The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, so says the wise.

I studied Agricultural Economics and Extention in my first degree and I am a son of a farmer.

The desire to farm has always been there and it kept burning in me day after day like a fire in the bone.

I tried my hands on various businesses where I did not get satisfaction nor fulfilment and above all lost money in naira and dollars.

All my life I never planted a single seed until 2018 when I ventured into agriculture. I commenced my operations on a 5 hectare portion of land and planted cowpea and castor. My experience is quite crazy even though the plants are still in the growth stage. A documentary of my experience from land aquisition to land preparation and planting etc will help any new farmer.

Join me as I take you through my experience in the murky waters of agribusiness.

But in all I am not gonna quit...laelae

Thisisbaobab

First land visit

I tried uploading a picture of my first visit to a farm communing but it was not successful. The size was too big. Can someone enlighten me on how to reduce the size of a document as I will be uploading a lot of pictures in the coming days.


My intention was very clear ab inito: produce agricultural products for industrial use.

In the process of study I came across castor, kenaf, maize, pineapple and soya as good raw materials for industries. Other products include Jatropha, Moringa, Oil Palm etc

I settled down to start with Kenaf and Castor. I made contacts and began to gather information on the products in 2016.

I registered a company purely for Agribusiness, believing that this business will be big. I kept my hears close and read any information I could find on the products.

The plan was to start in 2017, but money became a major hinderance. I work 9 to 5 and the pay is good but guys after loans and many deductions I barely have anything left to survive with.

Kenaf was on the front burner for me anytime any day because of the potential I could see but it's development in Nigeria is quite slow. The few farmers that have planted it did not make anything and some got discouraged and left the pursuit.

Castor was option 2.

Thisisbaobab.

following. . .

baobab1:
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, so says the wise.

I studied Agricultural Economics and Extention in my first degree and I am a son of a farmer.

The desire to farm has always been there and it kept burning in me day after day like a fire in the bone.

I tried my hands on various businesses where I did not get satisfaction nor fulfilment and above all lost money in naira and dollars.

All my life I never planted a single seed until 2018 when I ventured into agriculture. I commenced my operations on a 5 hectare portion of land and planted cowpea and castor. My experience is quite crazy even though the plants are still in the growth stage. A documentary of my experience from land aquisition to land preparation and planting etc will help any new farmer.

Join me as I take you through my experience in the murky waters of agribusiness.

But in all I am not gonna quit...laelae

Thisisbaobab

Am still wondering how you could spend years studying Agricultural Economics and Extension in school and never planted a single seed until 2018!

Pavore9:


Am still wondering how you could spend years studying Agricultural Economics and Extension in school and never planted a single seed until 2018!

My project topic was on small ruminants, goat and sheep, and my six month industrial attachment was on farm supervision, majorly extension work.

baobab1:


My project topic was on small ruminants, goat and sheep, and my six month industrial attachment was on farm supervision, majorly extension work.

It is just that back then when I used to visit my uncle who was the H. O. D of Agric extension at UNN, I do find his students on their plots there in the school, cropping.

I started the pursuit of castor farming. Sourced for information and in my quest someone on this platform said he was setting up a castor colony, I quickly looked for him to be part of the project so that I could gain from his knowledge while running mine.

I already had a buyer in the north who promised to supply me improved seeds with a commitment via MOU that I will sell my output to them. I grabbed the opportunity because he also promised to provide me with production guidelines.

However, it turned out that our castor colony man had never planted it before and the land he wanted to make available was not suitable for the product. I also needed 10hectares for the project to be in commercial quantity.

The search for land became a major challenge because I wanted a place close by, and somewhere near other practising farmers to tap from there experience.

The search for land began...

In my search for land I went to my friend's farm at a community called Ajebo where he had 40 acres of farm. I desired to be close to him more than anything because he's a practising farmer. My passion also rubbed off on him as he wanted to cultivate some castor on the uncultivated portion of his farm. He began to search for 10hectares for me to run my business beside him.

As I was waiting for my friend I also carried out my own search in other communities. The search brought me in contact with a man who has planted Kenaf in the past. I will call this man Mr. A.

Mr. A contributed significantly to my gradual progress in Agriculture. I told Mr. A my land preference and preferred location. Time was fast going as we were already in June. He made a search but got me a place off my plan. The land was good and cheap to lease. I had some issues with the land though 1. It was far from the major road. 2. The community was too deserted and 3. The location was in an area that I dread because of Lagos traffic. But because I had little time, I settled for the land. Now that I have an experienced Kenaf Farmer and a promise from someone to provide me with production guidelines for Castor, I felt my dream was taking a shape.

We visited the family that owns the land, but before we went I told my Mr. A that the land I saw there was not up to 10hectares and that I had little money to spare. I told him that we should pay for just 2hectares at N10,000 per hectare and clear all the land within sight, measure it and pay for whatever we get. Whether 2 or 10.

We made payment for the land at the appointed date with a promise that whatever we see on the land we would pay later.

I facilitated Mr. A's journey to the farmland one more time, to walk the perimeter of the land and give me a fair idea of the number of hectares we stand to get. While he was there, he saw a tractor passing by to another village, he approached the man to take up our job. The tractor operator was happy and promised to commence work on our land the following week.

Tractor operator disappointed us....

In my search for land I went to my friend's farm at a community called Ajebo where he had 40 acres of farm. I desired to be close to him more than anything because he's a practising farmer. My passion also rubbed off on him as he wanted to cultivate some castor on the uncultivated portion of his farm. He began to search for 10hectares for me to run my business beside him.

As I was waiting for my friend I also carried out my own search in other communities. The search brought me in contact with a man who has planted Kenaf in the past. I will call this man Mr. A.

Mr. A contributed significantly to my gradual progress in Agriculture. I told Mr. A my land preference and preferred location. Time was fast going as we were already in June. He made a search but got me a place off my plan. The land was good and cheap to lease. I had some issues with the land though 1. It was far from the major road. 2. The community was too deserted and 3. The location was in an area that I dread because of Lagos traffic. But because I had little time, I settled for the land. Now that I have an experienced Kenaf Farmer and a promise from someone to provide me with production guidelines for Castor, I felt my dream was taking a shape.

We visited the family that owns the land, but before we went I told my Mr. A that the land I saw there was not up to 10hectares and that I had little money to spare. I told him that we should pay for just 2hectares at N10,000 per hectare and clear all the land within sight, measure it and pay for whatever we get. Whether 2 or 10.

We made payment for the land at the appointed date with a promise that whatever we see on the land we would pay later.

I facilitated Mr. A's journey to the farmland one more time, to walk the perimeter of the land and give me a fair idea of the number of hectares we stand to get. While he was there, he saw a tractor passing by to another village, he approached the man to take up our job. The tractor operator was happy and promised to commence work on our land the following week.

Tractor operator disappointed us....

It's been one challenge after another. Your story shows that paper plans don't always meet up with reality. I'm learning

Will send a msg to you. Might be you in a few weeks.

Ayokunleayoolashakirudeen:
It's been one challenge after another. Your story shows that paper plans don't always meet up with reality. I'm learning

You have not read anything..

Paper and Internet farming is far different from real life experience. However in all we must forge ahead

The tractor operator will be called Mr. B. I never met him up till this moment. Mr. B didn't show up as planned. He failed us. He gave many excuses and later promised to resume at our farm on Friday the 2nd week of contacting him. I told Mr. A who at this point was appointed as my consultant on Kenaf farming and my farm manager that if the tractor manager does not show up on friday as promised we would have to get another tractor operator because planting time for Kenaf was fast going.

The tractor guy disappointed like I said earlier and my consultant contacted another tractor operator who had worked for his cooperative in the past. The new tractor man is Mr.C. Mr.C promised to be at our farm location on Sunday and commence operation on Monday morning.

The guy kept to his words and got to the village on Sunday night. Mr. A my consultant got to farm on Sunday as well with his cooking gas, small TV, food items and clothes with a plan to stay till we finish planting. The village had given us a room. I was happy believing that my dream was taking shape. I had taken days off at work when the first tractor man disappointed us. I had to beg for 2 more days, after all this is my project. I wanted it to commence before me.

Monday morning Mr C. was at the village with my consultant, they moved the tractor to the farm location from the village and here was the beginning of the many troubles I had to contend with for the next few days.

The first issue. I was the first person to bring tractor to the community. It was unusual and so the villager youths came in large number to withhold us from starting. They asked us to meet with the village head before we could commence operations.

My consultant, who happened to be an elderly man stood his ground that we must commence operations that day. I was on my way from Lagos to the farm. I had with me a little money, food for the workers and 2 bottles of schnapps for the villagers.

When the villagers withhold my staff from working my consultant called the lessor of the land to intervene. The man moved from Abeokuta at ones. I helped a pastor on my way to the farm as I was alone in the car. Thank God I helped that man. My car got stuck 2 to 3 times on the way because we followed an abandoned road, damaged by trucks but this white garment pastor rolled up his sleeves and helped with my burden. I owe him some thanks when I succeed.

To cut a long story short myself and land owner arrived
the village only to realize that the villagers have allowed us to commence operations.

But there was another problem......

MY FRIENDS, IT TAKES PERSISTENCE TO EVER HAVE A TASTE OF SUCCESS.


ThisIsBaobab

Every step in farming is interconnected, until you harvest you have not really done anything.


Mr. C. My tractor operator went to the farm to commence operations and suddenly turned back that he could not work on the land because he doesn't understand the terrain and he could not rusk damaging his tractor. By this time we had educated the villagers about our Kenaf project and their enthusiasm to participate in the project was high. The villagers joined us to persuade the Mr C to work, they even offered us another land entirely free so that we could do the project in that community but my tractor operator was adamant.

I had made advance payment for 1st plow so I was stuck with this guy. I told him that I must commence that same week. In our search for solution he mentioned that he could get me a tractorable land elsewhere, he me motioned the location to my consultant who reluctantly motioned him to make a trial. The location was actually the area I desired to have my farm because of proximity.

Mr. C made a call to the other village for 10hectares, they ask us to come that there is a vacant land. We moved our tractor, the villagers were disappointed that the project eluded their village. it was a long journey to the new village.

EVERY MAN HAS A REASON FOR WHATEVER HE DOES. THEIR EXISTS IN EVERY SOUL A TINY SEED OF SELF CENTEREDNESS. YOUR PRESERVATION FROM A MIGHTY FALL IS TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND INSIST ON GETTING IT DONE

ThisIsBaobab

Following keenly

ACTION REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT says the wise.

I will call the new village OwoOwo. OwoOwo is a small village surrounded by farms. Most of the farmers there were comfortable, they practised mechanized farming and were authority on their own. One major challenge in the community was that they like money. Everything was expensive and they do nothing for free.

When we got to OwoOwo. The landlord said their land lease was 10 000 per acre and naira 25,000 per hectare. This is ×2.5 the price we got at our previous place. I was not deterred by the price, I asked to be shown the land.

The land was used last year for cultivation of various products including Kenaf. We have a little less than 5 hectares there. It was not enough for what I planned but it is better to start with little than not starting at all. The landlord offered to get me more lands within the village but I was not willing. 1. Because the price was too high, 2. As a first time farmer I wanted my farm at a single spot for easy monitoring. I would really have been happier if I had 10 hectares to start with because then I would be able to employ a proper farm manager as the profit will be enough to carry the cost.

Remember I have lost the 20000 paid for the first land, my expenses in pursing the land was around 25,000. I lost all that even though the family promised me that whenever I needed the land I could use it.

On the 28th August 2018 at OwoOwo village my tractor operator began first plow with the money i have paid since 13th of August.i took pictures. I even did a tiny video. I was happy, I felt like a champion having surmounted many obstacles by the help of God.

Our tractor man spent a whole week plowing just 5 hectares....

NELSON MANDELA said after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

ThisIsBaobab

TITLE: I MET TWO MEN...

J.P. Morgan said the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you are not going to stay where you are.

I am a risk taker but I also try to take reasonable risks. Kenaf is a new product and Castor my second option product is just gaining popularity. I thought within myself that beside this 2 product I should cultivate something that is generally acceptable and will not be difficult to sell. In my search I picked cowpea otherwise known as beans.

I met a young man on this platform who has a castor farm. He really helped me and guided me in the journey. I thank him so much. I will refer to him as Mr. D. In my further search for information on castor I met another man who is currently cultivating 100 hectares of castor, the guy is perpetually busy he introduced me to his friend an ex staff of IITA who has been a great blessing to me in this journey. I will call the man Mr. G.

While I prepared to start my farm I visited Mr. D's farm to see castor physically. The sight of the farm fuelled my determination even before I planted my own.

Mr.G encouraged me to plant cowpea along with my two major products whenever I start the farm as he has experience in it to guide me. He also made himself available for me as a consultant on farming activities.

Guys, do you know I eventually did not plant Kenaf?

Read my story again tomorrow.

ThisIsBaobab

baobab1:
ACTION REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT says the wise.

I will call the new village OwoOwo. OwoOwo is a small village surrounded by farms. Most of the farmers there were comfortable, they practised mechanized farming and were authority on their own. One major challenge in the community was that they like money. Everything was expensive and they do nothing for free.

When we got to OwoOwo. The landlord said their land lease was 10 000 per acre and naira 25,000 per hectare. This is ×2.5 the price we got at our previous place. I was not deterred by the price, I asked to be shown the land.

The land was used last year for cultivation of various products including Kenaf. We have a little less than 5 hectares there. It was not enough for what I planned but it is better to start with little than not starting at all. The landlord offered to get me more lands within the village but I was not willing. 1. Because the price was too high, 2. As a first time farmer I wanted my farm at a single spot for easy monitoring. I would really have been happier if I had 10 hectares to start with because then I would be able to employ a proper farm manager as the profit will be enough to carry the cost.

Remember I have lost the 20000 paid for the first land, my expenses in pursing the land was around 25,000. I lost all that even though the family promised me that whenever I needed the land I could use it.

On the 28th August 2018 at OwoOwo village my tractor operator began first plow with the money i have paid since 13th of August.i took pictures. I even did a tiny video. I was happy, I felt like a champion having surmounted many obstacles by the help of God.

Our tractor man spent a whole week plowing just 5 hectares....

NELSON MANDELA said after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

ThisIsBaobab

Are u plowing land or bush?. U needed to have sprayed a systemic followed by a contact herbicide. Then u burn ur farmland before tillage operations. If you plow dat bush, weeds go pursue u for dat farm

drake2:


Are u plowing land or bush?. U needed to have sprayed a systemic followed by a contact herbicide. Then u burn ur farmland before tillage operations. If you plow dat bush, weeds go pursue u for dat farm

We actually plowed a bush. That portion of land was used last year though.

I need this lecture to help in our future endeavours. By systemic do u mean something like glycophozate and by contact are you referring to Paraforce? Kindly enlighten me. We are willing to learn.

YOUR TRACTOR OPERATOR CAN MAKE OR MAR YOUR PLANS

Kenaf is a product you must plant at a particular time just like other crops. To get fibre your late planting period in the south west is June/July. Late planting from August to first week in September is good for seed production.

As at August we had not soughted out market for the product so I was not interested in large scale production. The plan was to do one hectare for seed multiplication but my tractor operator ensured that we did not achieve the plan.

The guy spent a whole week plowing 5 hectares of land. He said the land space was 7 hectares. I told him I was going to measure it so whatever he says does not really matter. After 1st plow it took him over 3 weeks to come back for second plow. By then I had measured the farm and arrived at 4.8hectares. He did not also do a thorough job, he said that all errors wil be corrected durong second plow.Note that I paid this guy ahead of work. So money was not the cause for his delay. It is his way of life.

17th of September we commenced second plow, by that time I had prepared my seeds ready, labour that will help me plant, preemergence herbicide, seed treatment chemicals and all that. But by this time it was too late to plant Kenaf. I had to return my Kenaf seed to the seller. Now we have 2 products left. Castor and Cowpea.

My tractor operator had to send another operator to come for the second plow. That one plowed 3 hectares in one day. At that rate we thought that he would complete the job by 12noon the following day. Friends the rest was not done until 27th of September.

My consultant and mentor, Mr. G advised me to minimize human intervention in my farm, because labour is the problem of a farmer, just like man is the problem God.

We made many mistakes....follow me as I show you a few of the things we could have done better.

ThisIsBaobab

INTERLUDE:
I was at the farm yesterday. Like @drake2 said if I was not determined weed would probably have sent me out of the farm.
We are doing everything to salvage the farm from weed.
I will send you pictures when I learn to compress the size

YOU ARE DEAD WITHOUT MONEY:

Farming is really capital intensive, you wouldn't know until you go into practical farming.

Before we started I met with some friends who showed interest. We planned to come together and start with 10 to 20 hectares of crops and gradually increase. We planned to start this much to minimize cost and maximize profit. For instance, we could have hired a farm manager on a 10hectares and 1 or 2 permanent staff profitabely.

Unfortunately, when it was time for these friends to drop money, they started giving various excuses. Some even stopped picking my calls. These were people whose enthusiasm was very high before we started. I managed to get a little support from 2 people and built on that.

My plan was to have partners that we would swim or sink together but what I was able to get were people who would rather invest and take profit. Since I am the vision carrier I kept moving on.

My good friends, before you start your farming activities please sought out your finances. If you have money to do a plot of corn please go ahead rather than building your dreams on the promises of financial support from friends and families.

You need money to practise farming. When you make a little mistake somewhere you will require tons of money to salvage your crop or you loose everything. At that point if money is not available you will watch as your hope fizzle away. For instance I spent a lot of money on preemergence herbicides but in spite of that we had to do manual weeding which was not planned for, I never knew until now that manual labour could erode your pocket so deep.

We are battling with weeds now. We have salvaged about 1.5 hectares of cowpea that have started flowering. The available 2 guys working at the face could not cope with the pace at which weed is growing so yesterday I gave a directive to get more hands that can do daily job and get paid.

We are moving forward and winning the war against weed. But if we couldn't get a little more money at this point I tell you weed would have sent us out of farm

Labour can make your job unprofitable. Tomorrow you will see how my trusted labour messed up and the outcome began to show when plants germinated

baobab1:


We actually plowed a bush. That portion of land was used last year though.

I need this lecture to help in our future endeavours. By systemic do u mean something like glycophozate and by contact are you referring to Paraforce? Kindly enlighten me. We are willing to learn.

atrazine,durion and other systemic herbicides that kill the seeds of weeds,but my brother don't u think u are biting more than u can chew as a first time farmer u talking about hectares,u could have planted hybrid avenir fresh pepper on around 3-5 plots of land manage it and learn before a megaprojects.

Kudos to you, it is not an easy task, farming is capital intensive, I embark on a similar journey too as a new farmer, all what you wrote there is true,just like someone advice you to minimize human interaction in the farming setup,I paid for 15 acres of land around iseyin, looking at cash at hand, I was able to plough, 7 acres currently with late season maize and cassava,my long term goal is to plant cashew on the land as I intend to acquire 20 acres each year for the next 5 years, got the land late too around July this year so I did not want the remaining farming season to be a waste of time, so I planted the maize and cassava, God really favor me with rain because I planted very late around 13th of august

baobab1:
YOU ARE DEAD WITHOUT MONEY:

Farming is really capital intensive, you wouldn't know until you go into practical farming.

Before we started I met with some friends who showed interest. We planned to come together and start with 10 to 20 hectares of crops and gradually increase. We planned to start this much to minimize cost and maximize profit. For instance, we could have hired a farm manager on a 10hectares and 1 or 2 permanent staff profitabely.

Unfortunately, when it was time for these friends to drop money, they started giving various excuses. Some even stopped picking my calls. These were people whose enthusiasm was very high before we started. I managed to get a little support from 2 people and built on that.

My plan was to have partners that we would swim or sink together but what I was able to get were people who would rather invest and take profit. Since I am the vision carrier I kept moving on.

My good friends, before you start your farming activities please sought out your finances. If you have money to do a plot of corn please go ahead rather than building your dreams on the promises of financial support from friends and families.

You need money to practise farming. When you make a little mistake somewhere you will require tons of money to salvage your crop or you loose everything. At that point if money is not available you will watch as your hope fizzle away. For instance I spent a lot of money on preemergence herbicides but in spite of that we had to do manual weeding which was not planned for, I never knew until now that manual labour could erode your pocket so deep.

We are battling with weeds now. We have salvaged about 1.5 hectares of cowpea that have started flowering. The available 2 guys working at the face could not cope with the pace at which weed is growing so yesterday I gave a directive to get more hands that can do daily job and get paid.

We are moving forward and winning the war against weed. But if we couldn't get a little more money at this point I tell you weed would have sent us out of farm

Labour can make your job unprofitable. Tomorrow you will see how my trusted labour messed up and the outcome began to show when plants germinated

okoroemeka:
atrazine,durion and other systemic herbicides that kill the seeds of weeds,but my brother don't u think u are biting more than u can chew as a first time farmer u talking about hectares,u could have planted hybrid avenir fresh pepper on around 3-5 plots of land manage it and learn before a megaprojects.

I don't intend to do subsistence farming and most of the crops I have in mind are actually for industrial use. Some of them cannot be profitably produced without having fairly big expanse of land.

Besides it would have been difficult to learn this much, this fast if I had started smaller than this. Another reason is that I live in lagos. It would not worth my while doing small cultivation considering distance to the farm.

confluence:
Kudos to you, it is not an easy task, farming is capital intensive, I embark on a similar journey too as a new farmer, all what you wrote there is true,just like someone advice you to minimize human interaction in the farming setup,I paid for 15 acres of land around iseyin, looking at cash at hand, I was able to plough, 7 acres currently with late season maize and cassava,my long term goal is to plant cashew on the land as I intend to acquire 20 acres each year for the next 5 years, got the land late too around July this year so I did not want the remaining farming season to be a waste of time, so I planted the maize and cassava, God really favor me with rain because I planted very late around 13th of august

Amazing effort. Thanks for validating my points

The war against weed is ongoing and we are winning gradually by God's grace. Meanwhile we fell into this problem because my labour did not apply preemergence herbicide appropriately. Really, I suspect the guy stole my chemicals.

I will share my experience with labour later in the day, but at the moment let me proceed to the farm and see how far we have gone weeding.

ThisIsBaobab

obamaverick:
Will send a msg to you. Might be you in a few weeks.

yet to read from you

Regarding premergence, chemicals, what I learnt from a senior farmer, beforehand who suffer similar problem, he farm about 100 acres of maize regularly, he said in a particular year his boys stole his chemicals to use in their own farm, and he assume all was well only to discover that they spray only ordinary water because he was not there , when I heard this in my own case I took responsibility to be adding the chemicals into the spray tanks all through out, and the results was amazing, I would show you some pictures later , with this I have made up my mind to do the mixing of chemicals even if am doing 50 acres, because of the tedious nature of farming, am procuring some pumps from China as as to motorized the spray pump, you can check on Google about how to motorized your spray pump, so that the work will be faster

baobab1:
The war against weed is ongoing and we are winning gradually by God's grace. Meanwhile we fell into this problem because my labour did not apply preemergence herbicide appropriately. Really, I suspect the guy stole my chemicals.

I will share my experience with labour later in the day, but at the moment let me proceed to the farm and see how far we have gone weeding.

ThisIsBaobab

okoroemeka:
atrazine,durion and other systemic herbicides that kill the seeds of weeds,but my brother don't u think u are biting more than u can chew as a first time farmer u talking about hectares,u could have planted hybrid avenir fresh pepper on around 3-5 plots of land manage it and learn before a megaprojects.

pls more info on d hybrid pepper. can one make money from farming it?

baobab1:

I don't intend to do subsistence farming and most of the crops I have in mind are actually for industrial use. Some of them cannot be profitably produced without having fairly big expanse of land.

Besides it would have been difficult to learn this much, this fast if I had started smaller than this. Another reason is that I live in lagos. It would not worth my while doing small cultivation considering distance to the farm.

its all about good agricultural practice but I do rather manage 1 acre of hybrid fresh pepper with yields of 20_30 bags of pepper every 4 days for around 4 months and that is not subsistence farming.