Scaling up from land acquisition to land preparation and planting of seedlings

Farming remains the pride of Nigeria and, more importantly, a crucial occupation necessary to feed the nation. The immediate past president of Nigeria, General (rtd) Muhammed Buhari, admonished and encouraged citizens to grow what they eat. Thus, beyond the nation's efforts to feed its citizens through mechanized farming, people like me are encouraged to engage in homestead or subsistence farming to ameliorate the food insecurities ravaging the nation. Also, agriculture is a mainstream part of Nigeria's economy, contributing significantly to the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and reducing the rate of inflation.

Every rainy season in Nigeria ushers a need for farmers to engage in farming, hoping the weather would be favorable and other factors like herdsmen, financial constraints, and even stringent government policies would not hinder the smooth execution of the farming exercise. After the rest of the two farming seasons, I encouraged myself and ventured into another farming exercise on a 4-acre span of land with a friend. This 4-acre farmland is about thirty plots of land.

Every January has always witnessed rainfall except for this year, 2024, which, other than beginning in March or April, started in the middle of April. Nonetheless, we leaped fate and commenced the first stages of land preparation, which involved clearing, tilling, and ridging of the farmland. Manual labor was engaged for the land clearing, which made it easier for the tractor to get to the ground. Good enough for us; the land had been fallow for at least two years, and we expect the nutrients in the soil to be recuperated. Nonetheless, fertilizer application and weeding would be carried out on our chosen crops.

Land leasing was at ₦20, 000 per acre, and four acres were at ₦80, 000.
Manual labor land clearing = ₦10, 000 per acre, and for four acres, it was at ₦40, 000.
Plowing and ridging cost ₦30, 000 per acre, and for four acres, it was ₦120, 000.
Thus, for an acre of land, the cost implication was ₦60, 000 and a total of ₦240, 000 for the four acres.

I made an effort and visited the ministry of agriculture in order to get viable variety seeds that may be resistant to common infestation and would equally increase yield at a shorter time. Unfortunately, the people in charge of the sale of seeds were not on ground as at 9 a.m. when I got there and I had to navigate to a popular company that sells variety of seeds in retail and wholesale prices.

A unanimous decision was reached to intercrop maize with soybeans since both are easy to cultivate and have a high market demand. A kilogram of maize costs ₦1200, while that of soybeans is ₦1050. We got 12 kg of maize and 9 kg of soybeans for planting on the 4 acres of land. The hybrid maize for a three-month harvest was procured. Planting soybeans is best in June, but they can also be planted in May or July since both months have a high volume of rainfall.

The planting was done two days ago after some wetness on the ground, thanks to some drops of rain. Hopefully, the rains in May will be significant enough to support the crops. An alternative is irrigation farming, which requires digging a mini-borehole to regularly feed the farmlands. This alternative assures the farmer of the availability of water on the farm but incurs extra finances in the face of limited resources.

Hopefully, the rain will favor us in the next few days while we gear up for weeding and fertilizer application. We hope to have a bountiful yield both for home consumption and local sales.

Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.