Can I get your number please?
Need a lay out like this asap

opelyem:
My brother, don't disturb yourself with vegetables since u av little time. Go for plantain, u can plant like 2000 suckers on that land and reap more than 500k at d end of d year.

2000 suckers on one plot of land.

jadajada:
2000 suckers on one plot of land.

not "one plot"

Read again.. it's a over an acre

jadajada:
2000 suckers on one plot of land.

No oo. That's not possible. 1000 suckers can be planted on acre.

opelyem:

My brother, don't disturb yourself with vegetables since u av little time. Go for plantain, u can plant like 2000 suckers on that land and reap more than 500k at d end of d year.

jadajada post=53861864:
2000 suckers on one plot of land.

jadajada:
2000 suckers on one plot of land.

RealityShot:
not "one plot"

Read again.. it's a over an acre

opelyem:


No oo. That's not possible. 1000 suckers can be planted on acre.

Thank you for the back and forth on this topic. However, as you probably can see, I prefer to model things out.

So, for either 1000, 2000 or whatever number anyone believes can be planted on one acre , ( yes, I do know that what I have specified is in the subject is about 1.46 acres , not hectares, I choose to say 1 acre now in order so that everyone has a common base to work off of) , can you please help me , and anyone that might eventually read this at some point in the future by indicating what spacing will achieve the numbers you are stating.

muhamm3d:
Can I get your number please?
Need a lay out like this asap

Please do not take this the wrong way. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I am a strong believer in open-source. To that end, any assistance / contribution I might provide would most likely be in this forum out in the open. ( and maybe in about 6 to 18 months, a website that I will establish for my farm if the farm meets my 1st year success targets) . That way, if I make a mistake, there will be many that can jump in and help correct , in order to help everyone learn and improve.

Also, since it sounds like you need this quickly, I would hope that part of the services that the AgriBusiness organizations (the ones that advertise to help setup farms and contribute to these forums) would be to produce layouts that are more detailed and complete than what I have done so far. ( Of course, for a fee, as that is how people make a living in an open-source environment). I am not one of these AgriBusinesses. I am just Systems Architect taking an analyst approach to solving a series of problems.

With that said, if you are comfortable enough in sharing your relevant details needed for the layout, and you are not in that much of a rush, I could definitely try to help out.

ruggie:


Thank you for the back and forth on this topic. However, as you probably can see, I prefer to model things out.

So, for either 1000, 2000 or whatever number anyone believes can be planted on one acre , ( yes, I do know that what I have specified is in the subject is about 1.46 acres , not hectares, I choose to say 1 acre now in order so that everyone has a common base to work off of) , can you please help me , and anyone that might eventually read this at some point in the future by indicating what spacing will achieve the numbers you are stating.

1000 an acre..

Is only possible at 1.5 meters spacing.

You plant 34 x 34 spots with 1.5m spacing between them on an acre.

I however think the spacing will be too dense
The leaves will not have free space to get sunlight.. .

RealityShot:

1000 an acre..

Is only possible at 1.5 meters spacing.

You plant 34 x 34 spots with 1.5m spacing between them on an acre.

I however think the spacing will be too dense
The leaves will not have free space to get sunlight.. .

Thanks for the clarification.
However it does seem that with the spacing mentioned (1.5m) could have a few more added to that 1000 number. But then if you are thinking ahead to harvest time, and would prefer to reduce the distance of carrying the plantains from the tree to the truck (by driving the truck into the farm ) then this might be the way to go.

I used the following to model it out.
Spacing Calculator

ruggie:


Thanks for the clarification.
However it does seem that with the spacing mentioned (1.5m) could have a few more added to that 1000 number. But then if you are thinking ahead to harvest time, and would prefer to reduce the distance of carrying the plantains from the tree to the truck (by driving the truck into the farm ) then this might be the way to go.

I used the following to model it out.
Spacing Calculator

yes all that must be considered...
will check the calc later.

this is good for agriculture in Nigeria..
we must apply our technological know-how to improve the processes
thanks

Some pictures of the location.

Clearing to begin soon.

alakara:

Since you're starting with a small portion now, use 3 by 3 spacing on some portion and 1.5m by 1.5m on some to compare.
alternatively, you can use 3m by 3m now to reduce to 3m by 2m.

Thanks.

hi
getting my self a plot on rent today..
i plan to plant cassava and pumpkin.

hope that will be a good start..
is that a good crop combo?
thank you

RealityShot:
hi getting my self a plot on rent today.. i plan to plant cassava and pumpkin.
hope that will be a good start.. is that a good crop combo? thank you

Bros,maize in combination with cassava is ok. I think u cant interplant ugu with cassava ooooo. Ugu go over crowd cassava.

alakara:




Bros,maize in combination with cassava is ok.
I think u cant interplant ugu with cassava ooooo.
Ugu go over crowd cassava.

OK.. Thanks

ruggie:
Some pictures of the location.

Clearing to begin soon.

Any progress?

Mr ruggie, is there any update?

Updates-a-plenty.
Some good (it started) , some bad (never forget suppliers/vendors do not have your interest as first priority, not even second or third sometimes) , some really ugly ( almost shut down the whole operation 3 different times).

More to come by the weekend

DammyOlu123:
Mr ruggie, is there any update?

ruggie:
Updates-a-plenty.
Some good (it started) , some bad (never forget suppliers/vendors do not have your interest as first priority, not even second or third sometimes) , some really ugly ( almost shut down the whole operation 3 different times).

More to come by the weekend

Jeez!!! So much seems to have happened. Will wait for updates. But I believe you can pull it off though. More grease to your elbow.

So it is about 3 months in to investment/project/second job/hobby/activity for me.
For any one that is reading this, there are a few things I feel compelled to disclose before providing the updates.

1. My situation would most likely be different from others. To start with, I have a regular day job which takes precedence over this. This means that if I get to a point where I have to make a choice between the day job and this, 99% of the time I will pick my day job.

2. I have been told by many people I have dealt with and people that were observers, that the negative situations that have popped up along the way for me are as a result of item 1 above, and that if I had considered this as essential to my survival, that most likely I would have taken different steps.


With that said, here are some updates....

Step 1 : Security ...
As mentioned earlier in this thread, I am in the software engineering field, and I will try to somewhat of systems analyst approach to solving the problem of this problem. (i.e. cultivating something on the parcel of land.)
Well, when building software, one of the major things to tackle is security. It is usually easier to figure out security up front rather than trying to add security after you started building the software. So with that in mind, I searched for options. The options I came up with were

* Wall - blocks/cement
* Fence - chain link
* Security Guards - when plants are about to produce fruit.
* Tenants - Allow someone to rent out part of the area to raise some animal that would require that person to be there almost everyday.
* Ask or pay other farmers / villagers nearby to help be on the look out.
* Do nothing
* A combination of one or more items listed above.

After taking into consideration cost, effectiveness, time to put into effect/build, reliability,how far away from villages/towns, timeline of crops and what other people nearby are doing, I decided to secure the farm, for now, using a chain link fence.

I do need to mention that 7 out of the 9 people I asked (farmers & non-farmers, but all were observers i.e. I was not doing, nor plan to do any business with then future , said that security around the location was not needed and that it was over-kill to be doing something like that. 3 of them actually suggested that I am signaling to my neighbor farmers and the villagers nearby that I do not trust them, and that that will make my location a target because people will believe that there is more on that piece of land than what they can see.

For the 2 acre piece of land, it took 2 days to complete the fencing , with 2 gates. ( The installers did not reach the location till late morning the first day. I think they could have completed it all in one day, especially with the number of workers they brought the first day.)

I have another thread https://www.nairaland.com/3638961/request-estimate-chain-link-fence where hopefully I will be able to put in the details of the chain link fence. Unfortunately I lost my phone and tablet on the farm due to water damage from an unexpected rainstorm some time afterwards. (This was in the third week of March), so most of my records are lost as I could not revive both devices. But I still have some receipts and other paper that should help to partially re-assembly what I lost.

Dealing with the chain link fence folks was a really annoying experience. The short of it is that it just does not make sense to me trying to sell by the acre (which is a unit for area) instead of the perimeter length of the piece of land. However, I was somewhat glad that they went with my suggestion of hiring some of the villagers near by to help move the materials.

The one immediate benefit I gained with the fence was that about a week after it was installed there were traces of cows coming through the area, and one can see that they went around the fence. Now, my claim here is not that the chain link fence protected the farm, as anyone determined enough could climb over it or attempt to pull it down. My claim here is that any living thing that sees an obstacle on one path, and a clear way on an alternate path, will more likely than not choose the alternate clear way.

I think eventually I will actually put in a block and cement wall around the location, but for now, the choice of a chain link fence satisfies my needs.

Next : Water ...

Good job Mr. ruggie. Thorough, as we're used to.

ruggie:
So it is about 3 months in to investment/project/second job/hobby/activity for me.
For any one that is reading this, there are a few things I feel compelled to disclose before providing the updates.

1. My situation would most likely be different from others. To start with, I have a regular day job which takes precedence over this. This means that if I get to a point where I have to make a choice between the day job and this, 99% of the time I will pick my day job.

2. I have been told by many people I have dealt with and people that were observers, that the negative situations that have popped up along the way for me are as a result of item 1 above, and that if I had considered this as essential to my survival, that most likely I would have taken different steps.


With that said, here are some updates....

Step 1 : Security ...
As mentioned earlier in this thread, I am in the software engineering field, and I will try to somewhat of systems analyst approach to solving the problem of this problem. (i.e. cultivating something on the parcel of land.)
Well, when building software, one of the major things to tackle is security. It is usually easier to figure out security up front rather than trying to add security after you started building the software. So with that in mind, I searched for options. The options I came up with were

* Wall - blocks/cement
* Fence - chain link
* Security Guards - when plants are about to produce fruit.
* Tenants - Allow someone to rent out part of the area to raise some animal that would require that person to be there almost everyday.
* Ask or pay other farmers / villagers nearby to help be on the look out.
* Do nothing
* A combination of one or more items listed above.

After taking into consideration cost, effectiveness, time to put into effect/build, reliability,how far away from villages/towns, timeline of crops and what other people nearby are doing, I decided to secure the farm, for now, using a chain link fence.

I do need to mention that 7 out of the 9 people I asked (farmers & non-farmers, but all were observers i.e. I was not doing, nor plan to do any business with then future , said that security around the location was not needed and that it was over-kill to be doing something like that. 3 of them actually suggested that I am signaling to my neighbor farmers and the villagers nearby that I do not trust them, and that that will make my location a target because people will believe that there is more on that piece of land than what they can see.

For the 2 acre piece of land, it took 2 days to complete the fencing , with 2 gates. ( The installers did not reach the location till late morning the first day. I think they could have completed it all in one day, especially with the number of workers they brought the first day.)

I have another thread https://www.nairaland.com/3638961/request-estimate-chain-link-fence where hopefully I will be able to put in the details of the chain link fence. Unfortunately I lost my phone and tablet on the farm due to water damage from an unexpected rainstorm some time afterwards. (This was in the third week of March), so most of my records are lost as I could not revive both devices. But I still have some receipts and other paper that should help to partially re-assembly what I lost.

Dealing with the chain link fence folks was a really annoying experience. The short of it is that it just does not make sense to me trying to sell by the acre (which is a unit for area) instead of the perimeter length of the piece of land. However, I was somewhat glad that they went with my suggestion of hiring some of the villagers near by to help move the materials.

The one immediate benefit I gained with the fence was that about a week after it was installed there were traces of cows coming through the area, and one can see that they went around the fence. Now, my claim here is not that the chain link fence protected the farm, as anyone determined enough could climb over it or attempt to pull it down. My claim here is that any living thing that sees an obstacle on one path, and a clear way on an alternate path, will more likely than not choose the alternate clear way.

I think eventually I will actually put in a block and cement wall around the location, but for now, the choice of a chain link fence satisfies my needs.

Next : Water ...

Good step in the right direction.
Securing your property is the first step,afterwards is the layout.

Next Step : Water

My next step was getting a source of water. ( @alakara ... I do understand that ideally working on the layout might be next. However as you can see in this thread, I been working and revising the layout as I go, and as I learn new things.)

One option I have, and one of the main reasons while I decided to use this piece of land for farming, is that the land is located about 250 meters away from the Oshun river at it's closest point. This provided a potential option of actually getting / pumping water from the river to tanks on the farm. (There are others nearby that actually do this already.) However, I decided not to go with this option. My main reason was that since I am not full time on this yet, the pumping equipment would be out there in the river unprotected or I would have to find someone to watch it.

Another option would be the "do nothing option". That is, to just rely on nature. Of course that would mean that planting would be limited to just certain time of the year. The Business Administration side of me ( ... yes I have a Minor in Business Admin, in addition to Computer Science ... ) tells me there is no competitive advantage in that. Now being able to do year-round farming would be an advantage worth striving for.

That led me to the option of a well or borehole. I eventually decide to go with the borehole, as the expectation would be that the borehole would provide a better supply of water, and it would be secure right on the farmland.

Now the hard part... actually getting the borehole dug. After contacting four different borehole drilling businesses, I settled on one of them. (All of the rates they quoted to me were within 10% of each other, so I really could have picked anyone of them.)

Of course, the first thing the borehole people tell you is that a survey needs to be done. Unfortunately, I was unable to be at the farm site the day the Geologist / survey person came to do the survey. So, even though I gave specific instructions to the person I delegated to take the survey person to the site, those instructions were ignored. My instructions were for the location of the hole to be somewhere in the higher quadrant of the piece of land, as there is a gentle slope on the piece of land diagonally across. That any water pumped out would be coming out to higher ground and can easily flow to the low lying areas. Instead the survey marked the hole at one of the lowest points. Of course, the claim was, that was where the instruments found water.

When I was finally able to see the location that was marked a few days later, I was angry enough that I called the borehole people and told them to not bother coming to drill the hole, and that I will just shut down the whole operation or go with the "do nothing" option. Hey, people have been farming without borehole for thousands of years. But, of course they asked me to reconsider, and I did go ahead to schedule the drilling of the bore hole.

Again, another unfortunate coincidence, the day before the drilling was supposed to occur, I fell ill. (Malaria .... everyone believe I got in from the mosquitoes on the farm because of the proximity of the swap areas beside the river.) So, I missed the actual drilling. I was getting calls every 30mins or so from another person I delegated to help me watch over what was going on, and that person did take picture with my tablet... unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, I lost all those pictures because of water damage to my tablet and phone afterwards.

Everything about this drilling pretty much made me angry or annoyed . For starters, the drilling started late, due to the drilling rig having a flat tire. Once the drilling rig and truck got to the site. They decided not to use the gates (remember, there are two gates to which they could have used either, or at worst, they could have pulled out 3 or 4 of the fence poles and chain link fence if they felt it was not wide enough.) Instead they drove their rig right over the chain link fence, destroying/bending the poles and the chain link fence. Unfortunately for them, that decision proved costly as one of the poles and some of the fence they drove over ruptured the hydraulics system for the rig. That proved to be about an additional 3 hour delay.

Once all that was fixed, the drilling started. The Survey said 60 to 80m. They got to 90m, no water. I got a call informing me of this and I just told them to stop. No use in continuing. I am a strong believer in "if you are losing, stop, re-evaluate & re-plan"... I do not mind taking a loss early on. Losses are learning experiences in my book. But of course the drillers want to get paid . But with my fever, headache and arguing over the phone, I lost focus, as the drilling was now at 110m, still no water, and it was now 6:15pm. At this point the head borehole guy/project manager got others involved to ask/beg me to let them continue because the rig was scheduled for somewhere else. I allowed and finally at 132 , they started to get steady water. In the end the hole was 140m. At this point , the extra distance has basically taken up the original money budgeted for the water pump, so now the borehole is sitting there with no pump to pump the water out. (And even worse, because of the distance, a regular low-end pump is no more an option. The pump would need to be a bit more powerful, and remember the hole is on a low lying part of the lot , so the pump has to pump up hill on land as well. )

When I was finally well enough to go to the site, I found out the hole was actually in a completely different location from the original area I wanted, and from the location the survey marked (but not that to far from the survey location).

And to wrap up this section of updates, the extra drilling put on hold my plans for the irrigation system, water tanks and stands, and delayed the planting a bit. But then the day after the drilling , it rained. and at least for the following 3 weeks it rained a little every 2 to 4 days.



Next : Planting

ruggie:
Next Step : Water

My next step was getting a source of water. ( @alakara ... I do understand that ideally working on the layout might be next. However as you can see in this thread, I been working and revising the layout as I go, and as I learn new things.)

One option I have, and one of the main reasons while I decided to use this piece of land for farming, is that the land is located about 250 meters away from the Oshun river at it's closest point. This provided a potential option of actually getting / pumping water from the river to tanks on the farm. (There are others nearby that actually do this already.) However, I decided not to go with this option. My main reason was that since I am not full time on this yet, the pumping equipment would be out there in the river unprotected or I would have to find someone to watch it.

Another option would be the "do nothing option". That is, to just rely on nature. Of course that would mean that planting would be limited to just certain time of the year. The Business Administration side of me ( ... yes I have a Minor in Business Admin, in addition to Computer Science ... ) tells me there is no competitive advantage in that. Now being able to do year-round farming would be an advantage worth striving for.

That led me to the option of a well or borehole. I eventually decide to go with the borehole, as the expectation would be that the borehole would provide a better supply of water, and it would be secure right on the farmland.

Now the hard part... actually getting the borehole dug. After contacting four different borehole drilling businesses, I settled on one of them. (All of the rates they quoted to me were within 10% of each other, so I really could have picked anyone of them.)

Of course, the first thing the borehole people tell you is that a survey needs to be done. Unfortunately, I was unable to be at the farm site the day the Geologist / survey person came to do the survey. So, even though I gave specific instructions to the person I delegated to take the survey person to the site, those instructions were ignored. My instructions were for the location of the hole to be somewhere in the higher quadrant of the piece of land, as there is a gentle slope on the piece of land diagonally across. That any water pumped out would be coming out to higher ground and can easily flow to the low lying areas. Instead the survey marked the hole at one of the lowest points. Of course, the claim was, that was where the instruments found water.

When I was finally able to see the location that was marked a few days later, I was angry enough that I called the borehole people and told them to not bother coming to drill the hole, and that I will just shut down the whole operation or go with the "do nothing" option. Hey, people have been farming without borehole for thousands of years. But, of course they asked me to reconsider, and I did go ahead to schedule the drilling of the bore hole.

Again, another unfortunate coincidence, the day before the drilling was supposed to occur, I fell ill. (Malaria .... everyone believe I got in from the mosquitoes on the farm because of the proximity of the swap areas beside the river.) So, I missed the actual drilling. I was getting calls every 30mins or so from another person I delegated to help me watch over what was going on, and that person did take picture with my tablet... unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, I lost all those pictures because of water damage to my tablet and phone afterwards.

Everything about this drilling pretty much mad me angry or annoyed . For starters, the drilling started late, due to the drilling rig having a flat tire. Once the drilling rig and truck got to the site. They decided not to use the gates (remember, there are two gates to which they could have used either, or at worst, they could have pulled out 3 or 4 of the fence poles and chain link fence if they felt it was not wide enough.) Instead they drove their rig right over the chain link fence, destroying/bending the poles and the chain link fence. Unfortunately for them, that decision proved costly as one of the poles and some of the fence they drove over ruptured the hydraulics system for the rig. That proved to be about an additional 3 hour delay.

Once all that was fixed, the drilling started. The Survey said 60 to 80m. They got to 90m, no water. I got a call informing me of this and I just told them to stop. No use in continuing. I am a strong believer in "if you are losing, stop, re-evaluate & re-plan"... I do not mind taking a loss early on. Losses are learning experiences in my book. But of course the drillers want to get paid . But with my fever, headache and arguing over the phone, I lost focus, as the drilling was now at 110m, still no water, and it was now 6:15pm. At this point the head borehole guy/project manager got others involved to ask/beg me to let them continue because the rig was scheduled for somewhere else. I allowed and finally at 132 , they started to get steady water. In the end the hole was 140m. At this point , the extra distance has basically taken up the original money budgeted for the water pump, so now the borehole is sitting there with no pump to pump the water out. (And even worse, because of the distance, a regular low-end pump is no more an option. The pump would need to be a bit more powerful, and remember the hole is on a low lying part of the lot , so the pump has to pump up hill on land as well. )

When I was finally well enough to go to the site, I found out the hole was actually in a completely different location from the original area I wanted, and from the location the survey marked (but not that to far from the survey location).

And to wrap up this section of updates, the extra drilling put on hold my plans for the irrigation system, water tanks and stands, and delayed the planting a bit. But then the day after the drilling , it rained. and at least for the following 3 weeks it rained a little every 2 to 4 days.



Next : Planting

I like your precision and accuracy.
Farming is both science and art.