This is highly inspiring. I have learned a lot. I am a maize farmer too around Keffi, Nasarawa state. I will definitely take manure much more seriously now.

Thank you @ farmboimarkus. Your post is highly inspirational. I feel you because I have been where you are now. I had over 8 hectares of maize farm last year after spending more than N1,500,000 (N1.5M) but due to a number of factors like the fertility of the soil which was not obvious at the onset, the harvest was not what we expected and I lost my investments. I spent money on land preparation, herbicide, manure (N200,000), fertilizers (NPK, UREA) etc, supergro, Biowish, humic and fluvic acid, insecticides/pesticides (Army worm), Seeds, labour, food, etc. it was a traumatic experience for me. But I did not give up. I changed farm land, learnt from my experience and this year the difference is clear. DON'T give up. Fluctuation in rain fall can be very devastating.......................... Am sure I did not make up to N600k.

Staga. Thanks for the post. How do we get Mycorrhiza?

Love your write-up on maize. Keep it coming. What variety of Maize seeds will you recommend? do you recommend Sammaz 15 that you enumerated above? Thanks

thank you bro. highly informative.

This is beautiful bro. Keep it up. we are following

Wow. Thank you so much. You are doing well. Keep it up.

Maryam1234:

Yes Sir, it's the same Maryam you know. I will help you enquire about Dogon Ruwa paddy from Katsina and get back to you sir, The rice is not common in Niger State.

Thanks @Maryam. is this the Maryam on 'My 2022 Farm Diary' on Nairaland? Well done. Can I get the paddy for the Dogon Ruwa Rice to plant? if available, what is the cost. Thanks

I was there on Saturday as planned. The location is beautiful and very fertile land all around for farming. Thank you @ Maryam for the time and direction. I met with her husband and am in the process of acquiring a sizeable piece of land for my farm project.

This is eye opening and inspirational. We are learning a lot and gaining new insights. Keep it up and coming.

Great piece as usual. We are following solidly. you are a great encouragement. Thanks man.

I can see you are really doing great on your farm. That land is looking well harrowed and clean and that maize is wow. keep it up. I could not make last Saturday as planned cos I went to my farm. Will this Saturday be ok? in the morning by lets say 8: am? is the road passable in view of the trouble at Dei-Dei?

Good one guy. We are following. Already learning and hope to learn more along the way. keep it coming

Thank you Maryam. Your thread is quite encouraging and highly motivating. Yes, I am the one you have been communicating with offline via text messages. I will do my very best to come around this Saturday, 21st May, 22.Thanks for being an encouragement.

Maryam1234:

Thanks for being here,I will be updating at interval.The problem is I and my hubby both have busy schedules but, regardless I wil keep you guys posted even through harvesting and processing period,God help me.As for the lease you can reach me out,I can only connect you with the landlord's.I don't know if it's you I have been communicating with offline though;

This is great. Thank you for the detailed information on your farm activities. keep it coming. We are very much interested and following. I am into maize, groundnut, yam and beans farming. I am also interested in the land lease.

use Caterpillar force to get rid of them. You can get it from any agric chemical shop around you. Alternatively you can try Ariel detergent with baking soda. Add water and spray inside the maize plant.

God bless you farm endevours. this is highly encouraging for Nigerian youths. We've got to rise up and do something. Thanks bro.

Can you do a video demonstration and post it ? lets see how it works

wow! this is encouraging. Keep it up. we are following. Can you share practical experiences on your cassava farm?

congratulations bro. Agric is the in-thing now. Give it all it takes and you will Thank God that you choose that course

Thank you man. Please keep it coming. We are following and learning. I am a cow pea (beans) farmer too. I have about 3 & half hectares of beans planted around Keffi, Nasarawa state.

Dawson126:


Maize lethal necrotic disease

I won't bore you with unnecessary talks. It is caused by a group of viruses, each with their havoc and could be interpreted as a curse in African culture. Lol. It can attack maize at any growth stage, any growth stage means any, the worst being during tarseling because it will damage the inflorescence, caused them to malform. Just any stage maybe while fruiting or preparing to fruit, while setting kernels etc.

How can I identify it roughly on spot?
The maize leaf begins to dry from the blade till it get to the main rib. That is, from outside the leaf to inside the leaf resembling a chemical burn. The spot affected will be scattered, one spot here, another there, another somewhere else and even a sick one might stand with a healthy one. So reasonably one would think chemical burn or salt stress and not even blight or any other type.
It is also quick to spread and the results are bad reason for the lethal

How can I prevent it?

Seed sanitary (Usually seeds are screened for it if from genuine supplier, seed could be treated against it too)
Farm sanitary (controlled movement of workers, choose a uniform mainly used in the farm for workers, instructions to be careful visiting places where maize monoculture is practiced, most importantly, extend the knowledge to commercial operators of farm machines, so as to keep the machines clean after each use)
Crop rotation
Not known effective chemical control
Plant resistant variety

Thank you for this scholarly breakdown sir! Those of us who are viewing and following this highly informative write ups should please comment to keep this thread alive.

Dawson126:


What is gibberellin?

Gibberellins are plant hormones and derivatives of gibberellic acid. Gibberellins are the many forms found in plants but the one available for agriculture is gibberellic acid in forms of tablet, powder or solution. They are growth regulators and promoters in plants, and are responsible for apical growth in plants that is, they make plants grow tall, larger tuber settings etc. They're widely used in potatoes cultivation and grasses cultivation ( sorghum ,maize, etc and widely used in rice)

Sometimes our crop don't do well not because the soil nutrients and structure, or our farm practices are bad, normal plant growth could be disturbed too e.g plant coordination (hormonal control). A plant having issues with gibberellins will not grow tall no matter how good other things are, a plant also having issues with Auxins will not do well either. Both with cytokinins are very important growth hormones.

Any effect on human body?

One might say, 'you're feeding us hormones' but the truth is that hormones are over exaggerated. Plants hormones are not like animals' even in structures. Most of animals' are proteinous while those of plants are simple structured organic compounds. And do you know? Most herbicides we used are actually hormones, growth hormones e.g 2,4-D etc. It is a type of auxins. Grasses don't seemed affected because non grasses are very sensitive and susceptible to it even generally auxins e.g Indo Acetic acid. If you use it at more than the recommended dosage, it can harm your grass even at a certain growth (especially fruiting) stage of your grasses, yield could be affected but unnoticeable and danger of leaving the weed or cost of manually weeding could be more than that of applying the chemical

Therefore Gibberellins could be used to treat dwarf plants and human bodies have no receptor for them.

What kind of crops can it be used on?

Virtually all crops and even trees but some respond better to it while some respond better in the presence of Auxins. Tubers respond well to it (widely used in yams and potatoes, usually rubbed with tuber sets from seed companies), grasses, vegetables also do well

Where can I buy it?
It is readily available with agro dealers especially those dealing with rice and potatoes cultivation inputs. Some go by the name, UJALA or so, Zibberelins etc

Wow! What a detailed expose. Thanks man. Really grateful

Dawson126:
This is going to be lengthy but I've got to pour it out.

So this morning I was typing a report given to me by a lecturer I'm very cordial with. There's this project he's on. Someone came from abroad and decided to settle for farming. He had a maize field of about 21 hectares going down the drainage. They just noticed after chemical weeding, some spots on the field started dying off. It started somehow as chemical injury until it began to spread, then they started seeing it as salt stress, later blight but all measures proffered no solution and somehow he met this man, some folks from crop protection began their findings.

It turned out to be the dreaded maize leaf lethal necrotic disease. I was just sorry for the person, multi-million Naira project. Just like that wasting. I was just imagining why someone would have that kind of a project and won't seek help from people from the scratch. There are so many outlets here in Nigeria that would offer awesome service. Maybe they just think because one could get away with small hold farming one could do that for large hold ones, it's wrong. Agriculture upsets the ecosystem, it upsets nature. You're favouring the growth of a specie at the expense of another one, you're interfering with natural law process of life. There are practices no agric experts will never reveal because that's where financial gain lies. And that's the Ecosystem Threshold Level and their concepts. There is a level you reach, nature fights back. Nature is just like the human homeostasis, keeping balance at a fairly constant range but for that to happen many process are involved! I'm just damn disturbed, feeling for that farmer

You can't manage one hectare like one acre, you can't manage one acre like a quarter of acre, a quarter like one plot! There are different. You're providing more food to favour some organisms (humans, armyworm, rodents, pests, pathogens) above the other, which would surely disturbed ecosystem! The more the size, the more the problems you'd see on your farm, and you want to come out with profit, you've got to fight with practical wisdom.

Naturally those thing would grow in the wild, rabbit will eat, rat will eat, pest and disease causing organisms would come eat theirs, humans too will eat, when nature pities them, they evolve to manage the assaults gradually to a level at balance! That's what whites are doing now for Genetically Modified Crops, they saw if you don't help these crops and indirectly assisting nature like an Indian giver, by conferring fighting factors right from their genetic make up, from their genes, you're practically doing nothing, you're causing more harms. See climate change. Over time, selfish human has assaulted nature to the extent nature now had no option but to demise the wisdom of man. At least if you can't guess when the next rain is, you won't go and apply herbicides or pesticides or your chemicals.

Thank you once again. We are following. I am a maize, cowpea, rice, yam and groundnut farmer. Happy to read about your experience and your depth of knowledge considering the fact that you are studying agriculture. Can you elaborate more on 'lethal necrotic disease'? and how to detect and deal with it? Thank you and keep up the good work. We your students are following with keen interest. by the way how do you deal with weed on your farm?

Dawson126:
The ones at this side of the field from the start had issues. Although the soil structure was well affected due to cassava cultivation but at the end to prevent their shortness which might affect yield , gibberelin was applied and there was improvement at least.

Thanks man. This wonderful and sacrificial on your part. Thank you so much Dawson. What is 'gibberelin' and what is its work on maize plant? Thanks

JeAgro477:
2500 per bottle if you are buying up to a carton and 3000 if you are buying just 10 bottles

is it 250ml or 500ml?

Thank you for your kind response. how much is your Lagon herbicide going for now? I reside in Abuja

I am interested in corn flour production expecially

This is excellent. the farm is looking very neat and free of weed. What quantity of lagon in needed for one hectare. Can I apply two (2) days after planting maize? Thank you so much. Keep it coming we are following!

Thank you so much for this eye opening exposition. We are following and learning. Keep it coming

You surely have great plans for your farm. Please do not plant groundnut and maize together. Plant each crop on their own in separate plots on the land.

(2) Your plant spacing is excellent. 75 cm x 25 cm.

(5). My friend, get yourself a seed planter and don't depend on labourers. They will plant with so much gap that you will not maximise the land. You can get a seed and fertilizer planter at N75k in Abuja or get the locally fabricated planter at N18k - 20k.

Thanks guys for your contributions. I have learnt a lot. I think it is worthy of note to draw our attention to the disparity between the number of plots represented in a hectare in the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria. A hectare in the North is 10 plots (100x100 = 1 plot). while a hectare in the Southern part of Nigeria I was told is about 15 plots. If this submission is correct then the yield will be different. if for example you got 2.5 tons or 4.5tons and above kindly let us know the number of plots that make up 1 hectare in your area. Thanks.