Last year 2020, I intended to plant cassava on an expanse of land - the total land area was 14.5 acres. That was MAY 2020, but the day the tractor operator went to re-plough the land, the tractor developed a fault. It was a big fault that would require alot of money to fix. They only were able to replough just six acres before the damage happened.

I planted cassava on the about six acres in May 2020. other things that I paid for on the farm.
---- Cassava Stems purchase
---- Payment for Planting
---- Purchase of Pre emergence chemical
---- Payment for labour to spray the chemical
---- First Hand weeding when the pre emergence chemical failed.
---- Second weeding
---- Post emergence chemical purchase
---- Labour for application of post emergence chemical
---- Chemical and application of post emergence again.
---- Miscellenous expenses.

Total expenditure amounts to N320,000 (Three hundred and twenty thousand naira)

At HARVEST: I harvested 7 (seven pickup loads of cassava) and each was sold at N150,000 (One hundred and fifty thousand naira) . This was the selling price as of May 2021.

Total revenue from six acres cassava farm as of May 2021: N1,050,000. One million and fifty thousand naira.





Edited
As of today November 23rd 2021, the pickup load of cassava is N50,000

Surprised? No. Dont be surprised.
Bad for planning? No. Not bad at all.
Will I make my money back? Capital. YES
Will I make a profit? Sure. You will.
What percentage? Only demand and supply will determine.

Before May 2021 - N150,000
July 2021 - N70,000
November 2021 - N50,000

Price update:
Today December 16th 2021, the pick up load is N110,000


Cavert!!!
This is not an all gloom, gloomy tale. Looking closely at the figures, I see some interesting facts!

saliubello:
Last year 2020, I intended to plant cassava on an expanse of land - the total land area was 14.5 acres. That was MAY 2020, but the day the tractor operator went to re-plough the land, the tractor developed a fault. It was a big fault that would require alot of money to fix. They only were able to replough just six acres before the damage happened.

I planted cassava on the about six acres in May 2020. other things that I paid for on the farm.
---- Cassava Stems purchase
---- Payment for Planting
---- Purchase of Pre emergence chemical
---- Payment for labour to spray the chemical
---- First Hand weeding when the pre emergence chemical failed.
---- Second weeding
---- Post emergence chemical purchase
---- Labour for application of post emergence chemical
---- Chemical and application of post emergence again.
---- Miscellenous expenses.

Total expenditure amounts to N320,000 (Three hundred and twenty thousand naira)

At HARVEST: I harvested[b] 7 (seven pickup loads of cassava)[/b] and each was sold at N150,000 (One hundred and fifty thousand naira) . This was the selling price as of May 2021.

Total revenue from six acres cassava farm as of May 2021: N1,050,000. One million and fifty thousand naira.

This is great!

Could you share details about your inputs?

1. Cassava variety
2. Brands of pre and post emergence herbicides
3. Any fertilizers used?

Many thanks

Remember I said, the total land was 14.5 acres, the tractor wouldn't return to do the remaining job until October 2020, this is because I had paid upfront, and due to a standing rule - no other tractor will work on a farm which another had started mid way. I had to wait till he could fix the tractor in October. Never knew that experience was going to open a new learning curve for me.

By october, he came and ploughed the remaining land and we planted the remaining 8.5 acres of cassava. something dramatic happened here. By normal reasoning, it is only normal for me to realise more revenue from an 8.5 acres farm than a 6 acres farm. But that was not to be.

The expenditures:
= FIrst ploughing
= Second ploughing
=Cassava stems purchase
= Planting
=Purchase of pre emergence chemical
= labour for pre emergence application
= hand weeding for 4acres
= post emergence chemical and application on 4acres
= Post emergence chemical and application twice.
=miscellaneous

Total expenditures on 8.5 acres cassava farm N350,000 (three fifty thousand naira

when it was time to sell the cassava at JULY2021, THE cost per pick up load had dropped to N70,000 per pick up load as against N150,000 per pick up load in May 2021.

10 pick up loads of cassava was harvested from the 8.5acres @ N70,000

Total revenue from 8.5ACRES WAS N700,000 (seven hundred thousand naira) as of July 2021

Why will i get more money (revenue) from 6 acres than 8.5 acres of cassava planted which was to be planted together but was staggered for a fault not mine? Na so i lost money. But I made money. N1,500,000 (one million five hundred naira) was reduced to just N700,000 (seven hundred thousand).

hmn.. so na like this the thing dey be!

drake2:


This is great!

Could you share details about your inputs?

1. Cassava variety
2. Brands of pre and post emergence herbicides
3. Any fertilizers used?

Many thanks

1. Cassava variety (I didnt ask the supplier, its deliberate though)
2. Brands of pre and post emergence herbicides (Well, the post emergence was those with glyphosate as active ingredients, the pre emergence was those with atrazine plus a 3 bottles of glyphosate in a 200litre drum. there was a reason for this.. the farm was still bushy after reploughing.
3. Any fertilizers used? No fertilizer was used. but i do know the variety planted didnt give good cassava yield.



My take on cassava varieties, because I am not the one selling to the processor directly - it makes no economic sense to buy the advertised varieties and another person reap more from the added financial stress.

[s]

saliubello:



DISCLAIMER NOTICE!!
I SALIU bello, I am in no way associated or affiliated with this fellow and coy advertising loan application. Please readers beware and do your due diligence, where appropriate.

[/s]
Not needed

Mowobo:
[s][/s]
Not needed

Have I committed a crime? This distinguishes clearly that we are not one and same. Is that bad? No aspersions cast yet. Time registered: November 11, 2021

saliubello:


1. Cassava variety (I didnt ask the supplier, its deliberate though)
2. Brands of pre and post emergence herbicides (Well, the post emergence was those with glyphosate as active ingredients, the pre emergence was those with atrazine plus a 3 bottles of glyphosate in a 200litre drum. there was a reason for this.. the farm was still bushy after reploughing.
3. Any fertilizers used? No fertilizer was used. but i do know the variety planted didnt give good cassava yield.



My take on cassava varieties, because I am not the one selling to the processor directly - it makes no economic sense to buy the advertised varieties and another person reap more from the added financial stress.

Ok. Great!. Many thanks!.
But I doubt if glyphosate based post emergence was used, except your cassava variety was resistant to glyphosate.
Maybe a selective herbicide was used, just maybe.

But I really appreciate you and the information provided. Thanks again!

saliubello:
Have I committed a crime? This distinguishes clearly that we are not one and same. Is that bad? No aspersions cast yet. Time registered: November 11, 2021

No crime here. Let it slide. Thank you

Price Variability And Farming Is Real
This is the very reasons alot of the new school farmers and alot of so. so. so. agritech ventures, who usually promise certain beautiful percentages in ROIs usually fail to deliver on the projected yields and returns.

But it is just what it is. Like in my case, if the tractor had done all the 14.5 acres in the same day, then my projected revenue would have been about N2,550,000 (Two Million Five Hundred and Fifty thousand naira). But it gave a different result entirely. This price variability and inconsistency is what changes the dynamics absolutely.

For the sake of reference, this is how the pick up load looks like.

Image credit: nairaland.com Picture is for illustration.

Only people from my region Ibarapa - ( Igboora, Eruwa, Igangan, Tapa, Idere, Ayete and Lanlate ) use this modified pick up truck. As you can see, the cassava are actually arranged one over the other from bottom up, that way it contains more cassava compared to it was just poured in lumped up.

The red image is what the pick up truck looks like before the modification is usually done.

I am not sure the number of tonnes it carry fully loaded but it definitely Carries way more that the carrying capacity when modified.

It is no longer news that the greatest expenditure incurred when growing cassava is weed management. And as seen from the expenditure records, it appears too frequently. First hand weeding and second hand weeding, post emergent application and pre emergent application.
Managing and getting these expenses down will make cassava farming profitable.

Regards to profitability
Planting and growing cassava can be very profitable, though not very profitable at other times. I will tell you why. Shortly before May 2021, the pickup load went as high as N220,000/N200,000 (Two hundred and twenty thousand/two hundred thousand), but the 6 acres cassava farm was not matured enough to sell. So any farmer who has and sells at that time makes a kill in profit. When that happen, farmers expand their farms, complete their house projects, buy a car or a tractor if the farm is large.

Remember, these farmers are not new or starters who have just spent money on land clearing or land purchase or other capital intensive investments on the farm like installation of borehole, farmhouse or others stuffs like that. So the total revenue to them is termed profits. The reason being that, the entire enterprise was actually a saving account for them.

As can been in both farms, I made x2 (twice the expenditure).


Give or take, no farming venture done correctly should give less than the invested sum! Is this correct from your experience?

6 acres 7 pick-up!
8.5 acres 10 pick-up

I think something is wrong with the above analysis.

The cassava don't yield well.

Glyphosate have it own side effects on crops, also atrazine.

I like far that you like farming.

This year is gone already, next year try to do mix cropping I beg, cassava na the brother of palm oil it can rise up today and fall the next day.

Adamgeneral12:
6 acres 7 pick-up!
8.5 acres 10 pick-up

I think something is wrong with the above analysis.

The cassava don't yield well.

Glyphosate have it own side effects on crops, also atrazine.

I like far that you like farming.

This year is gone already, next year try to do mix cropping I beg, cassava na the brother of palm oil it can rise up today and fall the next day.

Baba. I just reported what happened at my end. It's not written for you to take it as a financial outlay for your farm. It's not a proposal to farm. I just reported what happened on my farm. Others might have a different experience which I do not dispute.

Remember I had acknowledged the low yield. When asked the variety planted, I said I don't know but the result on the farm tells me I needed to be interested in what variety is planted.

If I had been interested in the variety to be planted, my expenditures will definitely be higher that the quoted amounts. Those in the field understands already what I mean.

L.C.M of this cassava story, Irrespective of the selling price, the farmer still makes money. How big or wide that margin will be is beyond the control of the cassava farmer.

I don't know that u have reply me back so I have to modify this.

I see that you are pro keep it up

saliubello:
Last year 2020, I intended to plant cassava on an expanse of land - the total land area was 14.5 acres. That was MAY 2020, but the day the tractor operator went to re-plough the land, the tractor developed a fault. It was a big fault that would require alot of money to fix. They only were able to replough just six acres before the damage happened.

I planted cassava on the about six acres in May 2020. other things that I paid for on the farm.
---- Cassava Stems purchase
---- Payment for Planting
---- Purchase of Pre emergence chemical
---- Payment for labour to spray the chemical
---- First Hand weeding when the pre emergence chemical failed.
---- Second weeding
---- Post emergence chemical purchase
---- Labour for application of post emergence chemical
---- Chemical and application of post emergence again.
---- Miscellenous expenses.

Total expenditure amounts to N320,000 (Three hundred and twenty thousand naira)

At HARVEST: I harvested 7 (seven pickup loads of cassava) and each was sold at N150,000 (One hundred and fifty thousand naira) . This was the selling price as of May 2021.

Total revenue from six acres cassava farm as of May 2021: N1,050,000. One million and fifty thousand naira.

Wow, nice breakdown,
But I have a question, how many plants of cassava are planted in one acre

MAMMAN777:

Wow, nice breakdown,
But I have a question, how many plants of cassava are planted in one acre

I usually don't want to go this route because it some what bands me among the internet farmers. But I will try.

Ideally, cassava is expected to be planted at 1meter by 1meter, or for better weed management and higher plant density you plant at 1meter by 0.75m. Ideally. You could double check this with other literatures. But in practice, you can get this planting density and population if you are using a mechanical cassava planter (tractor drawn) that has been calibrated to drop the stems at that particular distance.
Other means of determining the appropriate planting distance is to use the length of regular matches as depicted in images.

But to get the labourers to plant it using this regular spacing is usually a tall task. They are usually unwilling to do the task. But to use this literature recommended spacings, it also suggest the application of fertilizer to get certain tonnage per hectare.

In my case, I am not selling to a processor directly where I will be paid per tonnage harvested and delivered. The pick up load model is not weight-based when they buy from farmers, but it is weight-based when they go to sell.

However, if you read through nairaland.com agriculture section, you will see that their had been back and forth debates about cassava profitability in the past. And I know others who went by the literatures before venturing into cassava got their fingers burnt not from the yield per ser but from marketing and pricing cassava.

Attached herewith is IITA cassava Cropping Guide:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.iita.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Cassava_system_cropping_guide.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjYsK3ExJD0AhWKz4UKHZYuCUAQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3_UQ5Lrj5STnYGsVPVDT0A

saliubello:
I usually don't want to go this route because it some what bands me among the internet farmers. But I will try.

Ideally, cassava is expected to be planted at 1meter by 1meter, or for better weed management and higher plant density you plant at 1meter by 0.75m. Ideally. You could double check this with other literatures. But in practice, you can get this planting density and population if you are using a mechanical cassava planter (tractor drawn) that has been calibrated to drop the stems at that particular distance.
Other means of determining the appropriate planting distance is to use the length of regular matches as depicted in images.

But to get the labourers to plant it using this regular spacing is usually a tall task. They are usually unwilling to do the task. But to use this literature recommended spacings, it also suggest the application of fertilizer to get certain tonnage per hectare.

In my case, I am not selling to a processor directly where I will be paid per tonnage harvested and delivered. The pick up load model is not weight-based when they buy from farmers, but it is weight-based when they go to sell.

However, if you read through nairaland.com agriculture section, you will see that their had been back and forth debates about cassava profitability in the past. And I know others who went by the literatures before venturing into cassava got their fingers burnt not from the yield per ser but from marketing and pricing cassava.

Thanks for your info.
What you said is the same thing I found through the Nairaland Agric. section that marketing is the major problem in cassava farming.

How long does it take a cassava farm to mature for harvesting?
I intend to test run with 2 acres of land.
I would also love to know if there is any particular season it must be planted. Thanks

sandammy:
How long does it take a cassava farm to mature for harvesting?
I intend to test run with 2 acres of land.
I would also love to know if there is any particular season it must be planted. Thanks

Any thing from the eighth months and above up till the second year cassava is good to harvest. The literatures recommends planting in March/April, or September, but me I planted in May and October. My current cassava project was planted just few days ago in November.

It is a rugged crop.

saliubello:
Any thing from the eighth months and above up till the second year cassava is good to harvest. The literatures recommends planting in March/April, or September, but me I planted in May and October. My current cassava project was planted just few days ago in November.

It is a rugged crop.

Thanks bro

I was discussing with a friend yesterday about the time cassava price rises astronomically and what causes it. My takeaway from that discussion is that cassava price rises astronomically once every three years.

From my end, I have the seen the trend in 2016, 2018 and now 2021. Maybe next is 2023.

Irrespective, we move.

I will update on the harvest and sales due in few days.

saliubello:
I was discussing with a friend yesterday about the time cassava price rises astronomically and what causes it. My takeaway from that discussion is that cassava price rises astronomically once every three years.

Is true

saliubello:
when it was time to sell the cassava at JULY2021, THE cost per pick up load had dropped to N70,000 per pick up load as against N150,000 per pick up load in May 2021.

10 pick up loads of cassava was harvested from the 8.5acres @ N70,000

Total revenue from 8.5ACRES WAS N700,000 (seven hundred thousand naira) as of July 2021

If i'm to use this as an estimate, then it would cost me about two million to cultivate 50 acres of virgin farmland in Ibarapa area and the profit would be about two million. If it costs me three million to buy the 50 acres, then i can recoup my investment in two years. The profit margin is too good to be true.

abouzaid:



If i'm to use this as an estimate, then it would cost me about two million to cultivate 50 acres of virgin farmland in Ibarapa area and the profit would be about two million. If it costs me three million to buy the 50 acres, then i can recoup my investment in two years. The profit margin is too good to be true.

Have you done it before? Let's read your own report so we can compare note.

Have you read about my cassava farming pains? If no, then you cannot validly conclude thus.