population on your land, how can you know the quantity of fertilizer you need. This will be discussed in our next post.

People just do too many guess work on farms and they fail. Farming is arithemetic. Simple as ABC. As soon as you take your estimation after a week and you see high mortality rate, you start thinking the cause. You take action fast. This is where you are different from the farmer who works blindly on farm. He waits till he sees half of his crops die. And it is not his fault. He cannot track mortality rate. But you as a good owner who gets weekly estimation of mortality rate is at high advantage. For example, you have 15,000 plants, you give yourself max of 20 mortality per week. There is a way you can estimate it without counting one by one. As soon as you get 25, you start watching closely what could be wrong. You start checking all symptoms you can think could be responsible.

@op. I have been following your write ups since you started this topic. All you have suggested are very expensive facts that were gathered through your farm practices. Newbies won't appreciates these facts until they loose big. I applaud you for coming out with a clean heart to prevent intending farmers from lost by sharing wholeheartedly all you have been through.

I for a person would rather wait years till l gather bit by bit all what l need for my farm rather than jump starting. Farming is indeed lucrative when you are well guided and patient. Ever since l started farming, l have been solving one likely problem or other because l don't want my hand burnt. I have improvised a nethouse before even installed an overhead mist sprayer to solve pest and diseases. Also l delved into the study of micro-organisms and imported some for soil treatment.

Lastly, am making a boom sprayer that covers 30feet wide and sprays multiple rows of ridges both horizontally and vertically and covers under the leaves and comes with optional walk-way herbicide weeder with (anti-drift spray protection) to take care of your walk-way weeds. It is at 80% completion and l have been on this for over a year due to lack of fund and perfection of the design. The sprayer is solar powered and can be pushed on wheels on the farm walk-way. This will take care of pest in open field and also used as foliar spray for most organic farmers.

I have dosing pump and venturi fertigators to take care of nutrients. However l need your help in regards to fertigation. Accurate fertilizer to water dilution is the main issue when it comes to fertigation otherwise you will get the plants burnt. My worries are:-

1, Can NPK 15 15 15 be used for fertigation since its granular?

2, What is the ideal dilution ratio as per water volume plus plant population?

3. Will NPK affect microbes domination in the soil due to chemical residue?

These are my worries and l need your suggestions.

Thanks once again

I have been following ur post and am really impressed. I about to start a 2acre open field Cumber farm and I would need some advice.
What would be the best specie to plant, diease and heat resistance, big fruits and high yield are important.
Intend to sell to the open market, how can I go about effective retail marketing.
Do you intend to train anybody this year, if yes I would be highly interested.
Would it be possible to relate one on one my email is m3cventures@gmail.com.
Thanks. Hope to hear from u.

wasamtech:
@op. I have been following your write ups since you started this topic. All you have suggested are very expensive facts that were gathered through your farm practices. Newbies won't appreciates these facts until they loose big. I applaud you for coming out with a clean heart to prevent intending farmers from lost by sharing wholeheartedly all you have been through.

I for a person would rather wait years till l gather bit by bit all what l need for my farm rather than jump starting. Farming is indeed lucrative when you are well guided and patient. Ever since l started farming, l have been solving one likely problem or other because l don't want my hand burnt. I have improvised a nethouse before even installed an overhead mist sprayer to solve pest and diseases. Also l delved into the study of micro-organisms and imported some for soil treatment.

Lastly, am making a boom sprayer that covers 30feet wide and sprays multiple rows of ridges both horizontally and vertically and covers under the leaves and comes with optional walk-way herbicide weeder with (anti-drift spray protection) to take care of your walk-way weeds. It is at 80% completion and l have been on this for over a year due to lack of fund and perfection of the design. The sprayer is solar powered and can be pushed on wheels on the farm walk-way. This will take care of pest in open field and also used as foliar spray for most organic farmers.

You imported microorganisms and soil treatment, spent on boom sprayers, etc. You are just like me. You will grow excellently. Soon, newbies will just want you to give them all info free. Even you give them, they will not appreciate it. But ask them to also carry out small tests, nope. Rank Xerox is their way.

I have dosing pump and venturi fertigators to take care of nutrients. However l need your help in regards to fertigation. Accurate fertilizer to water dilution is the main issue when it comes to fertigation otherwise you will get the plants burnt. My worries are:-

1, Can NPK 15 15 15 be used for fertigation since its granular?

2, What is the ideal dilution ratio as per water volume plus plant population?

3. Will NPK affect microbes domination in the soil due to chemical residue?

These are my worries and l need your suggestions.

Thanks once again

I am impressed. I did not mention dosing pumps because no newbie will want to spend so high when venturi is there.

1. Granular fertilizers contain binding materials which make them sticky, can block your emitters. Not the best. However, I have used them too. After dissolving in hot water, phosphorus sinks. You can only get N and K to fertigate. Just try to flush your drip after around 3 to 5 applications. But like i said, it is not the best.

2. There is no generally accepted formular. Let me ask you something. What ratio do plants take from manure? Plants just take what they need. Formulars are out there to guide against high salinity in soil due to excess usage, and due health of people eating the plants. The best way to measure is to take TDS or EC value. At the dame time, you must make sure your water is close to distilled to get the right value. Well, I just find a way around it. I devised a formular via tissue test. And I feed like that. This is a topic that is not basic. Anyway, what I do is that I ask my students to use manure a lot. That way, they can eradicate high salinity. Then, I give them my formular based on plant population. It depends on the kind of crop. And I teach them how to use visual diagnostic method too.

3. Waooo! This is a good question. Make mushroom research. You know it is fungi. Check out the nutrient in the substrate used to grow it. There are different salts, urea, calcium, epsom salts, even NPK. Lol. Do they kill the fungi? If you are not convinced, go ask an aquaponic farmer how he adjusts ph in his system...through calcium and potassium based fertilizer of course. They are all salts. The question should be: will salt affect microbes? If used in the right proportion, no. Right usage of fertilizer does not kill microbes. Herbicide, pesticides and fungicides kill them, and not fertilizers. Fertilizers are food for microbes. It is when they increase salinity beyond what plants can absorb is when they become poison. Just like how it is for human beings too. Organic farmers use epsom salt and it is 100% fertilizer.

JEREMYONA:
I have been following ur post and am really impressed. I about to start a 2acre open field Cumber farm and I would need some advice.
What would be the best specie to plant, diease and heat resistance, big fruits and high yield are important.
Intend to sell to the open market, how can I go about effective retail marketing.
Do you intend to train anybody this year, if yes I would be highly interested.
Would it be possible to relate one on one my email is m3cventures@gmail.com.
Thanks. Hope to hear from u.

It is hard for a micro scale owner to retail 2 acres cucumber. I advise retailing nethouse products, herbs, and might be cauliflower, brocolli etc.

I am so occupied I cannot train any group again. And I may not again for a very long time. It is not a source of my income but volunteering part of me. People want free training, which I do not mind. They even want me use my money to buy them materials for training. Seriously? "Nigerians mtter tire me".

There are some varieties around. It also depends on the skin color. Doing a pilot is the best answer. If you want to do such pilot, you can contact me via telegram. Check the first post on this thread.

3.2.2 You need maths to design a good feeding program everytime.

Most farmers who use NPK only after 2 weeks, 3 weeks, etc. do not exactly know what they are doing. Also, if you do not use visual observation skill where there is no tissue test skill, your plants will suffer. In short, I always pity most people.

A lady contacted me recently, she asked me so many questions and I gave her all. She specifically said she wanted me to guide her. I gave her pricing, gave her things to use, and went as far as asking her to buy some special things which will make her highly productive. My guess was that she mentioned she had certain amount just to make me talk cos she knows I will not attend to her. It was time to perform, and I started seeing some wrong signals. Then, it is: please check this.... is it right. Should i buy this. Lady, if you want me to assist, get your money ready and I will tell you what to do. Not that you keep pretending to out-smart people. If you do not have the cash, buzz off. Well, most people have their minds and I do not blame them. I have seen them before burn themselves. In short, people come to only take info in stupid ways many times, and they pretend. Anyway, I give but I know when to part ways. Knowing how to use info is far more rewarding than just having the info. And many times, one needs time to learn well. But newbies are akway in hurry to get info fast. Cos they will never teach anyone. They always think everyone is like them. "Let me quickly get all I can get now that he is talking. Funny people.

I prefer knowing the total quantity each plant needs, multiply it by total population (see 3.2.1 for calculating total plant population). Then after, I split it into small fractions. The more fractions, the better. As a matter of fact, I fertigate daily. Small fractions of nutrients I give daily to my plants, instead of loading them with npk every 3 weeks which gets evaporated in the soil and plants takes in less than quarter of what you provide them. To feed well, you must know the total kg needed for the entire planting period, and thenafter, divide it into very small fractions. Feed your plants gradually. Feed them less when they are young. Feed them more nitrogen during vegetative, as soon as there are flower, bulk up potassium and introduce more calcium. You may need to bulk up nitrogen at a stage during fruiting too, this is where visual observation skill comes in.

Side dressing is not bad too and i am not saying application of npk every 2wks or 3 weeeks for certain crops or for whatever is bad. As long as the binding material of the fertilizer is ok which doesnt allow easy evaporation, and you also try to cover your fertilizer with soil to reduce it. Let me give you a very good example:

Maize farmers are so clueless here. I read some people use 2 bags of just urea for 1 hectare and I wonder what kind of farmers they are. Just imagine. If they plant well, and they use either planters, or they plant like veggie farmers with real measurement (they usually employ casual workers who use legs to open ground and count spacing with feet or whatever, and those ones jump), they should have around 55,000 plants per hectare. It is not one or two researchers that have concluded that 5 grams of npk 15 15 15 while planting, and 5 grams of urea after they grow to knee level are appropriate and sufficient for each plant. Using this information, you need about 5.5 bags npk while planting, and another 5.5 bags of urea. Just compare it with their 2 bags. And if you doubt it, why don't you go on pilot and try it with just 10 seeds and check the result instead of listening to useless advices here and there.

You are going to need scales which can measure heavy and light weights. In fact, I carry about a digital scale capacity of 100grams with two decimal digits efficiency. No one told me this. I just realised it is highly needed. And I get surprised seeing that many people do too many guess work on farms. They do not even know what they are doing. They just get info here and there, rank xerox, rush into it, and at the end, they fail woefully.

Maths is an invaluable skill needed to be successful as an owner and as a manager.

3.2.3 Gamble with Statistics

Nate Silver rose to fame after he predicted 49 out of 50 elections in the US accurately, and another 50 out of 50 again. However, just like most commentators, he did not see Trump defeating Hilary. It is no surprise to me that Bill Gates recommemded his book. Nate left is job at KPMG to play poker, and he made some fortune out of it.

Statistics predicts weather, prevents terrorism, informs more about infectious diseases, wins chess game, makes chess grand masters, makes fortunes with forex/Cryptocurrency/future/spead betting/stocks etc. - Nate Silver

Gambling with statistics predicts harvests. Get total population, get as many scenarios as possible of what could go wrong on farm, use a reasonable labor efficiency multiplication factor based on your workers weaknesses and strengths, etc.

I make good farmers at home more than I make on farms. It is a fact I will defend anywhere. The strategy you formulate at home is what you execute on farm. Unfortunately, almost everyone believes training is on farms. I laugh at their ignorance everytime. Newbies first question. Can I visit your farm? It is NO.

My newest manager almost started calling everyone he knows that I am not training him just because I was not on farm with him. He rushed to farm house without telling him and I sent him money to enjoy himself there. He was rendered useless as boys were taking instructions from me over phone and could not understand what was happening. I told him to see me again at home after I noticed his eagerness to do practical on farm has reduced to nothing. I asked him: whose money is going to be wasted if things go wrong? He answered: mine. So, what is your problem? I told him that he is a manager who formulates strategies not on farm. I did not employ you to carry cutlass, to drive tractors, to harvest, or to even go to market. I employ you to take figures to farm, get workers to achieve almost what is on paper, and then report to me everyweek new figures. All I need from him are figures. Simple. After I trained him well, the guy was dazed and said "Bros, farming is sense".

I quit going to micro scale farms
I did not just decide to, it was based on figures. Out of 13 people I assisted in 2017 on their farms, not 1 person was willing to learn to do farming without me. They made sure I followed them to farm every time, and when I dished out instructions, they still deliberately would not carry it out without me. One attitude I noticed was that as soon as I agreed to go with them, and they spent money, they all gained the confidence that I am obliged to always say yes to them. Gradually, I detached myself. I had over 70% success rate in the first 3 months, but all the farms died soon after. (I had a personal project which failed too actually)

Therefore, I will not agree to meet any micro scale farmer this year. It is half way in the year, and I have not met a single farmer. However, I consult, advise, and I send my boys to set up. Funny, the success of this year so far is encouraging.

When you have reasonable data, you are at advantage.

You can predict Harvest
Many things can go wrong on farms; however, if you know ahead everything which may go wrong, you can prepare yourself.

1. Workers may rebel.
Solution: Use mulch - no weeding; use fertigation - no side dressing; pamper them till you finish staking; prepare to employ casual workers 10 days after flowering starts; sack the useless workers because after staking, they are useless to you if you use mulch and fertigation. If not, you are their slave.

2. Diseases And Pest
Solution: Get rid of N7,000 manual knapsack and buy a professional sprayer. Learn how to spray yourself. Buy about 5 different active ingredients fungicides. Alternate between systemic and contact. Scout for pests and diseases. Be on guard. Buy new clothes for your workers and enforce good hygeine.

I can go on, but I will stop here.

Play more with numbers to reduce risk. Anyone who tells you that it is not possible to predict harvest is not a good farmer. It is as simple as ABC. Farming is predictable. When you see that weather forecast might get terrible with storms, why cultivate plants requiring staking? Why cultivate melons? Why not cultivate greens and very low plants? Things just don't happen nicely or negatively for successful farmers. They are good gamblers. They predict with statistics.

For example. I will always go for nethouse capsicum. On open field, I can use only 50cm spacing. Experience tells me that with nethouse. I can double or almost tripple population. I can use 15cm spacing with two or three stems per plant or 30cm spacing with four stems per plant inside a nethouse. Do you understand what this means? And with a pilot I did with the net I mentioned before in one of my posts, I can reduce pest attack to almost zero while i have extreme high population. It is purely logic, statistics with a pilot program I based my decision on, and not on any guess work or theory.

FAQ 19. Which is the most profitable? Vegetables, Grains, Piggery, Poultry, Fishery or trees?

My Response:
In the present Nigeria, the following attributes are peculiar to businesses with great success in Agriculture:

1. Quick turn over. Veggie and grains fit into this. Milange fish and mushroom too. Yam, cassava take close to one year. Also, poultry Boiler fits into this

2. Direct cost of production should be less than 30%. This is a criterion Boiler and fish businesses do not meet. Cost of feed is a direct cost of production which is around 70% cost of production. Veggie and grains might have high set up cost but subsequent costs are extremely low if set up well.

3 a) If you want to lick government's butt go for what world bank, IITA, and goverment promote more. Starch is a product in this category, so you may conssider grains. And since you can get grants, cassava is a good option.

b) if you are a lone ranger like me who doesnt depend on government, vegetables might be what you should look into.

4. If you are looking at low cost of processing, fish farming might be a product you should look into. Smoking milange fish increases profit exponentially. Also, processing pigs into meat or sausages is really rewarding.

Generally, I prefer vegetable. Honestly, it is a high profitable area but highly risky. If you know what you are doing, you can scale through. However, the truth is that over 95% farmers I have met do not know what they are doing. Read through this thread, if you have lost money, you must have broken one of the laws I have written. So, whose fault is it?

Nice flow .

A message from an angry follower of my thread

FAQ 20
Which cucumber, tomato variety should I sow?

My Response:
It seems everyone is into cucumber and tomato on nairaland. I am just surprised people do not think more of herbs, greens and roots. Cucumber is one of the most expensive veggies to produce, and the price is not encouraging lately. Well, I am optimistic the price will shoot up very soon especially after July/August rain break.

There are many nice varieties. When choosing, first criterion is the accepted skin color and size. Then next is the kind of diseases they tolerate or resist, and their rated ability to do so. Very big size of fruits should not be the main reason. In fact, some market prefer medium sizes.

I have made up my mind to help many readers. I will make it an open research if there are people willing to go for it.

Step 1: Buy as many varieties as possible. 5 plants per variety.
Step 2: Buy Fertilizer, fungicides, pesticides, microbes (optional), etc.
Step 4: Plant directly in your soil.
Step 5: Report weekly symptoms of diseases noticed.
Step 6: Report harvests.

It is an open invitation and you are free to use any variety. I have been receiving messages that I should give practical guidelines here with pictures. So, I guess this is a means to do it. Anyone interested will have to publish his/her trial here. I will release the method of writing the results.

Note that it comes with a price. The price is not for me. But if you are doing it, be willing to buy the seeds. The more varieties, the more the price you will pay. For example, you want to try 5 varieties. Each variety present price is around N10,000 to N12,000 for 50. And some comes in 5 or 10 grams. Meaning that you will spend so high on seeds and use just little out of them.

In addition, there are nutrients you have to buy in 25kg bags. I know some sellers repackage NPK and urea into 1kg packs but some special nutrients cannot be bought like that. Again, there are special plant immume system builders that I use which give good germination rate, help give plant rapid early growth, help plant tolerate diseases more, and reduce bad fruits. Most come in large quantities which you may have to leave out of the program, and many more factors which may shoot up your price.

So, you can see some of the reasons I keep to myself, and why I do not answer questions like what I use, how I use them, where I bought them, etc. I do not even know how to answer when I know the person asking me is only about npk and urea with 1 litre pesticide plus mancozeb. To him/her every other inclusion is extravagancy.

I need to say it here that I wish to have done it a long time ago but I do not see anyone ready to spend so high like this just to post pictures for the rest to use freely.

However, if there are reasonable number of people who are willing to do it, they can push the cost down so much. So, I am doing this to clear myself. I am used to receiving messages advising me or pleading for such, and I always try to explain why it is not possible. But yesterday, I received a message from a deperate newbie whose letter was filled with harsh words. This prompted me to open this opportunity despite it is not convenient for me.

I have explained the reasons why I chose not to do it in the past, and why it may be necessary to find reasonable number of people who will want to do this. So, let us see how many we can get.

Deadline: June 30

Depending on the number of people who showed interest, price should be from N3,000 to N35,000 the way I see it. Additional delivery fee should be paid to the bus drivers or couriers who deliver the packages.

After this open invitation which I will make sure pictures and videos are posted here, I do not see myself doing it again. And if we cannot get it done, it is not my fault.


For more inquiry
1. Download and install Telegram on your android or apple device.
2. Open your web browser and click on https:///fluentinfor
3. Someone will attend to you.

3.2.4. Expand your knowledge on Active Ingredients, Use proportion to Mix Excellent Recipes

You know a farmer is sound when he starts explaining with active ingredients instead of DDForce, KKForce, SemiForce, DemiForce, ComiKomlaForce, etc. Manufacturers always confuse user with the prefix/suffix - Force.

When I say rotate pesticides, I mean use different active ingredients. For example.. there are so many brands of the herbicide glyphosate - Touchdown by Bayern; ForceUp imported by Jubaili, and others. Cypermethrin is a common contact pesticide with so many brand names. What amazes me is that farmers use different brands of cypermethrin and they think they are using different things. They are same. I can continue. Jubaili used to have Mancozeb in 2kg packs some years ago, but I noticed they stopped it and started packing Mancozeb as "Z- Care" or is it "Zeb- Care". Not really sure which of the two, and I am not willing to even correct it here. Why? I do not care if it is ZCare ZebCare, ZebraCare or what ever. When I ring my seller, I just tell him, I need Mancozeb with 80% content. Simple. If he likes let him bring ZeroCare. Who cares? All i want is Mancozeb.

Sellers play on your intelligence so much. For example I was working on herbicides some months ago, and I was surprised that we have some special herbicides in Nigeria. Waooo. They called them "Force" whatever. They just added prefixs and suffixs. For example: they added A 25%, B 60%, and call it XForce, at N6,500. Funny, they have A 25% 1 liter at N3,000, and B 60% at N4,500. If I buy them separately and mix, 1 liter of A 25% and B 60% will be N3,750 as against N6,500.

So, knowing active ingredient and having mathematical proportional skill will safe you so much money.

You must know when to add fungicide to your recipe, and when not to. At times, you need urea or calcium/potassium whatever to mix some ingredients in order to increase absorption rate.

Learn to research active ingredient compounds. Hunt for information here and there. Why should I spray ingredient A when there is no rain, but I need to make sure there is rain or I irrigate before/after applying B?

Hmmm .. This is like attending a church sermon . The pastor keeps telling you Jesus will come and you keep praying every weekend . Similarly , investing too much into agriculture without a proper research will start making you pray in the hope that Jesus will come and save you . Polyhouses though good on paper do NOT necessarily translate into better farming . If that had been the case we would be having polyhouses in America or any western tropical country . Polyhouses increase humidity levels and they help in inert fungi and bacteria to infect plants . So essentially science does not help solve nature problems in full . Science complicates simple farming practices and the farmer is bound to lose more money . Investing in polyhouse means the farmer also has to spend more money on flood irrigation , drip system , dosing , sprinklers etc . All these NEW practices are peddled over media and govt to help farmers influence their opinion and to buy their products which at times translates into reckless spending .
Knowing what type of fungal and bacterial diseases can infect it is advised that the farmers try to buy seeds resistant to those types of fungi prevelant in those areas .

With regard to pesticides and fungicides , always knowing the technical name over the brand name . Pesticides , fungicides are not so cheap . A soil test also helps determine how much of fertiliser and what fertiliser must be used . Most plants develop fungal and bacterial infection due to wrong planting season , pests and insects .

With regard to pests and insects , please post any issues here so as to recommend suitable pesticides and insecticides .

stocklot:
Hmmm .. This is like attending a church sermon . The pastor keeps telling you Jesus will come and you keep praying every weekend . Similarly , investing too much into agriculture without a proper research will start making you pray in the hope that Jesus will come and save you .

You are funny with the sermon comparison. In a way, you are right, but wrong in another. I did not claim nethouses projects are successful in Nigeria. I agree with you, and I even wrote that there are many abandoned structures, but I explained why they are abandoned. I know the reasons they failed because I actually behaved like the christian who has a conviction in his heart. Bro, it is not good to just criticize people instantly. Why? You can not be in the same shoe with anyone. It is you and only you alone. The teenage girl used for suicide bombing has a conviction in her. And some say their faith always heal them. Bro, there is nothing faith cannot achieve. We should just pray our course is a right one, and not evil. While you saw those structures and concluded they are not worth it, I went deeper to find out why they were abandoned. Why? The faith in me prompted me. I spent so much money not minding whatever discouragment and comments I got. I still do not see your comments as negative, but I always convert them to stairs I climb to breakthrough and success.

You are right again that research is necessary. What you failed to mention is that research is expensive too. I did thorough research to find a profitable method of doing it, and i wrote above that I always teach anyone interested marketing research before embarking on it. Also, s(he) does pilot too. Therefore, I do not understand what you meant saying nethouse is good on paper only. It is not you that will tell the person if it is profitable or not. The pilot program and marketing research will tell them what to do next.

Polyhouses though good on paper do NOT necessarily translate into better farming . [s] If that had been the case we would be having polyhouses in America or any western tropical country . [/s]

You are wrong. There are so many in the places you mentioned. Just too many. It is a big business there.

Like I wrote above that I do not understand what you meant by sayinv polyhouses are good on paper. First, try to understand what anyone presents. I never mentioned polyhouse. Second, a good investor can easily tell when a business plan is bad. There are many business ratios financial institute use to check plans profitability.

Pilot means doing it in a mini structure so you see it clearly. I guess you have been talking more to consultants and not farmers.

[s] Polyhouses increase humidity levels and they help in inert fungi and bacteria to infect plants .[/s] So essentially science does not help solve nature problems in full . Science complicates simple farming practices and the farmer is bound to lose more money . Investing in polyhouse means the farmer also has to spend more money on flood irrigation , drip system , dosing , sprinklers etc . All these NEW practices are peddled over media and govt to help farmers influence their opinion and to buy their products which at times translates into reckless spending .
Knowing what type of fungal and bacterial diseases can infect it is advised that the farmers try to buy seeds resistant to those types of fungi prevelant in those areas .

You are giving out wrong information sir. Greenhouses are used to create favorable condition for plants. It can be used to increase humidity, temperature, light or used to decrease them. Perhaps, you are looking only at the structures you have seen so far which increase humidity. Why don't you take to your own advice and make extensive research on the topic? But i am worried that you may not want to carry out such research because it may be too expensive for you. In fact, you may spend 10 times the cost of your final structure while making such research. The joy is that the moment you get it right, that is it. Research is expensive sir.

With regard to pesticides and fungicides , always knowing the technical name over the brand name . Pesticides , fungicides are not so cheap . A soil test also helps determine how much of fertiliser and what fertiliser must be used . [s] Most plants develop fungal and bacterial infection due to wrong planting season , pests and insects . [/s]

With regard to pests and insects , please post any issues here so as to recommend suitable pesticides and insecticides .

We are on the same page that using active ingredient name is better. I agree with you too that fungicides are so expensive. Brother, when I recommend some brands, newbies always take cover. And they use their usual cheap ones.

However, I disagree with you with your advice not to cultivate during off season. Brother, your method is how a farmer thinks. It is easy to grow at the right planting season. With your method, farmers bring out their products whem every farmer is doing it too. These periods are when glut occurs which decreases income drastically. Using your method is good in a country where storing is easy but in Nigeria, you cannot store to address scarcity when planting season is over. Remember, we are addressing mucro scale farms. How can you beat cooperative farmers with loads of tomato from the north when tomato is easy to on.open field? You advise a cucumber farmer should bring out his product when a bag is N2,000? To go to market when there are minimum of three 40ft containers loaded with very big bag of cucumbers?

So, as a businessman, I reversed my thought. I found off seasons of some crops and I mastered farmkng operations during the periods. WHY? I can take advantage of the scarcity at these periods and make more money. This is one of the many reasons nethouse makes huge profit.

Let us do this:
I may learn from you here too. I suggest you explain explicitly how to go about it with real figures. Brother, could you come up with the following:

1. Detailed cost of opening one acre (you said N1 million is too expensive)
2. Choose crops to grow in the right seasons they are favorable where fungal effect is minimized
3. Kindly run figures for the following: yield, sales, and income (profit or loss).
4 Where is your targeted market?

Let us learn from you sir..

3.2.5 Investors and owners play around with figures

You are a spectator if you cannot look into business proposals and study the figures in them. Farmers are farmers, and most are poor with maths. It is your job to ask questions to get figures.

It may be hard at times to get all the needed information; however, you can still do better than just accepting what the farmer says. If the person does not satisfy me, I do not invest in the business no matter how excellent it looks. I double check.

Every investor must learn financial plans. Let us be serious here. How can you invest without having figures? Do you think rich men invest in companies without looking at firms' financial statements, memos, news, etc? Warren Buffet has dished out so much information on choosing where to invest, and knowing how to read financial statements is one of the skills he recommended too.

It is unfortunate that outrageous number of people interested in agriculture in Nigeria are spectators. They do not know what to check. "Greenhouse is good on paper but bad in reality". Of course not. If bad in reality and you are good with figures, you can easily detect what is presented to you as a bad investment. You can spot good businesses or investments on paper and knock out bad ones if you know what to look for.

Figures tell the story more!

4.0 Choice of Seeds Varieties

I have received too many messages asking me about varieties.

The choice of Seeds varieties used by farmers are important. And feeding depends on the type used. Please I need my readers to read thsi well. I do not use all cucumber vsrieties around in the market here becajse I have been disappointed. I will just mention some names if anyone asks me. What I do is that I import some varieties I have tested so much. They come in bulk. I have giving some out to people who contacted me if they want.

Less Population for An acre

A nairalander told he is not interested in open field as it has its many challenges. Yes, I agree with me. He discussed with me about some greenhouse cucumber seeds varieties he wants to buy 500 seeds for N25,000 or do. I checked them and they are all 6,000 population for one acre. Very interesting. One seed can produce 50 to 100 fruits per vine. Yeah, I saw it and I just cautioned him to be careful. Pilot first.

Another person showed me some seeds from Cyprus. Maybe he liked what I advised him, maybe he doesnt, I do not know. But to me, he wants me to screen out good varieties for him. And wants me to do pilots for his seeds as he wants to be a distributor here. I told him the truth that better seeds are available in Nigeria.

Another person contacted me from the Delta area. She has got a man who is working with the state government on a tomato project, and got some seeds through the man. This variety I had assisted another friend imported it some months ago. Juat 4,000 plants per acre. Compare it to most 10,000 - 12,000 plants per acre.

More vigorous Plants
These new varieties are more vigorous. Most seed companies are moving into having rootstock characteristics in their seeds..

Disease tolerances are very vital
I just observe that most varieties for almost all veggies are ot worth it. The day I realised it was when I used rootstocks. I realised that even those varieties I used to think are made for our weather are not really for us as long as the seed companies do not have farms in West Africa. That was when I became more aggressive with searching for more varieties.

The choice of varieties farmers should use is a personal decision. I have advised some people to try some of the ones I imported when they really pressed for it. Those who were lucky to get some gave me good accounts. Some people declined, and it is ok. The only disadvantage is that I cannot continue importing for them in the future.

In summary, I advivse farmers to look beyond the borders of Nigeria to make wonder decisions.

4.1 Buying per Seed counts Vs per Weight

I have noticed that varieties sold per number of seed are more expensive than those sold by weight. And those sellers who sold per number of seeds are more opened about details. Excellent details are given by seeds produced by research institutes and seeds banks.

Some farmers have better seeds than seeds companies. And I keep updating my book.