Good day Nlanders,

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year in advance.
This thread will serve as a diary of my journey into farming. The baby step of this journey was take about 18 months ago when I paid for this piece of land, upon which I intend to start my farm activities in the new year 2024. Although, we started major developmental works yesterday 24th.

I will do my best to update this thread regularly as new events unfold, all personal suggestions, corrections and assistance will be keenly taken and highly appreciated. I hope to see other young and able Nigerians gaining courage and insight to delve into agriculture and its value chain in the new year 2024 through our productive discussions on this thread.

Following you bumper to bumper

ollyboy009:
Good day Nlanders,

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year in advance.
This thread will serve as a diary of my journey into farming. The baby step of this journey was take about 18 months ago when I paid for this piece of land, upon which I intend to start my farm activities in the new year 2024. Although, we started major developmental works yesterday 24th.

I will do my best to update this thread regularly as new events unfold, all personal suggestions, corrections and assistance will be keenly taken and highly appreciated. I hope to see other young and able Nigerians gaining courage and insight to delve into agriculture and its value chain in the new year 2024 through our productive discussions on this thread.

"Agricultural farming"

umbo:



"Agricultural farming"

ok mate let's focus on the message, not the messanger.

Hello guys, apologies for my inability to update this thread since my last post, i have been busy on the farm. For the past 5 days, we have been molding blocks for fencing of this farm.

I know you may be wondering why i decided to fence this land despite the cost intensity, well i noticed the activities of herdsmen in this area and trust me, this people will watch their animals eating your plants without remorse except when they notice that the owner is available on the farm.

Secondly, to prevent stealing of crops. Couple of days ago, my workers were pegging the boundry of the farm for the purpose of digging the fence foundation, they reported to me that one of the people that farm on the land met them there and challenge them, they told him that they were send by the Land owner and he immediately apologize. The man said, people come to the farm fo steal his potatoe, yam, maize and all sort even as early as 6am or after he had left the farm in the evening.

So I believe that these two problems confront majority of Nigerian farmers and fencing the farm should go a long way in mitigating them.

I will be attaching pictures shortly guys, my pics are more than 4mb each and are not uploading.

Ok, a little background story.
I have been a NL agric section enthusiast for years now, although not having a farm land of my own has prevented me from practicing what I have learnt within those years. So 4yrs ago, I decided to ultilize an acre of land that I have around Ota in ogun state for plantain farming. I got the supply of my sucker from osogbo through a farmer I met on nairaland.

The land was cleared and planting was carried out ( the land was not fenced at the time), I dedicated my time to timely weeding, fertilizer application and watering of the plants. Months after, the plants started fruiting and my joy was full. Unfortunately and unknowingly to me, other people living in the area where also salivating on the plantation like I was.

Damn, the plantation did very well but they stole 90% of it. I don't live close to the farm or the village, so before I come to farm, they would have harvested the ripped bunches. Then I told myself, I will quit this farm for now and come back when I have this farm fenced and secured to my satisfaction. Long story short, today I have cassava on that land and I am not worried about stealing, Just waiting to cash in next year june or so.

So last year July, I went back to my home town and someone introduced me to this land, I love the location because it is not really a remote village. It is practically 5mins ride on bike from my Old lady's (mum) house. An acre here goes for N1m at the time so I opted for 6 acres. I started the documentation few months after as I couldn't under emphasize the importance of this.

If you had like to know how much the documentation costs me and the processes from Survey to CofO, kindly shoot your questions, I will be glad to put you through.

Pic 1 is the survey plan (CofO awaiting collection)
Pic 2 is the farm layout-

Some things may be added or removed in the layout when my architect starts working on the drawings for approval purpose. I really hope to upload our progress on the fencing soon.

Thanks guys and Happy prosperous year 2024 in advance.

Pictures 1, 2 and 3 is my people working on molding blocks. We have divided the fence work into 4 phases.
We estimated a total of 17,000 pieces of 9 inches blocks for the fence and 2,000 pieces of 6 inches blocks for the security and temporary storage area making a total of 19,000 blocks for this project.

Each phases will consume 4000 to 4500 blocks, this is because we have only 3 plots of land as available space to work on for molding blocks and sand delivery.
Phasing the work will also help us to properly document the costs involved per phases and for the whole project upon completion. Do not hesitate to ask questions if you had like to know the costs involve at every stage, I will do my best to answer them

The whole land has been farmed by someone who didn't take permission to do so, being a man of peace, I decided to allow him harvest his crop (which should be about six months to come). In return, he uprooted 3 plots of cassava so we can have space to work.

Picture 4- Cement delivery to the site with my vehicle, so far it has made the work faster since I don't have to be waiting for hired vehicle to come pick up cements early in the morning.

Hope you have done your feasibility study “properly” .

Bettergoat:
Hope you have done your feasibility study “properly” .

As per business feasibility? Yes. Moreover, no pressure on the farm sustainability since we are not working with borrowed fund.

Giving thanks to the Almighty God for another beautiful day to work on this project after all the new year merry .

We had a little disappointment today, our workers did not come to work despite that we agreed to resume today. They said they are still in the new year celebration mood. However, We proceed to do the little work we can do. Myself, my big brother and my little nephew.

Picture 1 : My welder bendind and cutting rods for the concrete pillars

Picture 2 : Mixing concrete for foundation blinding

Picture 3: Me and my dry bread, hunger don wire chairman .

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