Maize farming: A lucrative agribusiness

As stated yesterday in the first part of part of this article https://agronigeria.com.ng/maize-farming-lucrative-agribusinesses/ maize farming is one of the viable agribusinesses in Nigeria as the crop remains one  the most important cereal crops in the country, Africa and globally.

Starting a maize farm in Nigeria is quite easy, as the initial capital outlay is very low. The major expensive factor of production involved in this venture is the land, and this can be leased if the farmer does not have the capital to purchase one outrightly.

Below are steps to take when beginning a maize farm in Nigeria.

Choose a suitable land

To start maize planting, a farmer first needs to find suitable and arable land. Maize can be grown in all lands in Nigeria but it performs better in a well-drained fertile loamy soil. Such soil also has to be well-drained area and situated on a fairly flat landscape as maize does not do well in waterlogged areas.

However, if a farmer is compelled to use a piece of land that is not well drained, there is a need to make ridges or mounds to protect the crops from waterlogging.

Clear the land using manual laborers or mechanical means, the bottom line is to remove the weeds and keep the soil loose for proper maize seedbed and ensure the preservation of the topsoil.

Prepare the farmland by applying fertilizer

The fertility of the soil will determine the need for fertilizers or not. However, irrespective of how fertile the soil is or not, if you want higher yields, you can apply fertilizer to the farmland.

Find a suitable weather condition for your maize plantation

Because maize does exceptionally well when it has an adequate supply of sunlight, the land has to be in the open and free from any kind of shade that prevents sunlight from reaching the planted maize.

Find and use only the right varieties of maize for planting

Choosing the right maize seed variety will determine the type of maize yield your farmland will generate. There are different varieties of maize seeds that can be planted. The best are usually what is accepted in your market and whether it is hybrid or not.

The best maize varieties are those that are fast-growing, high yielding, and disease-resistant. It is very vital that a farmer pays close attention to the health of the maize seeds he plans to plant. Only seeds from dependable sources should be planted, and farmers should be wary of seeds that are already contaminated by disease.

Plant only when the time is right

Agribusiness experts advise that the best time to plant your maize seeds is right at the start of the rainy season (about 2 or 3 times after the first rain), as planting during this period will aid better growth and maturity for your maize crop, things have changed in recent times because of climate change and the unpredictability of rains . Therefore there are now no specific dates to plant maize.

For a bumper harvest and results, maize should be grown by planting seeds in a cluster directly in the soil. These are planted in hills, furrows or rows.

Farmers must also ensure that recommended rows and seed spacing must be followed. For best results, planting a crop twice or thee times in one season is recommended to ensure continued harvest.

Weed, pest and disease control

For optimum harvest, it is imperative to protect your maize crops from weed, pests, and diseases like army worms, downy mildew, strigas, grasshoppers, and several others.

You can militate against these by using pesticides, herbicides, and different disease control methods.

Inspect emergent seedlings twice a week. Treat seedlings when there is a rapidly increasing infestation area or ad-measurement of crop damage (10% loss of seedlings). Treat older plants if additional 90% of plants are infested or additional 50% of plants have 75% or additional loss of leaf tissue. Punctual treatments (eg, continuous field edges) can be successful. Spray when caterpillars feed (evening/night).

Keep fallows clean and eliminate weeds from paddock chaplet perimeters at least one month before planting. Severe damage to emergent crops can occur when large larvae are forced to move from weed hosts into ability after weed spraying.  Cutworms are attacked by a series of natural enemies such as parasitoids, predators and diseases.

Harvest

After three or four months of tending the maize plants, the farmer is ready to harvest. The amount of maize that can be harvested is dependent on a host of factors such as the variety planted, amount of rainfall, sunshine and the level of weed, pest and disease control management that was applied. Depending on the farming process used and type of maize seeds (hybrid seeds or not) planted, you may be able to either generate about 10 tonnes of maize yield per hectare or about 2 tonnes of maize yield per hectare.