Seeds are an important determinant to plant growth. They contain DNA information and nutrient from the parent plant which they use to sprout a new plant. Having a good seed treatment strategy can be key to achieving high productivity of farm.

A seed usually needs a number of items before it germinates water, good temperature and a favorable soil. Once these needs are met, the seed utilizes the nutrients within itself to sprout a young plant.

It can be tempting to plant a seed directly after purchase and let nature do its work. But this may not be best in the long run. It is necessary to ensure seeds to be planted are in good condition by treating seeds using a number of techniques. This would help give your seeds an increased chance of success

Water Soak Method

Seeds that have being harvested and stored for a long time fall the risk of becoming dormant. When a seed is dormant it becomes difficult for it to germinate after planting. In some cases, this is caused by seeds being coated with non-biological materials. By soaking and washing seeds, a farmer can free up dirt and soften the outer layer of seed. To use this procedure, seeds are soaked in warm water for 12 – 24 hours and then sun dried for a number of hours before planting.

Soaking seeds can also serve a method of determining good seed. Seeds that do not sink to the bottom of the container should be discarded off.

Chemical Application Method

Seeds contain information about the genetic makeup of its parent plant. And this information is used to sprout new plants. This means if the parent plant was infected with a disease, there is a good chance the seed would also be infected. Seeds can also be infected by fungi or attacked by insect before they sprout. For these reasons, it is necessary to pre-treat seeds before planting.

Chemicals used in treating seeds can be a fungicide or insecticide or both. Other chemicals can increase the drought resistibility ability of plants, while some can even eliminate the need for fertilizer.

There are different chemicals for different types of seeds, Chemicals are used by mixing with seeds in a container and shaking container thoroughly till seeds are well coated.A farmer can also choose to purchase pre-treated seeds from trusted companies.


ADVANTAGES OF PRE-TREATED SEEDS


Allow for easier germination

By pre-treating seeds, a farmer break dormancy and make seeds come alive. This reduces time a seed takes to germinate and reduces overall time of planting to harvest.

In locations where farmers have a short rainy season before drought, every little time is important.


Protect against insect pests and disease

By planting pre-treated seed or treating seeds, a farmer can control fungi infestation. This helps to have vibrant and clean plants, and lead to fast growth. Attack by insects are also inhibited as chemical coating makes seeds less appealing to pest.

Saves money

Quick germinating plants with little expenses on chemical control is ideal for every farmer. Overhead costs can be reduced leading to better Return on investment on farm.

To get better yield on farms, farmers have to utilize better techniques and incorporate the use of technology on farms. ProbityFarms is a data driven solution, that allows farmers to keep track of costs and activities on farm. For other features visit www.probityfarms.com

https://probityfarms.com/forum/seeds/the-secret-in-pre-treating-seeds

Agriculture is changing rapidly, and becoming more of a full time business. People who would love to participate in agriculture are unable to do so due to other commitments. And at the same time, a lot of farmers are unable to produce to their maximum capacity due to limited funds. For both parties to benefit, it is crucial they come to some form of agreement.

Investors are usually unable to participate due to little farm experience, unavailability of time to farm, no land to farm e.t.c. While farmers are unable to expand their farming ventures due to lack of funds necessary for purchase of seedlings, purchase of better farm machinery, purchase of fertilizers and other farm input e.t.c
This has led to the introduction of farming by proxy. Here, individuals invests some amount of money in a farm venture, with hopes of getting profit from sale of the farm’s produce after harvest. Farming by proxy can be viewed as a partnership, where an investor contributes money in place of efforts so as to share in profits.

Farming is a lucrative venture that gives better profit when practiced in a large scale, for example farming cassava on a two hectare of land can make a farmer realize almost 1milllion naira after deduction of costs.
Some Farmers give investors a share of 50% on initial profits, meaning an investor can realize up to N150,000 on an initial investment of N300,000.

However, farming by proxy is hugely dependent on finding a farmer who has a good farming experience and is also trustworthy. The success of the partnership relies on the farmer carrying out his end of the bargain. Many investors live/work far away from where farms are usually located so it’s difficult to track and measure farms progress.

With transparency however it is easy to manage your investments even when you are away from the farm. ProbityFarms is a online farm management and accounting tool, that has features which can be used to track a farms progress from any location. Investors can take satellite images of farms, look at performing and underperforming regions, get to see uploaded images of farm’s activity and progress, and follow the farmer through the farm’s journey leading up to harvest.

Ensure your farmer has an account with ProbityFarms and uploads all relevant data to keep you abreast of the farm’s condition at any point in time. This would help ensure transparency and compliance on the side of the farmer. Farming is growing, you can be a part of it too, visit www.probityfarms.com for more details.

https://probityfarms.com/forum/general/how-farming-by-proxy-can-make-you-more-money-in-20181

visit www.probityfarms.com

A farmers cooperative, usually known as farmers coop is a system where farmers pool their resources together to perform a certain activity.
Agriculture as a field has immense opportunities but most farmers are unable to benefit due to low finances. Cooperatives provides a way for farmers to join together in a association and pool their resources to achieve a common goal.

There are numerous benefits that can be enjoyed from belonging to agricultural cooperatives. Farmers cooperatives are known for their resilience and strength, with increasing turnover yearly. They also do better in sale of farm produce due to higher bargaining power. Combined efforts ensure cooperatives find it easy to overcome everyday problems other farmers struggle with.

However for a cooperative to be successful, it needs good organization and management. Members of the farmers coop should have a ready access to the state of the farm and their investments and at any time. Successful Farmers cooperative find it necessary to utilize technology in managing and tracking farmers coop data.

ProbityFarms has features that allows members to access data from the cooperative at any point in time. This helps to ensure full transparency and accountability. By following on farm’s progress, experienced farmers coop members can make advice and contributions, without being physically present on farm.

i. Register all members and their contributions
ii. Automatically calculates members share from farm yield
iii. Members can access farm data through tracking activities, planting date, harvest date
iv. Members can follow up on farm progress through gallery
v. Members can access costs, expenses and sales
vi. Presents data from farm activities and spending in a PDF document which is distributed to farmers at the end of the season


With good management and transparency, farmers cooperatives have limitless potential for growth and revenue.
Are you a member of any farmer cooperative or know any farmer cooperatives?, call 07031008088 or visit www.probityfarms.com to get more information on how probityfarms can help you manage your cooperative.

https://probityfarms.com/forum/general/how-to-run-an-efficient-farmers-cooperative

visit www.probityfarms.com

Soil is where life on farm begins. To achieve good crop growth a farmer should cater well to the needs of the soil, as a high quality soil would always help crops perform better than a low quality one. But how does a farmer ensure soil is always of good quality?

There are various factors contributing to a good soil quality. Factors include Soil nutrient, soil moisture, soil texture and organic matter. This post looks at how these factors can help farmers grow better


SOIL NUTRIENT IS CROP FOOD
Farmers can ensure good crop growth by making sure soil has all the nutrient needed by plants. Crops have different nutrient needs, and perform differently over a wide range of soil type.
A good soil provides adequately for all the nutrients needed by a plant in optimal quantity. Nutrients such as nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P2O5), potassium (K2O) are usually needed in high quantity. While traces of other elements such as iron (Fe), boron (B), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) help boosting soil quality.

It is important to note that having traces of all of these elements in the soil is better than having too much of any of them. This means moderation should be applied in the application of fertilizer or any nutrient fixing substance.


BETTER SOIL MOISTURE FOR HEALTHIER PLANTS
Soil moisture is the water held in soil spores. If the water is good for plant, they would readily absorb it. Water for plants use usually comes in form of a solution, containing already dissolved salts and nutrients.
By absorbing soil water, plants take up moisture and nutrients for its need. A good soil should have a good water-holding capability. This would ensure that water from irrigation is well retained and can be accessed by plants at all times.

BETTER SOIL TEXTURE HEALTHIER PLANTS

Soil texture refers to the structure of the soil. Different soil are made up of different properties. These properties result from how the soil’s particles are shaped or organized. A soil with larger round particles would have more space for water and air penetration, a good example of this is a sandy soil. However a soil with a lot of spaces, would have low water retention capability.

Soil best fitted for crop production would have moderately shaped particles, that combines good water retention capability and finely spaced particles for air and water penetration. An examples of this is loamy soil.

To find out a soil’s texture, take a handful of it and rub between your fingers. Gritty soils are sandy and they would fall of fingertips easily. Loamy soils would feel greasy especially when wet. Clay soil would always feel greasy, stick to fingers and form ribbons especially when wet.


ORGANIC MATTER MATTERS

The soil can be said to contain 3 major inhabitants. Living organisms, fresh residue, and well-decomposed residue. Each of these inhabitants play a role in the quality of the soil.

Living organisms such as worms bore in and out of the soil, helping to avoid compactness. When living organisms die, they serve as an important source of humus. Which is nature’s best way of fixing nutrient into the soil. It also decomposes into CO2 and water, which are among the basic components of plant feed.
Every successful farmer knows the secret to having good crop growth is paying attention to little detail on your farm. By noting down farm activities such as tilling, application of fertilizer and irrigation, a farmer can easily review activities and compare them to crop growth.


Modern technologies have made it possible to share farm information with expert farmers and get tips on how to improve on crop production.
ProbityFarms is a solution designed to ensure farmers can cater to farm needs by reviewing farm procedures and operations. As a free app, farmers can improve productivity in just one season by utilizing this solution. Visit www.probityfarms.com and start farming the right way.

https://probityfarms.com/forum/crop-production/4-secrets-about-soil-every-farmer-must-know

One of the top reasons why most farmers are poor is because they do not treat their farm as a business. For any business to be successful, the owner is expected to have good record keeping and cost management practices. Most poor farmers fail to keep farm records. As a result of this, they cannot make informed decisions for future planting seasons.
To succeed as a farmer, it is advisable that farmers should allocate time to properly document their farm activities and expenses. To do this, a minimum of 10 minutes per day is recommended. In this post, I will share 6 benefits that farmers get when they keep farm records and the impact on their business.

1.. Track Cash Inflow and Outflow
Tracking cashflow and outflow enables the farmer to get detailed reports on expenses made and also revenues from sale of farm produce. At the start of the season, a farmer should create a budget with proposed expenditure and revenue for proper planning.
2. Evaluating Farm’s Viability
Farm records can be used to evaluate a farm project in order to determine its chances of success. This would help the farmer make decisions such as increasing or limiting investments to that farm project.
3. Access to Loan and Credit Facilities
Financial institutions require a good amount of paperworks before disbursing loan requests or insurance claims. Good farm records can help farmers with these. By presenting records from previous farming season along with overall farm plan, a farmer can meet the requirements and show that it is capable of refunding the loan.
4. Improved farm planning and forecasting
Imagine the possibility that you can forecast your revenue even before you start a farm project. This will give you peace of mind to commence the farm season with a guarantee of success.
A good farm record keeping system makes it easy to extrapolate future yields and expenses based on previous farming seasons and historical data. Also, a farmer can learn from past experiences to prevent repeating the same mistake. By keeping a journal/diary of farm works, this information can be made available to other co-workers.
5. Long term Projections
Farming is a business and businessmen make adequate steps to expand their enterprise, hence, a good record keeping would help a farmer make projections for his farm. Through this record a farmer can determine if he realizes enough to expand his farm in the nearest future, this would help him take steps to the realization of such goal. He may also choose to invest in livestock production or intercrop with legumes on the same farm.
6. Better Farm Management
A good record keeping system would have information relating to best farming practises to use. This can include seed germination rates, variety of crop planted, type of soil used for planting crop, time of the season for best yield, methods of irrigation to be used, best diseases and pest management techniques.


How to keep farm records without stress.

It is obvious that keeping adequate farm record is good for farmers. Most farmers understand that these activities are very essentials, yet, they fail at keeping farm records simply because it is a boring task. For example, farmers have to carry around notebooks and spreadsheets to take notes and keep records.
We launched probityfarms to help farmers keep farm records in a modern way.
The application helps farmers to keep record of farm activities, costs, and expenses and revenue for a entire planting season using cloud technology which ensures the farm record is secure and safe. Farmers can export a report of farms viability and report for access to loan and credit facilities. The application also allows farmers to upload pictures of farm activities and farm purchases for future referencing. You can learn more about how the application works and sign up for a free account on www.Probityfarms.com

Thinning is a farm technique used to remove some plants or parts of plant to allow growth of more plants or fruit.

This operation is usually used to reduce competition among plants for requirements for growth, such as light, moisture and nutrients. When seedlings are thinned, there would be a bigger spacing between them which would help to better airflow and reduce the spread of diseases through limited air movement.

This procedure helps a farmer to determine the space in which plants are to grow. Fruit producing plants most especially would have a lower fruit yield when plants have to struggle for access to root space and nutrients, which would lead to reduced or low productivity from farms.

Thinning can be done in different ways, although the most common practice is to uproot unwanted part of plant from the soil, leaving the healthy part of the plant. this is better done in the late evening and when the soil is soft or properly watered.

Ensure thinning of plants is done before the roots are well formed, as disturbing well formed roots would be detrimental to a plants growth. Plants that can be thinned include tomatoes, ugu, cucumber and other vegetable crops.

ProbityFarms is a Free Farm Advisory and Farm Management software that allows you to keep track of all farm expenses and farm tasks, while providing the farmer with an advisory on modern Farm techniques and operations. Get costs estimates on every penny you spend on your farm before spending it. To try it out for free visit www.probityfarms.com/oracle

https://probityfarms.com/forum/crop-production/how-thinning-helps-to-improve-plant-growth

visit www.probityfarms.com

Farmers in Nigeria have lower yields than farmers elsewhere (like in Asia, North America and Europe). Do you know why?
This is because local farmers lack of access to modern practices. We built Probityfarms specifically give you the best practises that will help you to increase your farm yield and revenue by up to 80%. There are two major advantages that using the application gives you: the ability to manage your farm operations and farm finance easily.


1. You get the best farming practices for the crops you want to plant.
Our research shows that farmers need best farming practices of what to plant. As a result, we worked with experts to develop templates for different crop types (right now we support more than 15 crops).


2. You get a dashboard to manage your farm operations.
As soon as you complete the step above, you will get a PDF in your email and will also be granted access to your own personalized dashboard that is populated with the tasks from your farm advisory document. These activities cover farm tasks from pre-planting to harvesting stage for each crop.

This means that you don’t need to carry around excel or spreadsheet to keep your finance and log books to track your farm task as everything can be recorded at once. In future update, we are going to synchronize this experience with Google calendar.
In addition to this, you also have access to a health directory. Just type in any farm related diseases and you will get full details, including how to treat the farm disease from mosaic virus to bird flu.

Lets I forget, we also made it easy to get hyper-local weather forecast. Farmers understand that rain is one of the most significant factors that determine the success of farm project. We want to make it easy to predict if it is going to rain or not. Farmers can see predictions of rainfall from the app and can subscribe to daily weather alerts via SMS. (Subscription fee applies for this)

3. Get hypothetical farm yield report based on best practices.

This predictive report shows you what farm performance should look like. We used the values you provided for your plantation (size of farmland, crop types etc) to generate an estimate revenue analysis based on standard benchmarks.Below are what each report stands for:

Total expense: This is the total expense you are expected to incur throughout the farm activities.
Total turnover: Expected revenue our intelligent system predicted you will make from your venture.
Profit: As the name implies, this will be the difference between your total turnover and expense.
Hectare/day: Hectare shows the size of your farmland (based on the information you provided), while days shows the number of days for the crop life cycle.

When you click “end your farm”, we will generate an actual report for your that compares the actual performance with projected performance we bench-marked against. (More on this on the section about “managing your farm finance”)

4. Collaborate with others on the farm project.
You can easily grant access to other people to carry out tasks for you. Our notification and reporting systems make it easy to follow up on the progress of your workers or associates.

This also means that if you help other people manage their farm investments (like this guy is doing), you can ask your “investors” to sign up on the platform to see your progress. The good part is that you can limit the information that your users see based on the permission settings.


5. Manage your farm finance from A to Z.

Farming is a business that requires you to be able to manage cashflow and P&L. We built finance management into Probityfarms to allow you add (1) farm expenses: an ongoing spending on the farm
(2) Harvest: highlight harvest made from the farm and represent them in terms of tonnage or size
(3) Sales: record all revenue generated from sale of farm products or service.

For other features provided by ProbityFarms solution, click on the link below or visit www.probityfarms.com

https://probityfarms.com/forum/farm-management-software/want-to-become-better-farm-managers-and-improve-farm-yields-set-up-probityfarms-with-this-guide

ProbityFarms is a Solution designed to provide farmers with a advisory on farming best practices for running their farm, production cost estimates and help them track farm expenses.
Visit http://www.probityfarms.com/oracle for a free account on how to make most out of your farm.

Water Melon is an easy to plant fruit, which can make a farmer realize high levels of income in no short time due to the increase in demand for the fruit. Sourcing for seeds for water melon is easy, due to the high import of hybrid seeds. It is essential that a farmer checks out fruit properly before choosing to plant from fruits sold at roadside.
These fruits are in most cases hybrid and seeds from hybrid fruit do not grow to type. They grow as another fruit different from water melon. In the case that a farmer can ascertain that a fruit isn’t hybrid, leave fruit to ferment for three days before extracting seed for planting. After extracting seed, rinse properly to remove dirt and then sun-dry before planting, proper drying makes it more resistant to pest and diseases. It is advisable not to plant seeds that have being consumed or has mixed with saliva, as the chemicals in saliva would have reduced the viability of seed.
To plant water melon on a soil with moderate quality, farmer can prepare high mounds with lots of compost or manure on the top before planting. The mounds should be about one foot high. It is essential to plant seeds with good spacing to avoid congesting water melon plants. When there are good spacing for plants there is increased yield.


For more details on how to plant, and when to plant water melon vist wwww.probityfarms.com/oracle.
ProbityFarms also provide full costs analysis of water melon and projected revenue over a planting season.

A Post Mortem is usually carried out by doctors to find out why a person died, so as to put preventive measures in place to avoid a re-occurrence of such.

Businesses are not left out of this trend as most entrepreneurs are always eager to deduce why their product or service failed/died. After the pointing of fingers, and making wild accusations it is usually imperative for a proper businessman to analyze the factors and reasons that led to the demise of his/her business venture.

These days Agriculture can most often be regarded as businesses, with a farmer addressing issues in seed type, fertilizer purchase, water conservation, labor costs, inventory and other expenses. Present day farmers are getting to be more than just crop producers but businessmen and entrepreneurs in their own right.
Running a farm as a business requires the farmer to take steps and utilize tools that ensures that all factors of production are working properly. To do this a farmer has to properly schedule and monitor all farm activities just as he would for a conventional business.
Purchase of seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides e.t.c and other farm input should be properly recorded, farm activities and date of completion, costs of carrying out each activity, should form a crucial part of a farm’s record.

Using information accumulated over a planting season can help farmers recognize highs and lows of the farming business and watch out for red flags, by timely identification of leakages in farming venture farmers would be able to take appropriate control measures when necessary.

ProbityFarms is a solution that helps farmers to easily keep track of farm expenses, costs and revenue so as to improve productivity and revenue from farms. Farmers can easily record day to day purchases on their farm, generate a total of farm expenses and compare against the expected revenue for any particular crop. Using this tool farmers know when their farm expenses and costs exceeds the acceptable norm for that crop in their locality.

With Data generated over multiple farms, ProbityFarms allows farmers to easily compare costs of farm purchases and expenses, helping to control exploitation and ensuring proper utilization of farm capital and funds. ProbityFarms to do a Pre-Mortem on your farm ensuring you never have to carry out a Post-Mortem.

Visit www.probityfarms.com/oracle for a free account

Neem tree, popular known as Dogonyaro is an evergreen tree which can be found in tropical and sub-tropical areas. It has various uses and famers can also benefit by using is as a cheap source of natural insecticide. Insects that feed on vegetables and plants do so because of its sweet taste. By spraying Neem leaves solution on plants, a farmer can prevent these insects from chewing plant leaves by coating plant leaves with a substance of bitter taste.
Unlike chemical insecticide that kills insects after direct contact, neem leaves prevents insects from eating the plant, by keeping them at bay, it also helps to disrupt the sexual reproduction of insects ensuring their life cycle is terminated and if insects rely on plant leaves solely for feed, they starve off and die.
We use this Organic pesticide for:
• aphids
• white fly
• grasshoppers
• caterpillars
As an organic control method, it is free of chemicals and is not toxic to human or animals, research has also shown that areas where neem leaves were sprayed is found to have an increased number of earthworms, which helps to improve soil quality as they bore into the soil.
To apply neem leaves, pluck branches from tree. Then carefully separate leaves from branches. Chop leaves to smaller bits using a blender or food processor. Soak in water for three days, allowing it to brew, although farmer might choose to boil in order to hasten the process. When the mixture is ready, it would have a bitter-like smell. Pour out of container and sieve the mixture using a cloth to remove leave particles, the sieved out particles can be used as a compost heap. To ensure mixture sticks to plant, add oil before spraying. Collect mixture in a spraying can and apply to plant leaves, ensure sprayed mixture does not run off the plant. Shake properly before spraying and spray to the top of leaves.
For a stronger version of the pesticide, the neem oil can be extracted from the seed. The dried seeds are grounded into powdery form. This powder can then be reconstituted with oil. A coating of neem oil protects food crops for up to 20months from all sorts of infestation with no loss in quality of plants
Flies, Ticks and mosquitoes can be prevented from affecting livestock by spraying neem oil, research showed that inducing neem seed extract into diet of livestock eradicates hornfly



Spray with dongoyaro solution morning and night for 7 days and see what happens. Get dongoyaro bark and sock in water for 3 - 5 days before using it.

Our ugu was infested with mosaic virus around June and after applying this solution, it all disappeared. Thank you and all the best.
Our personal experience: we soaked about 75kg of the back inside a 8500L of plastic tank.


https://probityfarms.com/forum/general/Using-Neem-Tree-Extracts-as-Cheap-alternative-to-Pest-Control

Farming can be described as a technical profession, from planting to management and harvest, it often tedious to gain insights to the best practices for farming different types of crops. Potential Farmers looking to go into agriculture are hindered by the lack of access to materials which would improve their knowledge of farming for a particular crop, they also suffer from an inability to have access to experienced farmers who can give them real time updates on practices to be carried out on their farm.


As human beings our ability to take risks differs, with some having a preference for low risk ventures and if they are to engage in one, they would need clear and detailed steps on activities to be carried out, cost of such activities and when to carry them out. For a business venture as technical and unpredictable as agriculture, it is little wonder that many are ready to venture into farming but unable to do so due to the fear of taken wrong steps.

Farmers are also unable to expand their farming enterprise due to the fear of failing and losing capital. For example farmers who plant a specific crop or rear a certain livestock, are aware that their business enterprise would be boosted by engaging in mixed farming and growing a side crop along with the original crop or livestock. Livestock farmers know they can benefit from growing crops which can be used in feeding animals and utilizing animal wastes as fertilizers.

These are problems which are obtained from lack of easy access to information on farming; with increased interests in agriculture and more farmers desiring to expand their business enterprise, it has become necessary to have an advisory system that enlightens farmers.

The advisory system would ensure potential farmers get detailed information on costs of different farm activities from land preparation, planting, weed management, harvest and even selling produce in the market. Existing farmers wishing to refresh their knowledge on developments and new methods in achieving improved productivity can benefit from this system.

All these and many more are different advantages that can be obtained when information about growing different sets of crops are made readily available. The information provided by the system would be collated from personal experiences of experienced farmers in different localities, research data from pooled from prominent agricultural agencies and tips from experienced agronomists.

ProbityFarms is a farm advisory solution designed to bridge the information gap between experts and farmers who practice agriculture, by providing easy access for farmers to consult information critical to the development of their farms we hope to improve food production and farm yield for farmers.

http://probityfarms.com/forum/general/benefits-of-an-advisory-system-in-agriculture

Visit probityfarms.com or probityfarms.com/forum

By WaheedOgunjobi

The truth is that maize during peak season is bad business. I do not plant in peak season again. In fact I'm just applying manure on my maize after first wedding. I planted June . But a friend who planted in peak season complained of the market. He only made ,7 k profit in one acre. Except not on this side of the globe. Let's not be deceived the earlier we get other usage for our maize the better.

Let me share my experience . Some three years ago I and some friends of mine planted maize up to 7 acres . We spent fortunes on the land preparation and tendering up to the tune of between 120- 150 k . Unfortunately for us ,our maize got ready at the period of glut like this and we saw hell in the hands of the market women who like someone says are ripping us off as they tend to gain more than the farmers. At the end of the day our almighty market people bought the corn at the rate of 30 cubs and more for 100 and all we could make was a paltry N50,000 . Sure this was a big discouragement and disappointment enough to dissuade one from farming . of course some of my colleagues fled ,but I choose to remain, because I understand the game. I had made Money in agric before and I am confident I will still make more .

What are the lessons ?

1. I learnt not to plant maize alone without mixed cropped with cassava.If we had planted cassava alongside maize on 7 acres then we would have recouped our cash I know. What actually happened was that we had planned to plant both early and late season for maximum benefit ,but the rain during late season that year was scary and we couldn't tag along . So for me ,planting maize exclusively is not an option.



2. I have learnt not to plant in the mad rush period . Everyone that planted during the peak period sure risk glut.This year I am planting late . The maize I planted July last year came out September/ October and the market was fair.Even if rain destroys the maize I will still make a headway with my cassava. I do not really put much hope on maize . Even the cassava I planted July last year I had harvested it as far back as April.



3. I learnt to sell maize dry . This is due to my experience with price of maize during planting season. I was recently involved in supply of maize and the least I could get even from the North was 150k per tonne. Isn't that a good price ? But, this method also have a lot of challenges. If you don't harvest the maize on time , there are some birds that perch on it and can finish the whole farm from my experience. I also tried to self dry the maize but the rain at this period of the year wound be too much to make that possible.This boils down to how do we get the corn to dry as this promises better profit. Through my interaction recently I got to know that there is what they call corn dryer ,but I learnt it is imported. I am still researching on this myself. We need to get it right and protect our investments. Your contributions on this no matter how little will go a long way. Let us rob minds effectively on this. Is it possible for investors to acquire the dryer and commercialise it for small holder farmers to patronise just like the way we go to hatchery to hatch eggs. Together we need to take our destinies in our own hands since government isn't helping much .

WaheedOgunjobi is a journalist, author and budding farmer and can be reached on 08035004741 or e mail waheedogunjobi@gmail.com

http://probityfarms.com/forum/crop-production/problems-of-planting-maize-during-its-peak-season

Agricultural Insurance is an insurance that is purchased by agricultural producers such as farmers which allows them to protect themselves against loss of crops and animals due to natural diseases or sickness to farm animals.

Farming can be considered a risky venture as farmers do not have total control over a varying number of factors. Amongst them are theft, diseases of crops and animals and weather conditions such as rainfall, humidity, sunlight. These factors if not managed properly can cause a farmer untold losses, and lead to a total collapse of his/her business venture.

Agricultural insurance was created with the main purpose of helping to improve productivity for low income farmers by protecting them from unfortunate events that may occur in running of their farm. Farmers can farm extensively knowing their crops are well covered in terms of losses they can incur on their farm.

Agric insurance can also cover death of farm animals related to diseases, including deaths occurring from a disease outbreaks. This would ensure worry is taken out of farming for farmers and encourage them to take more risks and make further investments on their farm.

There is a widespread notion that insurance companies do not pay for claims, it should be stressed that insurance works on principles that must be adhered to and if a farmer has a genuine claim, insurance companies are bound to pay, however farmers should avoid undervaluing their property to avoid paying the right premium as this would led to penalizing by subjecting claims to principles of average.

Insurance companies such as Leadway Insurance and NAIC provide agricultural insurance packages for farmers, contact their office nearest office to you for packages that would be suitable for your farm.


Probity Farms software is a advisory system and farm management solution designed to provide farmers with information necessary to setting up and maintaining a farm, and also keep track of all farming activities on your farms. With probity software a farmer can set tasks for for irrigation, getting alerts on when irrigation is due from whichever location. Utilize our farming software to achieve increased productivity and yield.

http://probityfarms.com/forum/general/the-role-of-agri-insurance-in-agricultural-development

Check out our forum at www.probityfarms.com/forum

Check out our software at www.probityfarms.com

for more info visit www.probityfarms.com/forum

Grundfos and Lorents are the 2 best products for direct solar powered pumps. I deliberately used direct because it means you do not require inverter to power these pumps. They are very intelligent because they can identify AC and DC currents and just pump water for you immediately. The pumps come with inverter technology just like your Lg Ac that the I better pass your neighbour generator can power.

Grundfos pumps for example requires:

DC mode (solar/battery current) 30v - 90v
AC mode (Gen/NEPA) 140V to 230V

Once there is sunlight and you connect the solar panels to the pump water comes out immediately. There are farms with this installation for 3 years now, no support they just wash the solar panels after every 6 months.

GRUNDFOS motor works very well if you feed it with 30v - 90v anything above this will be overkill.

Installation Requirements

1. 1.5 HP GRUNDFOS/ LORENTZ Pump Solar panels (lux is higher in the north than south) N700,000

2.Lagos, south-south and south east. I advise 4 units of 250 watts = 1000watts N240,000 and for Abeokuta, Oyo, Kwara and up north. 2 units of 250 watts is fine = 500watts. N120,000

3.Wiring for installation, Please keep the panels base as close as possible to water source. 20meters of 4core 16mm cables. N30,000

4.Installation. N120,000
2 panels at 24V = 48V more than the base requirements. That means we only need just 4 items to install Solar in farms, you will be surprised that 2 panels cannot pump 1.5Hp right
Read more here:

Other benefits, once you are not pumping water, the power from the solar panels can be used to do something else, an inverter and batteries can be installed also, so you can switch from water pumping from a change-over switch to inverter charging, and this can be used to charge phones, radio, fan etc on the farm.

The only thing that happens when there is cloud cover and reduction is lux is a resultant voltage drop, which will still be above 30v at 75% reduction = 36v, when this happen, the volume of water pumped will slightly drop from say 20 gpm (gallons per minute) to say +/-15gpm, what this means in English is that if it takes 30 minutes to pump 2000 litres tank, it will increase to 45 minutes.

And there is a solution for this, we just install water level monitor in the tank, when the water goes below 50% of the tank. It should automatically switch on the solar panels and when the level gets to 100% it should switch of the power form the panels, this can be automated at an extra fee of around N300,000

My only concerns are when the borehole yield is poor, but once the borehole yield is good, just keep pumping, however the pumps comes with water head protection meaning if there is no water in the borehole, the motor will not start.

A submersible pump has 2 sections the motor and the head. For Solar pumps the motor is the same, then based on the borehole depth, appropriate head will be advised. The deeper the hole the longer the head needed. So there are different heads recommended for different depths.

Grundfos built these solutions specifically for African markets. Please don't use battery backups for Solar powered water projects, the return on investment will take about 3 years.

For More Inquiries please call: 07031008088

http://probityfarms.com/forum/renewable-energy/solution-to-farm-water-problems-using-solar-pumps

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Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.
Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum
and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.
Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum
and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.
Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum
and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.
Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum
and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.
Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum
and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

.

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Nigeria's Agricultural sector through different setbacks has lost its glory of the past, in previous years the country was a force to be reckoned with; a large exporter of cash crops and huge producer of food crops. Food crops were cheap and readily available as farmers produced more than enough to feed and sustain its teeming population.

Advances in oil exploration however resulted in a huge departure of Nigeria's working populace from Agriculture, Young people who could be actively involved in agriculture suddenly diverted interests from to white collar and office jobs in search for greener pastures. Instead of creating and inventing methods of improving on production and food processing methods, Nigerian farmers got stuck with old methods of farming and food production.
With a growing population and lack of investments in industrialization, it was only a matter of time before scarcity of jobs became prevalent.

With a population of 42.5million people in 1960, Nigeria's population has quadrupled to 186,988 million in 2016, at an annual growth rate of 2.44%. It is expected that the country's population would rise to 194,615,054 in 2018 and increase of 5,055,552 in just one year. Ultimately an increase in population should lead to increase in market size, number of business and a greater GDP (just as is the case in India, China); but that has not being the case in Nigeria. In fact youth unemployment rose by 25.20percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Another Survey revealed that 47 percent of Nigerian youths are without jobs. There is also a huge under employment rate of 36.5 percent, which means these youths are grossly under paid or work under unfit conditions.
Universities turn out graduates yearly, contributing to the overloaded job market. Job interviews have become a sort of reunion where one can usually meet old friends due to the sheer amount of applicants showing up for these interviews.
Graduates after waiting for ideal white collar jobs, realize the extent of their predicament and resort to working menial or underpaying jobs at schools, shops and restaurants.

The not so honest ones have resorted to robbery, kidnapping, drug pushing among other vices just to make ends meet. It proves for a sad read that youths languish in these conditions even though there are boundless opportunities available in the agricultural sector.

WHY AGRICULTURE
A modern system of agriculture involves various farm management operations that ensures high productivity and growth, it has evolved from planting of crops and rearing animals using crude tools and machineries.
Modern day agriculture has countless job opportunities from sales, crop production, distribution, crop protection, processing, marketing, farm machineries etc. It has the capability to employ almost any expert in various fields including Research, Engineering, Science Laboratory, Sales and Marketing, Technology and so on.

The gains of modern farming are yet to be fully realized in Nigeria, currently most farmers are of an older age, and youths are of the disposition that graduating from tertiary institutions has put them above the tier of a common farmer.
This is most far from the truth. The current crop of farmers still utilize archaic farming methods and operations, thereby having low productivity and output.

Food prices have gone up due to the inability of farmers to produce enough quantity to feed the ever increasing population. With an expected further rise in population, how the food needs of Nigerians would be met if not through improved farming methods.

With a considerable level of education it is expected that youths would be able to employ new improved methods of farming, and add better value to farm products and increase profitability; which would help improve their personal wellbeing and the society at large.
Abundant opportunities exists for youths who are not interested in full scale farming, delivery of farm goods and produce, food storage and processing, production of feed or fertilizers are all ventures which if taken advantage of would greatly reduce unemployment rate.
To be successful in modern farming youths would need tools and funds, government should create platforms which would seek to support youths venturing into agriculture financially. There should be support groups where members can meet and share ideas and innovative methods they are employing in achieving productivity on their farms.

Modern farm necessities such as improved seedlings, fertilizers, machinery and farm management tools would go a long in ensuring farmers are successful in their enterprises and can become employers of labour in their own right.
Youths wishing to venture into agriculture can make use of existing platforms designed to help farmers grow such as Probity Farm Management Software, ProbityFarms is a tool employed by modern farmers to efficiently keep track of farm activities, expenses, machineries and so on.

http://probityfarms.com/forum/general/motivating-youths-to-contribute-to-the-development-of-modern-farming

As government intensifies efforts towards diversifying the economy, two young Nigerian entrepreneurs have developed an App that will connect farmers and broaden knowledge base of stakeholders in the sector.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos on the new tool, the Co-founder and CEO of Probityfarms, Mr. Olushola Ogunniyi explained that the new technology is a simple-to-use farm management app to help farmers manage both the day-to-day activities of the farm and even the business-side of their operations. Farmers, he said, can use the application throughout the value chain of all farming activities.

Ogunniyi said: “We understand that there are two sides to running successful farming; the business side and the technical side. However, many farmers today lack the professional and business skills needed to manage these two farm operations successfully.

“With ProbityFarms, our pilot farmers depended on our simple dashboard to solve these important needs. After creating their farm profiles, they can easily capture all activities on the farm, from crop production, livestock production and farm economics.

“The tools enable them to measure and track every activity in the farm, thereby enabling the farmer to plan better and make sound decision and not just guess work or native intelligence. They also utilise the platform to communicate, learn, share knowledge, and build their relationship with other farmers.”

Giving further insight into the App, he said, that the solution was divided into seven core offerings based on an assessment of the needs of small holder farmers.

He said: “Using the tool will help operators keep farm records and all farming data in one place in order to get real-time insight to livestock and crop activities. Manage sales, expenses and cash flow to ensure the health of your farm finances. The data generated from the information supplied by the farmer makes it easy to work with insurance, banks and accountants or their financial providers for assessments.

“Also, the App is an e-Commerce market place for farmers to sell their farm produce, list agricultural equipment like tractors for sale/lease. It is designed as a business listing site where farmers can list their produce online and off-takers can connect with them, and also noted that as online forum, it will help farmers seek expert opinion and to discuss farming related issues and best practices with other farmers or extension workers and also do business with other farmers. The Pest Weed and Diseases report alarms warn you if your crops are at risk.

“We are currently working with our partner to make wholesale market rates of products available to farmers to assist them in getting the best prices for their products in the marketplace. The price chart would be updated everyday with data point sourced different markets in the country.”

On the farmers’ cooperative management solution, he said, it enables farmers to manage their farming activities and cooperative activities one solution.

Also, he said the App has the ability to help determine test and analysis, saying a very affordable hardware is being currently developed with their partners to evaluate the soil condition for the 13 nutrients required for plant growth, water, sunlight, etc and analyses the data in order to understand the appropriate nutrient to apply to improve farm yields.

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Register on our Farmers forum on www.probityfarms.com/forum
Culled from ThisDay

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.

Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum

and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work

Interesting Read. You can also get to share your work/ information on my farmers forum.

Click on; www.probityfarms.com/forum

and create your post i am sure you would be able to reach more farmers. keep up the good work