jidestroud:
But on second thought, in think I got a good deal with the price of clearing after running the figures against other farms. Very much within budget allocated for the farm.

fluentinfor:


Of course the price is not ridiculous. Very ok. The truth is that it may be higher than what the contractor would spend if it was his farm. Also, if you know the workers directly, it will be cheaper. However, this is your first time. Take him to have drink when he finishes and you want to pay his balance. Let him even have nice food. Then after, you shock him by telling him that you gave him the cash because you want to encourage him working for you. Let him understand the benefits of working with you. And then, let him know that you will find someone else if he charges you high next time. But you like his job, and it is why you are appreciating him. You have just fine tuned his brain.

Bro, you are on point.

Keep flying. Blessings!

fluentinfor:


Of course the price is not ridiculous. Very ok. The truth is that it may be higher than what the contractor would spend if it was his farm. Also, if you know the workers directly, it will be cheaper. However, this is your first time. Take him to have drink when he finishes and you want to pay his balance. Let him even have nice food. Then after, you shock him by telling him that you gave him the cash because you want to encourage him working for you. Let him understand the benefits of working with you. And then, let him know that you will find someone else if he charges you high next time. But you like his job, and it is why you are appreciating him. You have just fine tuned his brain.

Bro, you are on point.

Keep flying. Blessings!

Yhemit:


you're doing great Bro.
that's the method my pman used in drawing the workers (farmers) closer to him by giving them Free lunch and also cloths for their children at home.

gbengaoa:
Weldone brother. It's a good step. But in your land preparation, the cost is extremely high and this will really affect your profit margin but this can only be brought down if you have a lease agreement for more than 3yrs. I will suggest that you should try and look I to sourcing labor from other farmers within the location of bring in laborers from other location to cut you cost.
As regards going organic for weed control, that will also impact on your production cost and at the moment the Nigerian market is not particular about organic or inorganic produce.
This is my observation and submission from my little time on the field.

MarketGardener:
So if Nigerian Market It Not Particlar About Organic Or Inorganic Does That Now Mean We Should Remine The Way We Are, Change Start In A Day And There Many Farmer Out There Using Organic Method

oyetpel:


You are right. But there are still basic change will need to start instead of experimenting on organic fertilizer.

Do we have the resources to do extensive research on successful use of organic fertilizer? Even the white men that have the resources have relied on inorganic fertilizer, because it increases produce, increase the longetivity of farmland for further use e.t.c heck fertilizer is gotten from crude oil, and crude oil is formed from composition of sea organisms and fossil which are organic.

There are more basics things we need to tackle as i said earlier, like access road. Imagine the op wanted to use tractor but no access road.

We don't have clean water, we inhale dust and so many other things in our polluted environment.

It's better to eat fruits and vegetables using fertilizer than eating Junks.

MarketGardener:
So if Nigerian Market It Not Particlar About Organic Or Inorganic Does That Now Mean We Should Remine The Way We Are, Change Start In A Day And There Many Farmer Out There Using Organic Method

gbengaoa:


I want to belive that if you are a practical farmer, you should be have a target market. The Nigerian market is not there at organic or inorganic yet. And looking at the cost, you many end up on the deficit side and run out of the farm.

excanny:


Am I missing something?

So far from what I have gathered being a learner farmer, it seems organic is cheaper.

Look across your street or neighborhood, there's some neem tree growing nearby which you can pluck for free or at most part with N100.

For fertilizers, approach any livestock farmer around you and get some manure for cheap price. The only problem is that you have to be patient for months to compost it.

jidestroud:


Lol

But honestly, organic farming does cost more. A typical example is the use of herbicides. Let's use mine as a case study. With as low as N3000 I could get the job done but instead, manual labour is used. This adds to the running cost of setting up the farm.

Also, the use of inorganic fertilizers compared to organic fertilizers are cheaper. Yes! Cheaper and the whole wahala of even getting the organic manures in their quantities to the point of usuage is another headache.

These are a few points.
Well, like @gbangaoa rightly pointed out, how do sell your market to the Nigerian people in Mile 12 telling them your products are organically grown and they should pay more?

excanny:


Well, for now you shouldn't expect any more payment at Mile 12 cos presumably you are dealing with an ignorant bunch. Your best bet would be to convince them to prefer and buy more of your products because they are safer and chemical free.

The painful thing is that we have an irresponsible govt who don't care if all their citizens die off while eating poison.

In responsible govts, you can't sell agricultural produce to the public if they are tested and discovered to have high level of toxicity and are carcinogenic, and therefore unfit for human consumption.

But everything goes here sadly. I am scared of even buying cucumbers these days cos it seems most farmers have vowed to use brutal, systemic pesticides in order to succeed in cucumber farming.

excanny:


Am I missing something?

So far from what I have gathered being a learner farmer, it seems organic is cheaper.

Look across your street or neighborhood, there's some neem tree growing nearby which you can pluck for free or at most part with N100.

For fertilizers, approach any livestock farmer around you and get some manure for cheap price. The only problem is that you have to be patient for months to compost it.

fakati:
Nice one op with God on your side success is yours.

gbengaoa:


If you want to do all that, how about your weed control? I am talking about a large scale farming here, are there way through which you can do that also?

informed:
Kudos bro, nice job you are doing here!

However, I think your costs of labour on this farm will be so high that your project might not be sustainable in the long run. Now, before you tag me a hater let me quickly tell you this. I know this terrain where you have your farms very well as I own several projects running into hundreds of acres within this area - ADO/ ODO OTA Local Government Area of Ogun State. I own a project in Igbesa and another in 100 acres close to the ALAPOTI area of the same terrain.

We used them for farms but had to run away because it was a wrong location for a farm operation especially the IGBESA area which is not far from ITEKUN where you have your farm. These areas especially IGBESA are no longer agrarian communities as the villages have embraced the Lagos Lifestyle and are so lazy to do any agricultural job.

They will rather work in factories for peanuts or cross over to Lagos to hustle and not forgetting that the proliferation of real estate development companies in this areas makes it a norm for the average farmer to sell his family lands for the millions he will never make from farming to these companies and feel alright.

The story is the same all over places like Okoafo, ILOGBO and environs. You'll hardly get cheap labour or competent labour to work on your farms from these communities as they given up farming to embrace other hustles and the white collar jobs. If you really want to make it in farming and be sustainable, you'll have to kill the notion of being as close as possible to Lagos and go further inwards Ogun State where you'll find Government designated agrarian areas and cheap labour and expertise you need to run your farm.

It doesn't pay to have your farms in isolation and away from Farming hubs like Owode, Isiun, Odeda, Illaro, Yewa North and several other renown towns in Ogun State where big farming projects are still on because your farm will be better off for it. We lost over N2.5M in farming to learn the lessons I am sharing with you here trying to set up a 25 Acre Cassava project in IGBESA.

Did you plough your land with any tractor? What are your plans for irrigation if the rain water fails to be consistent? Some of these difficulties you experience with clearing wont be an issue within those farming hubs. Even ADO ODO village is a great place to start though I doubt you can get lands easily there today.

Based on our experience, I fear your cost of operations and ease of getting access to competent hands to work with you on your project can derail your entire efforts if you don't watch it closely or set up in the right location

PrincewithGod:
Good one bro, I wish you all the best. But even if you don't break even now don't quit, continue and God will surely bless your effort.

AmadeusCho:
I have always loved the way your brain is pregnant with idea. I was following your old thread on the vegetable farming. I started my own backyard ugwu farming because of you.
Now I am experimenting with zobo and garden egg. Bless you bruh because of you we never buy ugwu in 3 month

That’s the picture of the zobo and garden egg

AmadeusCho:
I have always loved the way your brain is pregnant with idea. I was following your old thread on the vegetable farming. I started my own backyard ugwu farming because of you.
Now I am experimenting with zobo and garden egg. Bless you bruh because of you we never buy ugwu in 3 month

That’s the picture of the zobo and garden egg

Kehfie:
@Jidestroud, thank you so much for your detailed and very helpful posts. I followed your vegetable farming thread with very keen interest several months ago and was inspired to make a container/sack garden with ugu, waterleaf, bitterleaf, other African veggies, cucumber, tomatoes, different herbs and even yams. Success was varied..... But I am glad and better for the experience. My gardening is organic and I'm having challenges of leaf miner for some of my African leafy vegetables and, my ugu leaves curled, and had some sort of insect infestation behind the leaves and stunted growth. Some eventually died off. Please have you any idea how I can arrest these problems? Keep up the good work!!!

Kehfie:
@Jidestroud, thank you so much for your detailed and very helpful posts. I followed your vegetable farming thread with very keen interest several months ago and was inspired to make a container/sack garden with ugu, waterleaf, bitterleaf, other African veggies, cucumber, tomatoes, different herbs and even yams. Success was varied..... But I am glad and better for the experience. My gardening is organic and I'm having challenges of leaf miner for some of my African leafy vegetables and, my ugu leaves curled, and had some sort of insect infestation behind the leaves and stunted growth. Some eventually died off. Please have you any idea how I can arrest these problems? Keep up the good work!!!