Agriculture is definitely the most interesting and educating section on nairaland. Over time I've seen people talk about cassava, ginger, cowpea, plantain, cocoa, sesame etcetera cultivation. Some crops however that seem to have few headlines are maize (corn), rice, sorghum and soyabeans. I always wondered why these crops are rarely mentioned even when they are part of the most cultivated crops in Nigeria. I know corn is cultivated in almost every state in Nigeria. Is it that these crops are not economically viable or we've totally forgotten they are major staples? If I ever go into farming, I'm sure going to cultivate these crops because they seem more stomach filling, cheap and nutritious than most other crops. You may argue their industrial benefits but don't you think we have to feed before considering industries? My opinions though. I want to know why these crops are rarely mentioned here. Does anyone here actually have experience cultivating any of these crops on a large scale? Don't you think they are the best set of crops that can get people out of hunger and mitigate stunted growth? I want contributions please cos I want these foods to be available to the poorest very soon.

I think most people in nairaland that are interested in farming want to go into farming to make profit. They want to be able to live on it. when i am making enquiries concerning any crop the questions i normally ask is: what is the yeild per acre/hectare, what is the potential profit i can make per acre/ hectare. I am currently not into farming of crops yet but warming up to do so.

I was reading an article on the internet recently on the most profitable crops to farm in nigeria and they listed crops like rice and soyabean as top on that list. Crops like tomatoes and watermelon were not on the list at all. The writer did not give any criterial on how that list was drawn. i expected to see yeild per acre/hectare and profit(estimated) per acre/hectare for each crop. In another article on soyabean i saw that to make a profit of N1million , you must have planted up to 10 hectares of soyabean. To me that is not very profitable.

How many hectare of rice do you plant before your get 5 bags of rice? How much is a bag of rice ?

These are some of the questions i asked before assumming a particular crop is viable or not.

Childofaking:
I think most people in nairaland that are interested in farming want to go into farming to make profit. They want to be able to live on it. when i am making enquiries concerning any crop the questions i normally ask is: what is the yeild per acre/hectare, what is the potential profit i can make per acre/ hectare. I am currently not into farming of crops yet but warming up to do so.

I was reading an article on the internet recently on the most profitable crops to farm in nigeria and they listed crops like rice and soyabean as top on that list. Crops like tomatoes and watermelon were not on the list at all. The writer did not give any criterial on how that list was drawn. i expected to see yeild per acre/hectare and profit(estimated) per acre/hectare for each crop. In another article on soyabean i saw that to make a profit of N1million , you must have planted up to 10 hectares of soyabean. To me that is not very profitable.

How many hectare of rice do you plant before your get 5 bags of rice? How much is a bag of rice ?

These are some of the questions i asked before assumming a particular crop is viable or not.

It's quite obvious everyone wants to make money. My concern however is when we don't meet the local demand of major staple foods, we will have no choice than to keep importing. Hence I feel, we should tackle the basics first. We can also cultivate other crops as an aside but we should really consider giving more priority to the more important things. Concerning the report you read on soybeans production, I think its hard to determine productivity before farming in Nigeria, this is largely due to lack of necessary data to work with. Productivity in different ecological zones can't be the same. In developed countries, a farmer can tell you an approximate of expected yield because farming is under controlled conditions. We should start paying attention to data collection and analysis, that's the best way to plan and this statrs with individuals.

Production and marketing of crops like rice isn't as easy compared to yams due to high importation and inadequate standard local mills. Meanwhile, if you're preparing for the Benue yam marketing season. It's time we start talking.

Having stayed in the north central and north eastern part of Nigeria for sometime. I can say the fight against importation of rice is only visible in rural areas. In Benue especially, a larger part of the population comsume locally milled rice. In lagos however, the only you hear of is lake rice and few other ones which make up less than 5% of the total volume comsumed in the state. I strongly believe there are some marketers out there to frustrate efforts of government to ban importation. It's true foreign rice are cheaper but we spend a whole lot of dollars getting them. Local production can meet local demands in two years, we are catching up fast enough. More meaning Nigerians need to invest more in rice and wheat production, there's a whole lot of money to be made in every value chain of these crops.