paulseyi:
Thank for the good work bro. regard to your post stated below,i will like to ask the following question.

7. Use a powerful pre and post emergence herbicide two days after planting then follow up with weeding as necessary.

Can you recommend pre and post emergence herbicide for weed in maize farming ?

How many times do i need to apply this herbicide in maize farm?

what is the cost of herbicide per Acre or hectare?

Do you think there is any side effect for using herbicide to kill weed for maize plant or grain during or after harvest?

you did not talk about insecticide? is there any probability that maize plant may be free from pest or insect?

i will be waiting patient to read from you.

thanks.

bobestman:
Bro am a corper serving in Ogun state and want to learn crop production and Agri-biz.I need practical training.I stay in Abeokuta south Lga in Ogun state around Adigbe.Thanks.

jaycpu:
Hello everyone, am very happy to find this thread, am Jay and this is my very time in farming business. We two running this and we already hv a land about 900ftx900ft {how many hectares is dat}, am confused about how to get the accurate hectare size to determine amount of seeds, fertilizer weed and insects control chemicals to use. I will appreciate a well detailed answer, thank you... I also heard that the insect control is the main thing in maize farming please elaborate more

sirkesh:


You have 18.75Acres of land. That is7.5Hectares of land.

Chrisiyked:
Truth be told for anyone to be successful in maize farming you need the following.
1.high yield seeds. Preferablely one that gives yields above 3tonnes per hectare.
2. Know the appropriate seed quantity per space. I, e for open pollinated seeds 20kg per hectare and for hybrids 15kg per hectare.
3.spacing. your loss will be compounded if you dont space properly. I. e 25 cm in between stands and 75 cm between rows. For efficiency avoid manual planting. Hire a planter.
4. Fertilizer. Fertilizer can be applied in 3 split applications as follows at planting, four weeks after planting and a third at six weeks to eight weeks. Use Npk and and urea. For efficiency budget a minimum of 4 bags per hectare. 3npk 1 urea.
5.ensure your farm is free of weeds from the 3-10 leaves stage. Generally make sure ur farm is free of weeds.
6 avoid land prep manually. Use a tractor as follows. Ploughing and harrowing if youre using a planter.
7. Use a powerful pre and post emergence herbicide two days after planting then follow up with weeding as necessary.
8. Harvest only when maize has dried fully, for better accuracy shell at 150days. This is to avoid losses due to Mycotoxin growth during storage.
9. Selling dried shelled maize is by far more profitable than selling fresh. In Niger state where I farm by November a bag was sold for 11,000. I will be happy to entertain more questions and look forward to your success this farming season.

jaycpu:
wow thanks, please is 100ftx100ft in 9 places same as 900ftx900ft?

PapaBrowne:
I love this thread and more importantly, I love the renewed interest in Agriculture displayed here. NIgeria is defintely on the right path in this generation.

For the past 2-3 years, I have been involved in research on Agribusiness Value Chain. I have even founded a company in this regard. Based on that, I'll give my 2cents to the poster and to those others already engaged or seeking to engage in Agriculture.

I would start by saying that instead of having an Agricultural mindset, it's a better Idea to have an Agribusiness Mindset. The difference between the price of products sold at farm gate is miles apart from their actual value in the retail markets. With an Agribusiness mindset, you would seek to add value to the products you produce and in turn sell at much better prices.

I will use the calculations given by @Olushowumn to butress my point.
Based on Olushowumn's calcultions, 1 hectare of land should produce 50,000 hills of corn which would equate to 200,000 cubs. An Igba(not sure what that means) would contain 400-600 cubs and could be sold for between 2000-4000 Naira. Lets use 500 cubs and 3000 Naira as average for an Igba.

So,
500 cubs = 1 Igbas = 3000 Naira.
200,000 cubs = 400 bags = 1.2 million Naira per hectare.
So your 7 hectare would yeild 8.4 million Naira.
Now that's good money. Or so it seems.

Now let me tell you how much that amount of corn would be bought be consumers if its boiled or roasted and sold on the streets.

1 roasted or boiled cub of corn sells for 50 Naira each on average.
Lets assume that from the 200,000 cubs per hectare, we loose 25% and are left with 150,000 per hectare
If that amount of corn were sold retail we would get 150,000 cubs x 50 Naira = 7.5 million per hectare.
Your total farm would sell for 7.5 million x 7 = 52.2 million Naira.

Yes. 52.5 million Naira is the amount your corn would sell for on the streets by the time a simple value of Roasting or Boiling has been added to it. That is a very long way from what you will get if you choose to sell your corn at the international price of $300 per Metric Tonne.

Now this is what you get if you choose to sell you corn on the international market without adding value.
Based on you post, you will achieve 3 tons per hectare which is 21 tons for your 7 hectares

1 Metric tonne = Approx. $300 = 48,000 Naira.
21 Metric Tonnes= 21 x $300= $6300 = 1.01 Million Naira.

The big question is:
Why would I want to sell my corn internationally for 1 Million Naira when I can sell locally wholesale for 8.4 million or retail for 52.2 million Naira.


In a nutshell, taking a value added approach to your farming business is the way to go. Selling raw stock for a small farmer with 20 hectares for me is not ideal. Add value. Tweak the Value chain to your favour and see your farnm generate you millions. Thats exactly what the white man has done for ages. They take our Cocoa and turn it to chocolates. While the Cocoa market is worth about $7 Billion dollars annually, the Chocolate market is worth over $100 billion despite the fact that Chocolate is just one of the by products of Cocoa.

There are a million things that can be created from your corn.

Animal feed. Custard and Pap. Corn Starch. Corn Syrup. Corn Flour. Corn Cake. Corn Oil.

And a whole lot more.

My best: Developing a cool franchise system where your corn is either Roasted or Boiled at major street junctions.

teddyope31:


Good Morning
I like your business plan and i will like to Partner with you, i have a large expanse of agricultural land (over 100 hectares) and i want to go into maize or cassava farming. I would appreciate suggestions and contributions

teddyope31:


Good Morning
I like your business plan and i will like to Partner with you, i have a large expanse of agricultural land (over 100 hectares) and i want to go into maize or cassava farming. I would appreciate suggestions and contributions

teddyope31:


Good Morning
I like your business plan and i will like to Partner with you, i have a large expanse of agricultural land (over 100 hectares) and i want to go into maize or cassava farming. I would appreciate suggestions and contributions

TokyoBulls:
If you're still interested, there's a farm close to you with over 100 acres. DM me for details

PapaBrowne:


Hi,

Nice to see you getting in on the AG space. 100 hectares is a good size. You could actually earn hundreds of millions yearly with that size if you choose to the path of enlightened farming instead of just the conventional farming methods we follow in Nigeria. Value Innovation is key.

I am open to partnerships and we have a few interesting options you might want to key into with the size of land you have. One is export related. Drop me an email on wenses@farmforte.com and we can take it from there.


About Cassava and Maize: I'll say these:

Don't do cassava now. There is going to be a terrible glut next year as so many people have planted Cassava this year. I think the quantum of Cassava planted this year is probably 4 times last year's quantity. So you can imagine what will happen when there is surplus availability with fewer buyers. A ridiculous price crash.
Then next year, everyone will run away from cassava and there will be scarcity the following year and the price goes up again and everybody rushes in again. Its very cyclic in nature. Next ear is a better time to plant Cassava.

As for corn, still a pretty good crop as there will always be market. Only thing I don't like is the yield projection vs the sale price. 1 tonne is 120,000 Naira. Average yield down south=3 tonnes/hectare. So you are looking at revenues of N360,000 average per hectare. Not cool to me.

Except of course you want to follow the value innovation angle like I stated on the first page of this thread.


A crop to consider;
A Foreign variety of Sweet Potatoes

Average Cost of planting per hectare(Mechanized): N450,000
Average yield expectation: 25 tonnes.
Time to harvest: 3 Months
Cost per tonne: N55,000
Expected Revenue per hectare: N1,350,000

BLAQUEWELSH:


How much does your land go for per acre please?
blaquewelsh@gmail.com.

Thank you

PapaBrowne:


Hi,

Nice to see you getting in on the AG space. 100 hectares is a good size. You could actually earn hundreds of millions yearly with that size if you choose to the path of enlightened farming instead of just the conventional farming methods we follow in Nigeria. Value Innovation is key.

I am open to partnerships and we have a few interesting options you might want to key into with the size of land you have. One is export related. Drop me an email on wenses@farmforte.com and we can take it from there.


About Cassava and Maize: I'll say these:

Don't do cassava now. There is going to be a terrible glut next year as so many people have planted Cassava this year. I think the quantum of Cassava planted this year is probably 4 times last year's quantity. So you can imagine what will happen when there is surplus availability with fewer buyers. A ridiculous price crash.
Then next year, everyone will run away from cassava and there will be scarcity the following year and the price goes up again and everybody rushes in again. Its very cyclic in nature. Next ear is a better time to plant Cassava.

As for corn, still a pretty good crop as there will always be market. Only thing I don't like is the yield projection vs the sale price. 1 tonne is 120,000 Naira. Average yield down south=3 tonnes/hectare. So you are looking at revenues of N360,000 average per hectare. Not cool to me.

Except of course you want to follow the value innovation angle like I stated on the first page of this thread.


A crop to consider;
A Foreign variety of Sweet Potatoes

Average Cost of planting per hectare(Mechanized): N450,000
Average yield expectation: 25 tonnes.
Time to harvest: 3 Months
Cost per tonne: N55,000
Expected Revenue per hectare: N1,350,000

Chrisiyked:
Truth be told for anyone to be successful in maize farming you need the following.
1.high yield seeds. Preferablely one that gives yields above 3tonnes per hectare.
2. Know the appropriate seed quantity per space. I, e for open pollinated seeds 20kg per hectare and for hybrids 15kg per hectare.
3.spacing. your loss will be compounded if you dont space properly. I. e 25 cm in between stands and 75 cm between rows. For efficiency avoid manual planting. Hire a planter.
4. Fertilizer. Fertilizer can be applied in 3 split applications as follows at planting, four weeks after planting and a third at six weeks to eight weeks. Use Npk and and urea. For efficiency budget a minimum of 4 bags per hectare. 3npk 1 urea.
5.ensure your farm is free of weeds from the 3-10 leaves stage. Generally make sure ur farm is free of weeds.
6 avoid land prep manually. Use a tractor as follows. Ploughing and harrowing if youre using a planter.
7. Use a powerful pre and post emergence herbicide two days after planting then follow up with weeding as necessary.
8. Harvest only when maize has dried fully, for better accuracy shell at 150days. This is to avoid losses due to Mycotoxin growth during storage.
9. Selling dried shelled maize is by far more profitable than selling fresh. In Niger state where I farm by November a bag was sold for 11,000. I will be happy to entertain more questions and look forward to your success this farming season.

cranky:
@PapaBrowne,


150,000 to 250,000 matured and sizeable ears per hectare? You'll be very lucky if you get 50,000 good enough ears. The rest will be something you'll probably discard or what birds would have eaten.

Pls don't use that to make financial projections, I beg you.

Like I said before, everything looks easy and rosy on paper/internet. It is only when one starts practicing that he'll know for sure.

I am not against having 250,000 ears per hectare, but I surely do not subscribe to people sharing just a part of the story. Why would someone tell me I can get 160,000 ears per hectare when he can't go further (or does not even know) to tell me what percentage of that will actually have economic value at harvest? You want to run your economics with that value? You'll be disappointed at the end o! That is how some innocent guy will just run his economics based on these values and then cry "witch" later when he doesn't get the predicted outcome.

There is more to this farming thing.

Just my 2 cents.

@Megainvest, please continue sharing your practical experiences....many people will be inspired by it.

Me? I'm not arguing anymore. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

megainvest:
Hello business minded people. I am pleased to inform you that our maize farm has now started up fully. In summary, over 7 hectares of farmland was cultivated within a month. Target yield is 3 tons per hectare. In 3 months, it is expected that we can inject about 20 tons of maize into the global market.

I would encourage young entrepreneurs to go iinto agriculture. You are welcome to join me on this thread to discuss this and other issues. Foremost on my mind is the marketing of this harvest.

Thanks