Post by: Adegbola, Bukola Suliyat – bukola@farmkonnectng.com – 08093016914

Setting Up Your Fruit and Vegetable Farming Business

1). Select The Fruit and/or Vegetable Crop You Intend To Cultivate:
The first step in starting a fruit and vegetable farming business is to decide what type of fruits or vegetables you intend to grow. As earlier stated, there are vast numbers of fruits and vegetables to choose from, and picking the right one or set is critical to growing a successful fruit and vegetable farm.
Some questions to ask yourself in your decision making processes are:
 How resistant is this crop to pests and diseases?
 Is there a large demand for this crop?
 What are the risks of growing this crop?
 Where and how will the fruits and vegetables be sold?
 What volume of this crop should I first produce?
When you’ve answered the questions to the best of your knowledge and are satisfied with the preliminary results your fruit or vegetable crop of choice may fetch you, you can go ahead to start a fruit or vegetable farming business in that regard.

2). Choose A Suitable Farmland:
Depending on the type of fruit and/or vegetable crop you’ve decided to plant, you should choose a farmland that’d work perfectly for it. Some factors to consider in choosing a farmland include:
 Access to sunlight
 Topography
 Demographic
 Availability of water
 Soil type
Every fruit and/or vegetable crop has the best type of soil or conditions in which it can grow, and your second job as a farmer is to choose the best farmland that’s suitable for the fruits and vegetables you’ve decided to grow.

3). Apply Fertilizer And Start Planting:
Mix a soilless mix and a balanced fertilizer that contains equal percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium with the soil. Soilless mixes are sterile and will help rid the soil of weed and diseases, and also provide great drainage for the vegetables.
Next, separate each vegetable per container and plant the seeds at the correct depth. Also ensure there’s enough spacing between the plants.

4). Irrigate and Re-Fertilize:
Water the plants carefully, at least once a day to keep the soil moist, and re-fertilize the soil when the plants begin to grow.

5). Harvest & Market:
After a couple of months, depending on which type of fruit and vegetable farming business you ventured into, the next step is to harvest your crops, keep them in optimal storage locations, and sell them through your supply chain network.

Challenges of Fruit and Vegetable Farming
Some of the challenges of fruit and vegetable farming in Nigeria and many parts of Africa include:
1). Lack of experience
2). Land tenure insecurity
3). Low and unstable investment in agricultural research
4). Financial Constraints:
 High interest rates.
 Inaccessible credit due to tough conditions.
 Expensive for manually irrigated and controlled environment.
5). Storage Constraints:
 Poor storage methods.
 Lack of post-harvesting preservation skills.
 Theft.
6). Farm Inputs Constraints:
 High prices of farm inputs.
 Choice of variety to use.
7). Infrastructural Constraints:
 Inaccessible roads.
 Poor market facilities.
. Marketing Constraints:
 Price fluctuation.
 Presence of middlemen.
 Competition.

Conclusion
Fruit and vegetable farming in Nigeria or Africa as a whole, is one agricultural sector with a lot of highly profitable sub-sectors. Whether you choose to focus on growing a particular type of fruit or vegetable, there’s an abundant market for the products, both locally in the country and for exportation to many parts of the world.

Original Post by: Stan Edom
Website: http://startuptipsdaily.com/how-to-start-fruit-and-vegetable-farming/


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